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Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Death of parent
Minor: Child death, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide attempt
Minor: Cancer, Child death, Physical abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Child death
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief
Minor: Child death, Murder
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder
i picked this up in waverly train station in edinburgh because i hadn't read anything my entire trip, ice was on the ground and i was hoping if i read something with beach in the title that summer would come quicker. it did not. and lily was right about the lack of beach scenes. disappointing for a literal BEACH READ.
the first 2/3 of this book was fun and i like both gus and january as characters. you can appreciate their conflicts as realistic and immense daddy issues and whilst the plot wasn't really there, i had fun just watching them connect and flit around michigan as unemployed creatives.
however, i fear we have found another case of third act syndrome. i don't think it was a bad ending by any means but it did feel at times half baked and honestly, a bit rando?? i can even pinpoint the exact point at which my eyebrows flew off my head. call me conservative but i don't think it was entirely necessary for these two to bump uglies 3 TIMES next to an arsoned out, baby-death, cult site. that was certainly one of emily henry's most creative choices i've seen to date.
as for the actual plot, it just didn't feel like things weren't as wrapped us as they could've been, which could be argued for given the nature of the book. but i do think we got robbed a little bit of any thorough conversation between january and her mum. i understand her mum's thing means that she refuses to acknowledge her grief or talk about it but i think the moment she calls her mum telling her that she needs her could have been that moment. i think it was obvious that the confrontation with sonya was inevitable but i was waiting for 300 pages for that conversation with her mum that just never came.
also gus's ex randomly showing up?? sometimes i forget he was even married and i think january did as well. and there was absolutely no need for him to just take off for a full day like that. i know he tried to call her but not even a text?? are you mad???
like i said, i did like both of them and in my head, joe jonas was a good gus but it felt very much scraping bare minimum. even that felt like a stretch at times.
i'm also deducting points for the full body cringe i got when i read "i don't mind snow as long as there's january". intolerable.
also, im glad i got the correct ending without the proposal and just have a nice little book dedication that felt more authentic to gus and january. after all, it has only been 9 months and getting engaged after that long is absolute insanity, but i think that speaks more to american values of romance than the book's so i'll let it slide.
at it's core, beach read is really just about two sexually depraved loners with extreme daddy issues who have never gotten over anything or each others ever in their lives and nobody else could love them like the other. probably better on re-read if you suspend expectations of it being an actual beach read.
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
Minor: Body horror, Child death, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Death, Grief
Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder