Title: Great Big Beautiful Life
Author: Emily Henry
Series: n/a
I could have been okay with the unbalanced narrative. But I hated the climax and resolution.
I went into this book so arrogant, thinking I knew exactly how it would unfold. Alice and Hayden would “audition” for the first half, their attraction sparking as they slowly got to know one another as friendly rivals; the midway point would be a twist where instead of choosing one or the other, Margaret would hire them to co-author, and their budding enemies-to-lovers-ship would take on a forced proximity/resentful team-up element, and they’d fall in love while working on the book together. I expected Margaret’s story to be juicy and mirror themes explored in the characters’ arcs, leading to epiphanies. Maybe it would even be a subplot in a minor way.
But I did not expect it to be half the narrative. To be as important as it is.
I enjoyed the Ives family saga. I thought it was interesting and compelling and heartbreaking. But it took over the narrative, overshadowing Alice and Hayden’s relationship, which was expedited. They fell in love a little too quickly and easily, especially on Alice’s part. One day they’re strangers who don’t yet understand one another’s personalities, the next they’ve accepted each other and quickly become very horny best friends, and it’s hard to remember they’re supposed to be at odds. The time that should have been spent developing their relationship was instead spent over-developing the Ives family saga.
The part about the cult was unnecessary and off-tone. Alice’s friends and Theo also served zero purpose and should have been cut as well. We never met the sister that seemed pretty important to Alice’s character. Hayden’s character was poorly developed, his characterization/personality inconsistent and his background a mere sketch compared to Alice’s. There’s a reason for that last, but it’s an excuse; skilled writing could have worked around it.
Despite those problems, I loved the story and the characters. I was riveted, so emotionally invested. I loved the twist, too! Did not see it coming.
But there was a tipping point. When Alice did nothing.
I don’t understand her reaction to being fucked over. Why didn’t she get mad? Why didn’t she explain to Margaret what a horrible rock and hard place Margaret had put her between? Why didn’t she make it clearer to Hayden that she was bound and gagged and if he wanted a future with her, he had to go to Margaret? I get that a well-written NDA probably covers mere allusions to secrets, but I refuse to believe Alice couldn’t have done something to fight back, to stand up for herself. No, instead she slinks off to wallow in self-pity and grieve Hayden without lifting a finger to fight for him.
All my respect for her. Gone.
Hayden did the same thing. Just took it. Slunk off back to New York and was apparently prepared to let her be the one who got away. Didn’t he think it was weird that he says his mom’s name and Alice freaks out? He had no desire to investigate further? Didn’t take ten seconds to think, Hmm, why would the name and birth date of my mother, who was adopted and knows nothing about her birth family, hit Alice like a cattle prod in the ass?
Alice and Hayden couldn’t talk about it, because NDA. Fine. But Alice could talk to Margaret. She could tell Margaret she’d fallen in love with Hayden. Margaret would have realized her secrets weren’t keeping Hayden “safe,” as she put it, but could now potentially ruin his life. Exactly what Margaret didn’t want to happen. And it was her fault twice over, because she was the reason Hayden and Alice met to begin with! Maybe she was a curse. The irony is just absolutely delicious.
Instead, Alice writes a letter, then Margaret writes Hayden a letter, then, thank god, Hayden goes to see Alice in person and have a real conversation. If he’d written Alice a letter, I might have burned the book, never mind it was a Christmas gift.
It was all very passive and thoroughly unsatisfying. We don’t see Margaret apologize and redeem herself a little. We don’t get to see Hayden learn the truth or talk through the implications with him. We don’t get to see the aftermath of the truth being revealed, the consequences. The entire book impresses upon us what a HUGE EFFING DEAL this secret is, then we don’t get to witness the revelation. Beyond Alice finding out, anyway.
Such a frustrating, disappointing ending. *thumbs down fart noise*
Final random note: I read the physical book version, and the way the texts—phone texts between characters—were formatted was wildly inconsistent and infuriating. They were in-text, they were block, and the alignment was literally all over the place. Wtf? Have we not figured out how to format text messages in novels yet?
