Emily Henry on Funny Story, romance snobbery and Paul and Ayo rumours
“I went to [university] for modern dance, but on a writing scholarship. I had to take writing classes to keep my scholarship, and I fell in love with it. Then I wrote my first novel,” Emily Henry explains casually over Zoom, a week before her ninth novel Funny Story is published.
For those not on BookTok, the now 31-year-old is a force to be reckoned with in the publishing world. Since reigniting her childhood love of writing, she has sold over 2.4 million books, been named as part of Time 100 Next's 2023 rising artists and had multiple books optioned for film adaptations. Discussions of Henry's novels have millions of views online, with her novels often covering romantic themes, though she started off her career in YA fiction.
Her first adult novel, Beach Read, was published in 2020, and since then she's garnered a loyal fan base, devoted to her clever, warm and relatable stories, often covering archetypal themes of enemies to lovers and fake relationships turned real, successfully rejuvenated for a modern day audience. Thanks to her realistic writing about romance, creating characters that you can't help but fall in love with, Henry has cemented her place within a growing generation of romance writers revolutionising the genre.
Ahead of the release of Funny Story, which tells the heartwarming and hilarious story of Daphne, who moves in with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex (yep, really), we caught up with Henry to discuss everything from the Crocs on the novel’s cover to *those* Paul Mescal and Ayo Edebiri rumours.
Cosmopolitan UK: Hey Emily! How did your love of writing begin?
Emily Henry: Like most writers I started out as a voracious reader and got to the point where I would be reading a series, caught up in it and want the series to keep going, I didn’t know fanfiction was a thing, but I would basically write fanfiction just for myself, for the continuation of the story.
I found even at a young age, writing was a very similar experience to reading for me. I loved the surprise of it. I didn't outline and I still don't outline. I love working on something and not knowing where it's going; watching it unfold, even though it's also stressful.
It’s so interesting you mention fanfiction, because I feel that it’s often left out of conversations about writers of our generation’s beginnings.
There are so many authors now who are publishing, who started out as very successful fanfiction writers. At the time I didn’t know it was fanfiction [I was writing]. I wasn’t engaged in the online communities. And it's funny, now being an adult with so many writer friends, almost all of them were in fanfiction communities at some point.
As readers, when you get to the end of a series or a book you love, you just want more, and so these people were smart enough to go looking for that more and knew how to use the internet better than me.
Are you aware of your fans making fanfiction of your work?
I don't engage with it because I feel I have to let that be their thing. But years ago, after Beach Reach first came out, I did go looking briefly and there was some [fanfiction] and it was really fun.
There were a lot of mashups of the Beach Read characters in different universes. I didn’t read them. I feel I can’t let my creative process be enmeshed with anyone else’s.
It must be such a special feeling to have your worlds taken in by readers…
It's surreal to see them understand the characters so well that they can create new conversations and I buy into it, and think ‘yeah, that's how that conversation would go’. That’s a special talent.
And now working on adaptations, watching other people adapt my work for film. I've been blown away, but those are professionals. So it’s an entirely different thing when it's not someone who's getting paid but it's just a reader who loves your work making that [fan art], it's surreal and amazing.
Speaking of those adaptations, you’ve linked Paul Mescal and Ayo Ederbi on your social media to a potential adaptation, what conversations have been happening?
I can't confirm anything for any casting. I will say I have been bringing their names up for one project or another for years, both separately and at times together. Anything could happen.
Ok, let’s take things back to Funny Story. Can we talk about the Crocs on the cover?
We can talk about the Crocs, yes. I pitched including the Crocs very early on in our cover conversations. I did think, ‘is this too divisive?’ Will there be people who simply cannot pick up this book because they see a man in Crocs?'
But I was delighted my team was just fully on board with including the Crocs. It was funny watching reader reactions roll in when we revealed the covers, because there were a lot of people who were like, ‘You're gonna make me fall in love with a man who wears Crocs’.
What’s fun about writing in this genre is the unexpected. It's the same way there are people that you see on TV and you think, ‘oh, they're beautiful.’ But in reality, attraction is so much more complicated and nebulous and hard to get your grip on.
It's so funny because you will find yourself attracted to people who are so different from what you would write down on paper for yourself.
