super close roomies

Oooo, I loved this so much more than I expected! I had low expectations based on reviews from friends and the high bar Book Lovers has set. But if the premise of this rom-com isn't enough to draw you in, all of the nuanced flaws and desires of the host of characters should at least get you past the first chapter. Right off the bat, we realize Daphne Vincent has seemed to hit rock bottom -- her perfect fiancé has left her for his perfect best friend he said "nothing would ever happen with" on the night of his bachelor party. Which means Miles Nowak is in a pretty similarly low situation -- his fiancé, said perfect best friend, has also inevitably left him. Needing somewhere to stay other than the house she bought with her now-ex, Daphne ends up moving into Miles' place, conveniently taking the second bedroom. Now they're roommates, and you can pretty much guess from here how the story plays out. It's a fun trope -- heartbroken roommates turned passionate lovers. And, really, it starts out as "fake dating to spite our exes." But I thought the depth of the leads' relationship went beyond cheesy tropes and bits. I thought Daphne was a phenomenal example of a woman used to people walking out on her, afraid to fully let people in or get too close to those who might eventually drift off to things bigger and better. She has a sad backstory and struggles with letting not just Miles, but her quirky librarian co-worker friend Ashleigh, in for the entire book. And who can blame her, with the evidence we see of her dad being as flaky as she remembers him being as a kid? Miles is also such a well-rounded character, affably "nice," as Daphne would put it, and charming in all the right, quiet ways. But, as revealed through his boisterous younger sister Julia's ruminations, Miles did everything he could when he was still a boy to keep the people he loved from being disappointed, even at the expense of his own happiness and energy. Seeing how both Daphne and Miles learn to navigate communication with one another, when it seems like they'd resort to witty banter and quick comebacks all the time if they could, was refreshing and really brought their romance to life for me. I also adored Daphne's personality as it pertained to books and her career as a librarian. Glimpses of her work at the library, of making true friends with the staff as the haze of heartbreak began to burn off, and how much she loved the work she got to do with kids, made me smile at the pages. I'm a sucker for a bookworm main character unashamed to embrace the nerdiness that comes with such a title.
I'm impressed with all the little moving parts in this book too, mainly how all the smaller side characters end up being important or relevant in some way. I knew as soon as Daphne noticed that little green cottage that it wasn't just some potential fixer upper, that it would be a symbol if nothing else. I also like how the entire story moves toward the Read-a-Thon event at Daphne's library. The subtle shift in chapter titles from Daphne counting down the days until she can leave town and start over somewhere else, to forgetting to count at all, to realizing she could leave but actually wants to stay for a new life she's building for herself was duly noted. In the end, Daphne chooses Miles and herself, prioritizing herself in a way that she didn't realize she hadn't in past relationships. I really admired that about the conclusion. I also thought the traditional third-act breakup felt unique in this book's case. Everything's going right, which naturally makes you wonder when thing's will go wrong. When they do, it takes a while for the whole picture to develop like a well-shot Polaroid. First, Miles doesn't show up and leaves Daphne reeling from what she surmises is yet another "I was left before I could leave" situation. Then Peter shows up asking for Daphne to take him back, that he and Petra the Perfect Best Friend are done and never would've worked. Daphne turns him down (hell yeah), seeing as she's not the person she was when he shattered her old life, and we presume Miles has been with Petra, maybe even got back together officially with her. A dramatic verbal sparring match occurs (it's raining, cause of course it's raining), and we don't find out until way later that Miles was with Petra, but only after confronting Daphne's dad who most definitely deserved the talking to he got from both Miles (and Daphne over the phone). Rambling aside, the pacing and purposeful evasion of certain details was really satisfying for me as a reader. Daphne's learning how to be a better friend to Ashleigh in the process of embracing Miles loves her, possible heartbreak and all, also struck a chord with me. I resonated most with the recurring theme of trust meaning the possibility of pain. My life experience is that of being just an I, in opposition to Daphne being part of a we, as Ashleigh puts it. I liked reading about a girl whose default is a relationship, as my default is the exact opposite. I'm trying to absorb some of this theme's truth into my own understanding of how beautiful it can be to trust people in a romantic way, to be alright with the possibility of great love as well as great pain. It's still an entirely foreign concept to me, but isn't that exactly why we read? To transport ourselves to other realities and empathize with people and situations that seem entirely different from our own on the surface? There's a universality to the heart of this book I think a wide range of audiences could get behind, while simultaneously enjoying the silliness of a roommate love story. I'll finish with an appropriate comment about parallelism: the book starts and ends with Daphne reminiscing on the telling of stories, mainly love stories, and specifically her own. First, it's Peter, and it's his story to tell. Then, it's Miles, and it's hers and his story to tell. But he knows how much she enjoys telling her version, and that it's inevitably a funny one. :)


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Some of my favorite quotes from Funny Story:

"'It's from a book,' I say. 'Never mind.'
'Ah,' he says. 'Not a big reader.'
'I know that's a possibility,' I say, 'and yet I truly cannot fathom it.'
'What do you like about it,' he says.
'Everything,' I say.
His mouth curls. 'Fascinating.'"

"I’m a cynic. And a cynic is a romantic who’s too scared to hope."

"It’s a library, Daphne. If you can’t be a human here, where can you?"

"But no one person can be everything we need."

"You're the reason for the word wonderful. It really shouldn't be used for anything else."

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