Big Feelings: this is not a rom-com
The wild ride you're in for...
I have been getting a variation of this message in the past couple of weeks as early readers devour Big Feelings…
“Amy, what the FUCK I cannot stop crying, I thought this was meant to be a love story!?”
To which I say: lol.
First of all, I love, love, love this kind of message. If you are crying and laughing all the way through the book, you can stick a fork in me. I’m done.
When you read Big Feelings, I want you to have some big feelings. About love and life and grief and decisions and family and secrets and wrong turns and regrets.
So that brings me to our next and final episode in the countdown to publication of Big Feelings.
Episode 5: This is not a rom-com
I can understand why you might pick up the book, or read the blurb, and think it sounds like a love story. A classic light-hearted rom-com where everything is okay in the end.
Now, I’m not saying everything *won’t* be okay in the end, because I’m not about those spoilers, but what I’m trying to tell you is that if you pick up Big Feelings expecting a kind of Emily Henry vibe, you might be disappointed.
Let me try to phrase this a different way: rom-com readers will love this book, but it is not a rom-com.
I wondered for a while if it was. I asked trusted friends/readers/authors/rom-com experts to tell me if I’d written a rom-com, and every single one of them said NO.
Sadie herself loves rom-coms. She watches them every Friday night with her dad as part of their family tradition since she was in Kindergarten and probably way too young to be watching them. It’s their thing, and she’s desperate for her own happy ending. Her movie-worthy love story. There are rom-com references littered all throughout the book, which ‘90s and ‘00s nostalgia fans will LOVE, and there’s even a rom-com glossary at the end.
But, as it says on the cover of the book… this is an anti-romantic comedy.
Look, I don’t exactly know what that means LOL it’s probably some kind of marketing gimmick, but I’m pretty sure it means this:
There is love (rom).
There is humour (com).
But everything is not as it seems.
It’s possible that I have now either a) confused the fuck out of you, or b) made you even more desperate to read Big Feelings. Obviously the latter is preferable, but honestly the former would also make sense. You’ll just have to read it anyway and trust me, even if you don’t *quite* know what you’re in for.
Events for the launch of MY BOOK, YAY!
Sydney, 7 July (sold out, but waitlist activated!)
Melbourne, 29 July with Kate Mildenhall
Melbourne, 31 July with Sally Hepworth
As of this time next week, I’ll be a dual published author! Thanks so much for being on the journey with me, for reading and sharing these newsletters, and for genuinely being awesome book-loving humans. See you next week on the BIG DAY (then I’ll give you a little break from seeing my name in your inbox, and beam back in at the end of July for a round-up of every book I read that month).
Love ya x
So excited!