The great big boring book: Emily Henry’s “Great Big Beautiful Life” book review

I am not normally a fan of Emily Henry, but I loved her last two books, “Funny Story” and “Happy Place.” When I first heard the plot for “Great Big Beautiful Life,” I was not immediately hooked, but I was still excited because of her previous books that I enjoyed – and “Great Big Beautiful Life” was certainly hyped up.

Henry started to win me over with “midday heat of Georgia Summer.” This I understand, from having spent the last few summers working outside in Georgia. However, the more I read, the more I wanted to put the book down and DNF (did not finish) it — yet I persisted.

The premise of the story is that writers Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson are competing for the same biography story from the famous heiress Margaret Ives. However, the back cover informed me that Margaret is telling different parts of her story to each of them, but they can not talk about it since they signed NDAs.

If the reader never read the back cover, they would have no clue Hayden and Alice know different things — something that would have made the plot entirely different, and probably better. Gradually, towards the end of the book, Hayden lets it slip that Margaret might act differently towards him and Alice.

For most of the book, Margaret’s story is a mediocre side-plot at best, a want-to-be Evelyn Hugo (but nothing can beat “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”), while Alice and Hayden begin to fall in love. Their story is pretty typical for a romance book, with a lot of clichés I saw coming.

The truth of Margaret’s story does not come out until the middle of Chapter 33 — there are only 36 chapters and an epilogue. However, even considering all that, I never anticipated the ending. I would not read the book again just for the ending, but it surprised me after struggling with everything that happened before.

“Great Big Beautiful Life” also strays away from Henry’s typical romance-infused books. Henry focuses most of the book on Alice and Hayden’s relationship, Alice’s relationship with her mom and Margaret’s story. Reading the book, I thought each of these were interesting on their own, but all three being combined in one book made it hard to follow. I wanted more details and specifics of each story, yet they all felt rushed and choppy.

The book does offer life lessons on family, relationships and what it means to live your life, but I just wish I could see these more drawn out throughout the whole book, rather than just in the last five chapters.

Rating: 5/10

mulforsj@miamioh.edu