People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry Book Reviews
“So I just keep holding on to him and tell myself that, for now, I should enjoy the moment. I’m on vacation. Vacations always end.”
(pg. 312)
About
Author: Emily Henry
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Other Books By Emily Henry
Synopsis
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To the vacationers,
Quite literally I took this book to the beach and not on vacation because gosh knows I’m not ready yet to go on a vacation after this pandemic 😅. But People We Meet On Vacation was a fun, casual, heartfelt, rom-com book perfect for the beach, for a vacation, or for literally anywhere.
I will say after this book, Beach Read is my favorite Emily Henry book so far. I enjoyed People We Meet On Vacation because it had all the beach and rom-com vibes, but there were some things that I found a bit slower and harder to get into. Also, the romance wasn’t really my favorite until the end when Poppy and Alex FINALLY got together!! The ending was where the story was truly at, but reading the entire story with their backstory and vacations built context to where they were currently. So everything helped create a wholesome story, which I enjoyed. But I would have liked a bit more action in the middle of the story to really move Poppy and Alex along in their journey because I felt like we got all these past summer trips that went back and forth about how Poppy felt about Alex and everything. In the middle of the book we also had the This Summer povs, which were funny to read. However, they also didn’t really excite me to keep reading all that much. I still did because I respect and admire Emily Henry’s writing, but a little more action would have been fun. 🧡.
With all that being said, I still thought People We Meet On Vacation was a wonderful book that I resonated with. There were also many aspects I did love.
I loved the idea of having a vacation with a friend every year 🥰. I would definitely like to do this with my friends, especially since I think I might be a teacher in the future so my friends and I could use summers to spend time with each other. I also liked how they kind of took turns choosing which place to go to next. Also, Poppy’s job sounded like a literal dream. I mean, how fun is it to travel the world to various countries for literally free?!! As someone who has never traveled before, I would love to visit other countries and her job seemed like the perfect way to do so. I know many people also become flight attendants because they get to travel the world, which is such a good strategy if you ask me! Alex was an English teacher, meaning he had the luxury of vacation time, which is one of the perks of being a teacher.
Poppy is a bold, spontaneous, straight-forward woman. She grew up with parents who were a bit different—they collected all these antiques and had exuberant personalities. Her brothers were also very larger than life people with big dreams like Poppy. Because Poppy’s family was over the top for a very in-the-middle state like Ohio, Poppy never felt like she fit in. She felt like she was too colorful, too loud, too outgoing, and overall too much. People would bully and tease her for being different, which made my heart hurt. I don’t know why everyone feels like they have to make fun of someone for being different (not in a bad way) from the “norm?!” If I lived in Ohio and knew Poppy, I thought she would have been down-right cool and I would have wanted to be friends with her because anyone who could be themselves freely, would be someone I would look up to and admire 👏🏼. Don’t let anyone change you or make you feel different for being who you want to be because they have a different sense of “normal.” Normal is absolutely subjective.
But because Poppy was bullied and felt like a pariah in Ohio, she always wanted to get out of Ohio. When she went to college, she moved away to Chicago to escape the small town where she never felt like she belonged. During orientation, she met this incredibly tall and milquetoast person, Alex. They had a cute conversation when they first met, a very natural get to know you conversation that I had many times with random people during my first year of college. I liked their car ride they had back home one time where they talked about all their likes and dislikes. To be really honest, my first reaction to all of Alex’s likes and dislikes was that he was really picky and a stickler (not in a bad way). But then I started to understand and appreciate that that was just who Alex was.
Honestly, Alex was such an interesting character. He was just sooooo normal and homely. Where most lead characters are snarky, bad-boy types, reserved pricks, or hilarious company, Alex was ordinary. He had likes and dislikes, he was a bit awkward in conversation, he didn’t really put himself out there, he didn’t take risks—all things I do too, so I absolutely don’t judge him. I mean, if Alex was truly a flavor, it would be vanilla 😉 (if you know, you know) because vanilla is well liked and appreciated and it’s the subtle, but comforting flavor. Alex was vanilla. I quite liked that because I know so many people like Alex in real life who aren’t these bold types that we imagine people to be when we typically read stories. I also liked how much Alex and Poppy balanced each other. She was the rainbow sprinkles to his vanilla ice cream 🤪. Gosh, now I’m craving ice cream! But they made a good pair because she took him to all these places where he could try new things and sort of push himself out of his comfort zone, while Alex grounded Poppy to the moment. He also appreciated Poppy for who she was and didn’t judge her for it like everyone else did.
It hurt my heart how worried, embarrassed, and ashamed Poppy felt whenever she brought someone home because her family was a bit extravagant. It just felt sad to me how she felt like she needed to prep Alex beforehand who her family was because she was so used to people judging them, and by extension herself. But Alex was super sweet about meeting her family and not forming any rude opinions. Sure, he was probably overwhelmed, but he got to know Poppy more and understand where she came from. He didn’t care because Poppy was Poppy and he liked her for her. I would have liked more about Alex’s home life and family because I know it was said that Alex had to step up as the older brother to watch over his younger brothers and his dad after their mom passed away. I think more could have been said on Alex’s part about how that made him feel—all the responsibility he had to take up or the responsibility he felt like he needed to have. I understood how Alex felt though. When something hugely life changing happens like that, it’s hard not to feel like you have to be the strong one for everyone and the one that seems like they have it all figured out because if no one else does, the whole family might very well fall apart. But Alex had to grow up fast to take care of everyone else and it’s kind of why he feels uncomfortable asking others for help or saying he needs help. He has just been the one who always helped others and it feels wrong to get help from everyone else. I really wanted to tell Alex he didn’t have to be strong all the time or face things alone. Because for years he put everyone else’s happiness and well-being above his own, that I think it took some of that natural happiness from him and why it was hard for him to open up and be happy. Poppy had a nickname for the Alex she felt was genuinely happy and himself—Naked Alex. Naked Alex was Alex without worries or expectations and he just allowed himself to be. This other side of Alex reminds me a lot of myself because I can be a bit closed off too (or so I’m told), but I can also be a very fun person to be around when I feel like it/feel comfortable with being myself. And people have all these different sides of themselves that they show to the right people when they feel comfortable or vulnerable to do so. Naked Alex seemed like safe Alex because he was safe with being around Poppy.
I liked how chivalrous and caring Alex was. His personality goes along with how he cared for everyone else when growing up.
I mean, we praise men for finally texting back–the literal bear freaking minimum—but we need to get us someone who will literally carry us down a mountain, come to our sick bed, and get a vasectomy 👏🏼.
My gosh, I just want to talk about how Alex got a vasectomy for her. I mean, WHAT? 😆 Man, he really out here doing the mostest as a man and I appreciate. But gosh, he really said, I will make the effort after Poppy cried about possibly being pregnant that one trip. I mean, I don’t think she was crying because she absolutely did not want kids, but I think she just didn’t want kids with Trey at the time; she wasn’t ready to start a family because she was still figuring things out. But gosh, get you someone who puts in the effort!
I loved when Alex went to take care of her when she was sick and couldn’t go on their Ice Castle trip. She was going to take Alex to some Elsa castle because he wanted to go somewhere cold for their next trip, but then she fell sick. He knocked on her door with soup and everything. He took her to the doctors. Can someone say in sickness and in health? 🥺
I also enjoyed their trip to New Orleans and how we got to see the relaxed, Naked Alex. I also highly enjoyed their first trip to Canada where they met Buck and the gang. I don’t know, Buck was a very interesting character and the way Alex and Poppy bonded with Buck and his friends just felt like a good time. And I’m not talking about how Buck and Poppy macked out until Buck politely kicked her out of his tent 😅. Buck and his friends just seemed like good fun people—the people you meet on vacation 🙃.
Besides the Canada trip, honestly, most trips to me weren’t that exciting 🙈. I mean, they were probably cute, but I just wanted Alex and Poppy to KISS!!! I just wanted them to finally acknowledge that they liked each other rather than stomping down all these heated and obviously flirtatious scenes.
Because LA DUH THEY LIKED EACH OTHER 🤪!!!!!!
As I read every chapter, I was like, “C’mon already!!!”
Poppy tamped down any and all romantic feelings she had for Alex because she didn’t want to ruin their friendship, which is a natural thing most friends do to save the friendship. But I just wanted some ACTION between them. Sis, should have popped a kiss on him sooner!!! 😂 I was soooo over this back and forth of I like him, but I shouldn’t or I love him, but I can’t. And don’t even get me STARTED on how they had all these other FAIL of relationships because they were so in denial about not wanting to like each other that they were willing to date everyone else besides each other. Oh, and the fact that they kept using the “we are too different and wouldn’t make sense” excuse BOTHERED me to my core 😆. Haven’t they heard of opposites attract??????????
Poppy had okay-sh boyfriends, but I could tell she didn’t like them as much as she liked Alex.
I liked this one scene when Alex took Poppy to his Grandma Betty’s house and Grandma Betty and Poppy were together making food or something. Grandma Betty asked Poppy is she loved Trey and if she loved Alex and Poppy was like “I will never love anyone the same way I love Alex.” Grandma Betty knew what was up 😅👏🏼. She knew Alex belonged with Poppy and that Poppy loved him in a deeper way.
However, I felt like Poppy forced herself to be in relationships because it helped her get over the guy she actually wanted to be with. To Alex, seeing her in all these relationships felt like Poppy didn’t like him that way, so he also kept a safe distance from her and dated Sarah all these years. I think Sarah is a good person and a nice character, but I think because the book was from Poppy’s perspective, Sarah was seen in this envious, negative light. This made me think about the quote how sometimes we are the villain in someone else’s story even if we don’t want to be. Sarah wasn’t a villain by any means, but to Poppy, Sarah was a figure that stood between her and Alex.
Alex probably dated Sarah out of comfort and safety too. Sarah wanted to stay in Ohio, get a job, and start a family, where else Poppy wanted to travel, didn’t want a family, nor get married quite yet. So Alex and Poppy had all these differing ideas of what they wanted in the future. I understood why Alex and Poppy didn’t make sense twelve years ago because they were both at different places of their lives, trying to move on from the hurt or pain they felt while growing up. Then as they got older, they had each other and that healed something in both of them because they felt less alone, but the both weren’t on the same page, so it wouldn’t have made sense for them to be together. Because I could understand how all the things Alex wanted—love, marriage, a family, a stable job—were deal breakers for him and he wasn’t going to pin after Poppy for the rest of his life, knowing they might never be on the same page. If he had aspirations for his future, that’s perfectly okay. But his heart also knew it loved Poppy, which complicated all his aspirations. So he dated Sarah because it was safe, comfortable.
Obviously, Sarah kind of knew Alex loved Poppy, but she wanted to believe Alex loved her more. I’m not saying Sarah should have or could have known better, but I think part of her had a hunch. But she stayed with Alex because she also loved him and hoped he could love her. They butt heads a lot, and I think it was because of Poppy. There was this whole moment where Poppy felt like she held Alex back from proposing to Sarah—he had the ring and everything. She felt like she constantly took from Alex because he was “hers.” But it wasn’t Poppy’s fault Alex didn’t propose, they were both working through what they were feeling and going through. It just SUCKED that Sarah got caught in the middle of everything because it hurt her to go through this back and forth with Alex and Poppy as well. I think Sarah and Trey would have been cute together based on their banter from that one trip. I would have liked to see Sarah all these years later, with a ring on her finger. I think that would have been an epic moment for her when Poppy did the whole end grand gesture scene.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Something happened two summers ago that changed their relationship to the point they didn’t talk to each other. I was like, “What the Heck happened?” Obviously, my mind went straight to they hooked up 🙈 because gosh that could ruin a platonic friendship between them for sure. So I was expecting this HUGE buildup to this hook up, but when we got to the last summer (two summers ago) scene, I was kind of let down. I thought what ruined their friendship would have been bigger than a measly drunk kiss!!!!!!!! 🙃 I mean, they could have played it off better as both being drunk and accidentally kissing because that wasn’t a big deal. I think best friends accidentally kiss all the time when they’re drunk 🤪. Maybe it was because the kiss meant more to them that that was why it was so awkward and cataclysmic to them, but a kiss wasn’t what I was thinking. I think it should have been something more grand.
Because GOSH when they made out on the balcony, I was like, OOOOOOH, we are back here again!! But I was wrong because they didn’t even do it a first time 🤪.
I thought their stay at Palm Springs was miserable and laughable in the best way. I’m offended for Nikolai Lanstov because Nikolai the sucky Airbnb host sucked. He puts shame to the Nikolai name 😂. I’m JOKING! I mean, Nikolai the Airbnb host wasn’t that bad in the end. But gosh, he could have been more truthful about his posting. To be really honest, I don’t live with air conditioning, so naturally my house is eighty degrees. It’s a comfortable temperature you get used to when you try 😅. And fans are a big help. You know what I noticed? Most people from where I’m from have ceiling fans, but when I go to the continent, most people don’t. I think it’s a cultural thing. Do you have ceiling fans?
