Book Review: “The Breakup Vacation” by Anna Gracia

Things are gonna get spicy by the end of this review and it has nothing to do with the book itself. So buckle up, buttercups.

I met Anna Gracia at YALLFest 2021 when she was promoting her first book and we stayed in contact over the years, so I was delighted when she sent me a copy of her book The Breakup Vacation with a sweet note written inside. As per ususal, free books don’t impact my view on the book, which is important to keep in mind here in a few minutes.

First, let’s talk about the book.

The Breakup Vacation [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] follows Grace as she’s kinda goin’ through it. Her boyfriend broke up with her but she isn’t over him at all. She gets the (not-so) great idea while drunk to show up at his house and try to seduce him to get him back. Instead, she learns he’s hanging out with another girl and ditching his plans with Grace to go to Mexico to work on a movie with the other girl’s father.

Grace gets the idea to convince her besties to go on a girl’s trip to the same spot so she can win him back… but her friends can’t know what’s really going on because they hate him. Her friends really want her to get over Josh by getting under someone else, using a fake persona they made up. But when Grace meets someone that gets her blood pumping, she has to make some major decisions.

This is Anna’s adult debut and I think she did a pretty solid job. This is full of rom-com hijinx and shenanigans. The spice is fun (especially a certain outdoors scene) and pretty well done for someone writing these scenes for the first time. The resolution doesn’t feel rushed like so many others do. It took me a little while to get into it and some parts could use a little more work to make more sense (I’m looking at you, vomit-in-hands scene), but otherwise, it’s not a bad book.

That cannot be said of Goodreads reviews. I was shocked at the low rating on this because it’s definitely better than the numbers imply. I know better than to read the comments on Goodreads most of the time, but the low rating got me curious, so I jumped in. The comments said the same things over and over again: Grace is unlikeable, immature, and not a “girl’s girl”.

My question is, so what?

When did we start expecting characters in fictional stories to be perfect? No one is perfect, not even you, dear reader, so why do we expect it in books? We should be looking for growth, lessons learned, and improved relationships in the story, not perfection.

For example, pointing out that Grace is immature is a bit of a “well, duh” moment. She’s in her early 20s. Please tell me how mature you were in college and how you never did anything ridiculous. I highly doubt you can.

Who hasn’t been young and going through a breakup with a mediocre guy but acted like the world was ending? Who didn’t try some stupid ways to get them back? If you didn’t date a guy your friends didn’t like, did you even live? Those are experiences most of us go through because they teach us things about ourselves, other people, and what we want from life and relationships. It’s really hard to know what you want or like if you don’t experience some rough patches. Books about young adults have to go through those kinds of experiences because they are realistic. The Breakup Vacation seemed pretty realistic to me in comparison to my lived experience and the experience of many people I know.

As to her not being a girl’s girl, cue up an eyeroll. Do not play like you adore every woman you’ve ever met. That is not realistic. We all have people in our lives that we just don’t like for some reason or another. For Grace, she’s threatened by this other girl and jealous of the attention. I’ve disliked girls just because my ex moved onto them, so why would we not expect something like this to happen in a novel? Is Grace’s relationship with her friends a little unhealthy, yes. But again, who hasn’t been in a friendship where motivations and communication were off? You have to learn what’s good for you and what’s not by going through it. Confronting it is what allows you to fix problems and grow from it. That’s just how relationships work. They aren’t all perfect all the time.

So again I ask, why do so many readers expect perfection from fictional characters? Do you also expect that from humans in real life? We’ve gotta leave room for people to grow and improve both in real life and in fiction.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

I think The Breakup Vacation is worth a read, even if the main character doesn’t act the way you would. Maybe you can learn something from seeing the world from someone else’s perspective. Also, it’s just ridiculous and fun. Enjoy someone else’s mess.