Apparently Emma Straub has written several very popular novels, but American Fantasy is the first that’s ever caught my attention. But it’s like she’s written it for me!
As someone who has a deep love for Backstreet Boys and One Direction, and more recently a plethora of K-Pop boy groups, she already clocked me with a boy group as part of the main plot. And then it takes place on a cruise ship?? Where the other main characters are a bit older?? Sign me up! Sure, I might not be as old as Annie, or like the majority of the cruise chip passengers, but I think women of all ages can relate to this storyline. I think this was maybe geared more towards New Kids on the Block-aged fans, but the same sentiment applies. Every generation has their own NKOTB.
Annie is at a low point in her life. She semi-recently got divorced and had impulse bought this cruise with her sister, who happened to be the one more obsessed with Boy Talk, the boy group from their youth. She ends up reluctantly attending the cruise on her own and easily connects with her random roommate, Maria, who is no stranger to the cruise, or the boys. At first, Annie thinks everything about this experience is a bit silly. She’s seeing grown women in all sorts of costumes, waving all types of banners, and totally losing their shit when they see these equally grown men in person.
But then Annie starts to get it. It’s not every day that you’re given the opportunity to be up close and personal to a group that used to mean so much to you. Heck, they probably do still hold a significant part in your brain and heart, but life tells you that you can’t like these things anymore. Annie gets bitten by the Boy Talk bug, and Maria helps amplify things tenfold. It also doesn’t hurt that she has a moment with Keith that felt more real to the both of them than anything in the past decade or so. While the “boys” of Boy Talk are very much a part of the conversation, I really think it’s Annie’s show.
Sarah, the woman in charge of wrangling this whole cruise together is also a narrator, along with Keith, but their stories are a little less exciting. Keith feels done with Boy Talk, and has merely been doing these cruises over the years to support everybody else’s wants before his own. Especially his older brother. Sarah is also at a crossroads in her life, but I think she ultimately thrives in this chaos environment. Eventually, their paths cross directly with Annie’s, who’s decided to take these recent events and try to turn her daily life into something more positive.
At the end of the book, Straub dedicates this to all the fans out there. We can love hard, and maybe that can be construed in different ways to both other people and the artists, but at the end of the day, love what you love. Don’t let other people take that away from you. Hear hear!