Anyway, I thought Poppy was trying a bit too hard to rectify her and Alex’s relationship. It felt that way when she literally dragged him around the zoo. I felt like she was trying to compensate for all the trips they missed and she wanted this trip to work well because it would mean their friendship was not unsalvageable. I guess the universe was conspiring against her because it really said let’s give her PAIN. First it was the shizzy Airbnb stay that had a pull out couch instead of a bed. Then it was some alien bathtub situation, which what does that even look like? Then Alex had to have a back spasm and be in bed for a day or so. Poppy had to play nurse and walk around an art museum four times. I thought they would kiss when they talked about Alex’s Tinder profile 😂. I LAUGHED with how Poppy judged his profile pic being a photo with four other people 😂. I was hoping it was going to be a fish pic 🤣. THE HORROR. I’m joking. But they really said tension when Alex was like, “I’d swipe right on you.” I don’t know why that was so funny to me. They really said let’s fight about if I would swipe right. I mean, if Alex was looking for a serious relationship, Tinder is not the place to go. Bro should have been on Hinge or Bumble, or something 😅.
When Alex felt better, she tried to squeeze every good thing into their day. But the Universe said a hard no. Heat stroke is real and she needed to give Alex a break 😆. Honestly, I CACKLED that someone diarrheaed in the pool after they finally said let’s go swim 😂. Of course that would happen to them. I also loved the Hubby and the Orange-haired lady. They were such affable people to Poppy and Alex. They left Poppy and Alex a note too for a spa day I don’t think they ever did have. On their absolutely miserable day, they did it in the rain on the balcony, which I mean, I GUESS 🤪. I was just happy they FINALLY did something. But it also made me wonder what was so different about this time that they would take that step to sleep together. I mean, they stopped talking two years ago over a drunk kiss and now they hooked up in the rain on a balcony???? We went from 0.5 to a 100 🤪.
I wasn’t mad at it, just curious.
I liked how Alex who is a notorious anti-stan of handholding, held Poppy’s hand when walking into David (Alex’s brother) and Tham’s wedding. Tham seemed like an incredibly sweet and lovely fellow. I liked how David found love. I don’t completely understand why Alex has a tense relationship with his brothers again? Maybe they’re not that close? I think Alex needs to work on fixing his relationship with his brothers because maybe a part is angry at them that they didn’t step up when they were younger and they had these happy lives. Oh, it’s probably that—he felt like his brothers lived out his dreams of getting married and starting a family. I feel that. I mean, when you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or any age really, it’s hard not to feel somewhat jealous or resentful that other people are accomplishing all these other things you wanted too.
But liked that they had a cute moment at the wedding where they danced and she held onto him.
Then we had the whole airport fall out, which gutted me for both of them 🥺.
Poppy told Alex about how the trip wasn’t R+R funded and how she wanted to go on this trip to save their relationship. Alex felt tricked into going on the trip because she wasn’t completely honest with him. He also felt like he was another escape to Poppy when he loved her. I mean, the way Poppy made it sound, sounded like that was the case, but it was so much more to her than that. She loved Alex and wanted to be with him because he made her happy. In the beginning of the book, she decided to reach out to him because the last time she was happiest was when they had that trip two years ago. When we look at the past, most of the time we either frown or smile. When we smile we romanticize how the past really was because we think it was better than how we feel now, but most of the time it wasn’t. It was just as hard, but because it’s behind us, we don’t see it as hard or painful. I felt like Poppy wanted things to go back to the way they were because Alex was everything to her and she lost him two years ago.
When Alex said his whole spiel about how he did everything for her because he loved her, I was like DUH!!! It was obvious. Alex is a very caring guy and he’s the type of person who notices little things about Poppy and tries to be the better man by being considerate of her likes and dislikes. He goes out of his way to make her happy. She didn’t notice it because it seemed like only a friend thing to her. But I thought Alex was a bit harsh on Poppy when he told her that he won’t be the thing that keeps her from having what she wants. I don’t think he was holding her back, but I felt like Alex thought he was dull compared to Poppy, and in connection, would hold her back. I actually thought he was letting her go that day at the airport because he had different goals then she did and he didn’t want to be held back from them. I think Poppy might have felt she held him back from his goals as well. Honestly, their relationship had a LOT of miscommunication and subtle contexts to their words that they just needed to spell it out for each other 🤪.