Peter and Miles definitely sum up that feeling of what you think you want versus what you actually want and who is better for you in the long run
Yes! I am at a point in my life where I have close friends who have now gone through divorces and remarried or had really long term relationships and then found someone else. And we’re all having ongoing conversations about how the things that are important to you in your 20s often are very different from the things that are important to you in your 30s.
Your list gets shorter of the qualities you're looking for. At first, you think ‘we're gonna like the same music and this is how this person will dress’ and then you get older and you're like, actually, ‘I just want someone who is kind and fun to be around and can pull their own weight’.
I think that was what I was excited to do here with Peter versus Miles. Peter is perfect on paper and probably looks much more like Daphne would have imagined her partner to be. But then after that combusts, you have to start asking the question of ‘what really is the non-negotiable here?’
You mentioned Real Housewives in Funny Story, do you have a favourite franchise?
Oh, my gosh, I have been loving Salt Lake City because it started with such a bang. As soon as anyone gets arrested on the show, I'm gonna watch that. I have seen all of Beverly Hills because that was the first one I started watching. And I love Potomac.
I haven't seen all of Miami but I find the Miami franchise very compelling. But I think Salt Lake City is probably my favourite because it's just so bonkers.
You’ve had a massively successful career, does the pressure build with each new novel?
It's a good thing and a bad thing because I want to make sure I’m trusting my own gut and my vision. But I’m also conscious I have this huge readership who've been so good to me and I want to give them what they want too.
It’s always a balancing act of trying to shut out those voices while I write and be totally true to my vision, and to the book itself. Also, I'm aware that every book I write, there will be readers of mine who don't connect with it. But I'm also hoping there will be some who, for them, that's the best book I've written.
There used to be a lot of snobbery around romance fiction and ‘chick lit’ do you think that still exists?
I keep thinking that it doesn't because I'm so immersed in the world of romance, and clearly on Instagram and TikTok, the younger generations have really embraced it and they're not ashamed to say what they like, to post their reaction videos, and share their favourite sex scenes. There’s so much less shame in the younger generations.
But then something jarring will happen when I'm outside of that bubble and I realise we still have a long way to go. Even being part of Hollywood now, there are some people who are trying to do the heavy lifting, that romance authors have been doing for decades - trying to make people understand why so many millions of us devote our time to reading these books.
On the flip side, do you see yourself moving away from writing romance fiction?
For sure. I will always love romance, but I also get bored of things. I was doing young adult novels before this, and I was ready to write about older characters in different situations.
I love romance. I hope that I'm always writing some romance, and the common thread for whatever I do will always be a love story. It doesn't have to be romantic love story, but love is the most interesting thing on the planet. What really makes me buy into a story is when there is a deep love at the core of it.
I do write in every genre and so I hope I will do some science fiction or thriller.
You seem to have a close friendship with Taylor Jenkins Reid on Instagram. Is there a romance writers group chat going on?
Ooh, I have a lot of different writers group chats. There's one with Taylor, Julia Whelan and Jasmine Guillory. It is a blast because Julia Whelan is my favourite audiobook narrator, as well as an amazing writer, and she often finds it easier to communicate via voice notes. And I always feel I'm getting something that I should be paying for for free, even her voice notes explaining what she's doing today are so good.
It seems, especially with the help of BookTok, female writers are dominating the writing space right now..
I know! I think there's going to be so much conversation around BookTok for years, as it shifts and changes. But the thing about BookTok that I will always appreciate and defend it for, is that it's a reader driven space, or at least it has been. And of course there are algorithms that make that tricky. But when pops on BookTok, it's because a reader loved it and then with genuine conviction, talked about it in a way that got people excited. And that is so cool and beautiful and special.
Can you tell us what you’re working on right now?
I'm working on something new. It is definitely still a love story. And there is still a romance in it, but it does feel like a slight departure, hopefully in a way that readers will be excited about. It was very exciting to me as I was writing it.
The last time that I had a writing experience like this was Beach Read, where it felt like something did come out of me just for me, and made me very emotional and it feels significant to me. So I hope that's a good sign.
And finally, what are you reading right now?
I just started Sally Hepworth’s Darling Girls, it's a fun psychological suspense thriller. I’m finishing up Calahan Skogman’s Blue Graffiti. It’s his debut novel and it’s got a modern On The Road vibe. But for me it's better, I'm not a huge Kerouac person.
Emily Henry's new novel Funny Story is out now
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