Funny Story Summary

Emily Henry’s 2024 novel *Funny Story* centers on Daphne Vincent, a children’s librarian who has just been jilted by her fiancé, Peter, after he realizes he loves his longtime best friend, Petra. Daphne had moved to the small Michigan town of Waning Bay for Peter, so when the wedding collapses, she is stranded in a place where she knows almost no one. Enter Miles Nowak, Petra’s ex-boyfriend—equally blindsided by the same betrayal. The two become reluctant roommates in Miles’s cramped apartment, united by heartbreak and a shared sense of humiliation. The novel’s hook involves Daphne and Miles pretending to date in order to appear fine at Peter and Petra’s wedding, a setup that forces them from commiseration into genuine intimacy. Henry alternates between the present-day timeline and flashbacks to Daphne’s relationship with Peter, gradually revealing why she uprooted her life and how much she overlooked. Waning Bay itself functions as a character: a lakeside tourist town where Daphne’s library work, especially her drag-queen story hour, grounds her in a community she never intended to join. Miles, a brooding, guitar-playing wanderer with a complicated family history, becomes her unlikely anchor as they trade barbs, late-night snacks, and honest conversations about grief and self-worth. As with Henry’s other bestsellers, the book blends romantic comedy beats with sharper emotional stakes: the fear of being someone’s second choice, the difficulty of rebuilding after a public implosion, and the quiet thrill of being truly seen. It is a standalone novel, not part of a series, and was published by Berkley in April 2024.