After Alex left her to go back to Ohio and her to New York, Poppy was in a funk. I loved how she went to see a therapist. I was happy for her because if we feel like we are in a funk or need help, there should be no shame in seeking professional help such as with a therapist. The therapist helped her see how she mostly ran away from her problems, which explained why Poppy enjoyed traveling—it was easier for her to keep going to these different places to outrun her past hurt.
“‘I’ve had to run through, not away. My only hope for figuring this out is to stay, sit in the discomfort.”
(pg. 332)
This reminds me of the Steve Harvey quote about why would you stop in heck? It has the same meaning, that when we are going through our hardships, it’s easy to either stop/give up or to run away from it, thinking the problem won’t be there when we get back. But just because we stop or run away, doesn’t mean the problem goes away unless we work through the problem and confront it. Sometimes that means sitting with the discomfort of the past to figure out why, what, or how you feel. It’s difficult. Being uncomfortable is difficult. It challenges us to turn inward when all the voices call us to either stop or go. But when we slow down and really take the time to understand ourselves, we will see that all we needed to do was be uncomfortable enough to grow and to see where that growth lies. When Poppy took the steps to sit down with Rachel’s mom, she chose to slow down and be uncomfortable enough to understand herself. That’s growth.
I loved the moment when Poppy saw her old bully at the subway station. Jason made fun of Poppy for being quirky and her family odd, but here Jason was years later, half bald, a beer belly, and older. Jason was on a business trip, but he still lived in Ohio with his wife and he had a job that he seemed to like. Jason took the time to apologize for how he bullied her in middle school because he knew what he did was wrong, but at the time, he teased her because it was how he fitted in. And I just understood that so much. Middle school sucks. You are not a kid, but you’re not a teen, and you sure aren’t an adult. Everyone wants to fit in and be cool, so they do whatever they feel is right to protect themselves and belong. It doesn’t justify being a bully–absolutely not–but I understand why. Hurt people hurt people, or in this case insecure people hurt people. That’s something else I’m beginning to understand. When we are insecure, we hurt others because we feel unsettled about something in our life that makes us insecure, so we think hurting others is the way. When we are also insecure, we tend to let people’s comments or opinion of us have more weight because we want to feel valued or have someone’s approval. I felt like Poppy grew up and was still battling this trauma of feeling alone and never being loved as who she was. It was why she felt safe with Alex and why she ran away all these years.
But when Jason apologized to her, it opened a scar that she didn’t know still existed.
“This, I realize, is what I’ve been waiting for for years. The moment when I finally know I’ve won: I got out. I made something of myself. I found a place I belonged. I proved I wasn’t broken while the person who was cruelest to me stayed stuck in [shizzy] little Linfield.
Except that’s not how I feel. Because Jason doesn’t seem stuck, and he certainly isn’t being cruel. He’s here, in this city, in a nice white shirt, being genuinely kind.”
(pg. 336)
Poppy had an epiphany. Here was Jason, older and not in his prime anymore, but he was happy. Sure, he lived in Ohio and he had a dad bod, but he was happy with his life and that was more than Poppy could say about hers when she ran away all the time because of people like him. She unconsciously believed for years that if she escaped gosh forsaken Ohio and all her bullies, she would be better than them. She would prove them wrong and have it all. Poppy did prove them wrong about her. She did have it all. But we can have it all and be better than people who made us feel like garbage and still feel unhappy and dissatisfied with our life because proving something to others isn’t a life, it’s a tactic. Poppy realized that she wasn’t any better than Jason even though on paper and in looks, it did seem like she did. However, on the inside she wasn’t okay, she wasn’t better.
She needed to see Jason to heal and to understand that you can do everything to curate this perfect life to prove to people that you are worth something, but it means nothing if you aren’t happy with who you are on the inside. This sentiment reminded me of something else I heard once: how you can have all this success and it might not feel as good to not have anyone to share it with.
