Beach Block Blues: Don't Hit Snooze, Your Pop Rock Jam is Up Next

Writer's block.  We've all had it.  That voice that mockingly chants, There's nothing new under the sun.  Everything that needs to be said has been said.  So park yourself in front of a Real Housewives marathon with a feed bag of Cheetos and give up already.  Now imagine that you're broke and the ability to purchase said Cheetos depends on you churning out the novel you promised your agent by the end of the summer.  And that your crush-slash-nemesis, who's also a writer, just happens to be your new neighbor.  And that he's broke with writer's block too.

Welcome to Emily Henry's Beach Read.  And yes, it's the very same Emily Henry who wrote People We Meet on Vacation, that other rom com I just read about writers.  This time, the heroine is January Andrews, and her neighbor is Augustus "Gus" Everett.  Both nurse deep emotional wounds, and both are loath to admit it.  But their shared college past injects a jolt of electricity and fun into their fledgling friendship.  Sweet yet full of substance (Think Bundt cake instead of cotton candy.  Although cotton candy does make an appearance.), this novel is as much about the writing process as it is about romance.  I love how it challenges the idea that chick lit writers and readers are "less than."  As a writer of women's fiction, January is an ambassador from that world.  Scrappy and witty, she's quick to defend her genre and how it helped her through a tough time.  Gus, on the other hand, is firmly in camp literary fiction and as such, aptly cast as January's brooding antagonist.  But when the two switch genres for the summer, what starts as a game to beat writer's block ends up making them better storytellers and brings them closer to each other -- and to their true selves.  My favorite part is when Gus reveals that, contrary to what January thinks, he respects her writing:

"You make beautiful things, because you love the world, and maybe the world doesn't always look how it does in your books, but . . .  I think putting them out there, that changes the world a little bit.  And the world can't afford to lose that." (293)  

Well put, Gus.  Realism has its place, but one of the reasons we read is to get out of our heads and realize that life's not so bad.  Too much reality can send us right back to those Cheetos -- and the bad kind of unrealistic fiction (i.e. reality TV).  That said, Beach Read is also funny.  Henry's banter game is as strong as ever, and January and Gus's convos are a hoot.  Because you can't choke down the kale of personal growth without a large dose of ranch dressing.  

Even if January and Gus eat mostly pizza.