But part of the quote above was how Jason changed. I was listening to the What We Said Podcast, and I’m not sure which episode it was, but it talked about how we shouldn’t be worried about people we see in high school who were mean to us because most likely they aren’t the same people they were back then. That goes for any age—elementary, middle, or college. People might be this rude prick bully person at the moment, but most times people grow up and change just like you grow up and change. So most of the time, they are not the same person we expect if we see them years later. Sometimes they might still be a bully, but most times, they will not. And I think we can get stuck in the past with people who hurt us and give them power that they will always hurt us or that they will always be this mean person who deserves nothing. We paint them as the villain, when maybe they can change. It was seeing Jason that made Poppy realize she was still stuck in her past trying to prove something to everyone who didn’t matter anymore because they moved on and changed. But it was difficult for her to fully move on and change because she carried the hurt and trauma for years without understanding it. Words hurt. And no amount of sorry years later can fix that, but it sure as heck can bring some sort of closure to that time in a person’s life.
Poppy needed closure. And she just had it.
I loved when Poppy flew back home to make a grand gesture to Alex. I loved how she felt like she was finally home.
I was proud of Poppy for also going to her old high school. Gosh, there’s just something about seeing people you went to school with and walking the hallowed halls of your old school that takes you straight back to when you were there or with that person. I know I feel that way. When Poppy went to East Lindfield, she was looking for Alex to do her rom-comesque grand gesture moment. Instead she found Sarah. Like I said earlier, I think it really would have been a powerful moment for Sarah to have a ring on her finger 👌🏼. I liked how Poppy and Sarah hashed it out woman to woman and finally talked about their love of Alex honestly. I liked how Poppy realized how Sarah and her could have been friends if they hadn’t hurt each other indirectly or if they were more honest with their emotions. It goes back to how Sarah wasn’t a bad person. I hope Sarah finds love.
But Poppy’s grand speech was beautiful. Well spoken 🧡. Honestly, if I had a whole grand gesture thing, I wouldn’t know what the FREAK to say, let alone have it be something eloquent 🤪.
The part I loved most about her speech was about why she traveled (besides running away from her problems).
“‘Once I started traveling, though, things finally felt better. I met people, and–I don’t know, without the baggage of history or the fear of what would happen, it felt so much easier to open up to people. To make friends. I know it sounds pathetic, but all those little chance encounters we had–those made me feel less lonely. Those made me feel like I was someone people could love. And then I got the R+R job, and the trips changed; the people changed. I had only met chefs and hotel managers, people wanting write-ups. I’d go on amazing trips, but I’d come home feeling empty. And now I realize it’s because I wasn’t connecting to anyone.”
(pg. 347)
Gosh did I just understand Poppy 🥺.
She grew up feeling ostracized and unloved for who she was. She ultimately felt alone. However, traveling allowed her to be who she was without judgment and to form connections—to know she was loved as she was. She met people like Buck who was funny and kind. She met Hubby and his wife who showed Alex and her ultimate kindness. They met all these people around the world who were just having a good time just like Alex and Poppy were. They were connecting. Human connection is beyond valuable. Especially within the past year with the pandemic, all of us have been isolated for the worse or half of a year and a half. And it’s been FREAKING Hard. People need to talk and connect with others because that’s naturally what people need. Being isolated and alone isn’t what people are made for. We are social creatures. We want to be loved, accepted, and included. But being in a pandemic has challenged us and forced us to pause our connections with people. It has also somewhat cut off connections with people—when we were in the peak of not traveling. It sucks.
I know I felt alone and terribly sad this past year and a half because I miss human connection. It’s not so much going to a restaurant, a theater, or shopping, but the people I would meet or see. That’s what I miss. I miss waving to a random stranger or smiling at someone to be friendly. I miss going up to people without feeling a bit tense because I’m scared of being that close physically given the pandemic. I miss meeting new people. I miss connection. Even sans pandemic, I understood what Poppy meant. I am not the most outgoing, I don’t have a lot of friends, and more often than not I feel alone. My big dream has always been to travel one day because I have never left my hometown or been on a plane before. Part of me thought I wanted to travel because I naturally wanted to see the world, and I still think that’s why I want to travel. But I feel like that’s not the entire reason now.
After reading this quote in Poppy’s speech, I felt restless. I felt unsettled. I felt disturbed. Because maybe unconsciously I have always wanted to travel because I too felt alone and like I could be anyone I wanted to when I left my hometown. Maybe I felt like I could find people who would actually like me for me and who I could connect with. But maybe I was also running away from my problems and my past. Maybe I was trying to escape all the hurt I felt from being labeled as the shy kid or proving to people I could do more than them. I don’t know. And that bothered me. I don’t want to run away from my problems. But I also know I don’t want to dwell on them. I do think I need to sit and understand it though to understand why traveling is so important to me. I guess when you feel like the place you grew up in—your home–and you feel alone and unaccepted, you feel like you want to go anywhere else because maybe–hopefully–you will be accepted. That that place will be your home.
But I do think eventually we all have to find our way back home to confront very complex emotions. Or we find or make a new home.
“For the first time in my life, the airport strikes me as the loneliest place in the world.
All those people, parting ways, going off in their own directions, crossing paths with hundreds of people, but never connecting.”
(pg. 318)
Back at the airport, Poppy said this, and I felt it related a lot to her big speech to Alex about connection. I never thought of airports like this, but it makes sense how when you’re at an airport it can feel lonely because people are going to all these places—they are only passing through for a second—to go somewhere or meet someone.
I also think it’s amazing though how we can literally be anyone we want on vacation.
“On vacation, you can be anyone you want.”
(pg. 1)
I’ve never been on a vacation in my life, so I don’t know what it’s like to be someone else on vacation, but I can understand how easy it is to be anyone you want. I think it’s a similar sentiment to when you meet someone new and you can choose who you want to be to that person because they don’t know you—the anonymity.
The whole end section made me think about the title of the book a lot more. The People We Meet on Vacation. To me that meant, the connections we formed and the people we become. It’s about finding acceptance with others and in ourselves. I really liked the title because when you travel, you do (I’m assuming) meet a lot of people who are also probably going through a lot that you don’t know about, maybe they’re escaping something just like you or maybe they are living through it, but we meet all these people who make us feel less alone in our hardships or challenges. When we go through hardships, it’s difficult not to feel alone, but we are never alone.
You know I wanted to RAGE at FREAKING ALEX!!!!!! 😡 After Poppy did her whole grand gesture, he literally SHOT HER DOWN. HE REJECTED HER. HE SAID NOOOOOO.
I was like, what kind of realign GRAND GESTURE WAS THIS!!!!!? 🤪 He’s supposed to say YES. Freaking Alex had me thinking there wasn’t going to be a happily ever after! SHE JUST POURED her heart out to you and you say I can’t. SUCK MY TOES.
But then he chased after her and I was like, DUDE, you should have done that in the first place you pinhead!!!
But then he explained his initial reaction as self-sabotage.
Alex was afraid to be happy.
I understood him. I feel that way sometimes too.
Alex’s fear of being happy comes from his childhood with how he grew up faster and it just felt like he put everyone’s happiness above his own, that being happy felt wrong. I know when I was going through hardships in my life, when I started to feel remotely okay or better, I felt wrong for being happy. I don’t know, I think for people like Alex and I we feel like we deserve to be sad or we are comfortable with being sad because that’s all we’ve known so when we aren’t sad it feels wrong or weird because we don’t know what that’s like. I loved how Alex and her were both getting therapy. Gosh knows I know I need therapy—it’s something I’ve contemplated quite too many times. But I liked how they were both scared to mess up together. But they would figure it out because they loved each other. They were each other’s homes no matter where they went.
In the back of the book, Emily Henry wrote how the book was about the ones who stay and the ones who become/feel like home. More often than not, I’m starting to believe that home really is the people in your life—your connections–rather than an actual place. Home is where your people are. I loved how Poppy and Alex were starting a life in New York together and how they were both beginning new endeavors with their careers.
But it sure took them LONG ENOUGH to get to where they were now. But I get it, they needed to work through their shiz, but still, from page three, I was like, THEY LIKE EACH OTHER!!! They should have just gotten together 🤪.
They put the SLOW in slow burn for sure 🤪.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? What was the best or worst vacation you ever took? Where would you like to vacation? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.
And as always, with love,
Rating
3.56 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: Poppy and Alex couldn’t have been more different, but I liked how they balance each other and loved each other as is.
Plot: I loved the vacation-esque vibes. Definitely needed it after the past year and a half that we have had.
Writing: I love the way Emily Henry’s characters feel honest and real. I also like the complexities of their stories that build as the book went on. Also, I just want to say I love Emily Henry as a person and if you don’t follow her on Instagram, you should because she’s literally the coolest!
Romance: A slow burn, for sure 🤪