51 pages • 1 hour read
Hannah GraceDaydream
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Henry”
Henry feels nervous before his hockey game. Overwhelmed by the noisy locker room, he closes himself in Coach’s office to call Nate. Coach finds and kicks him out. Henry’s team wins. Afterward, he and his friends meet up with Halle at a new bar. Henry is bothered by the noise but feels better when he and Halle start talking.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Halle”
Halle thinks about the sex dream she had with Henry despite her busy day. After the bar, Henry ended up coming over and they slept side-by-side in her bed. They’ve slept like this a few nights in a row and as soon as Halle spent one night alone, she dreamt about Henry.
Henry comes over to hang out while Halle works on her novel. After she finishes, they spend time with her cat Joy and talk. Henry suggests that they go on a date. They pick up pizza and drive to a hilltop where they can see the whole city below. Henry suggests they eat and listen to Halle’s book on tape. When they go to turn it on, her sex app plays audio of people having sex instead. Halle is embarrassed, but Henry doesn’t tease her. Halle then reveals that she’s a virgin, which doesn’t faze Henry either.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Henry”
Nate visits the hockey house and he, Robbie, Russ, Henry, and their friends discuss the season and school year. They decide to go out. Henry doesn’t want to go until he hears that Halle will be there.
Henry feels overwhelmed at the party because it’s so loud. Then he sees Halle and she gives him a pair of noise reducers. Henry feels much better after donning them.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Henry”
Henry shows Halle to the bathroom during the party. Inside, they run into Russ’s brother Ethan doing cocaine. Afterward, Halle urges Henry to tell Russ, but Henry insists he can’t. Russ’s dad is a person with substance misuse disorder and Henry knows this information about Ethan will upset him. He and Halle argue about the right thing to do. Upset, Halle leaves.
The next day, Henry visits Halle and immediately notices she’s been crying. He apologizes for being “pushy and weird last night” and explains why he didn’t want to tell Russ (139). Halle apologizes too, revealing that she was afraid Henry wouldn’t want to be friends anymore after their argument. Halle is also hungover and tells Henry she likes drinking with friends but hates how she feels the next day. Henry insists she doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to just to make others happy. He also assures her that no one will judge her for drinking less or choosing not to drink. Afterward, Henry contacts Aurora and they text about Ethan and Russ. Then he and Halle make plans to have a group date with their friends.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Henry”
Henry and Anastasia hang out and talk. Anastasia wants to know more about Halle but Henry insists they’re not dating. However, Anastasia remarks that Henry hasn’t been seeing anyone else and Henry knows she’s right. He isn’t sure he wants to date Halle but admits that being with Halle makes him happy. Anastasia encourages him to tell Halle how he feels before someone else asks her out.
Henry and Halle go to the beach with their friends. They play some arcade games and Henry wins Halle a giant stuffed duck. While the others go to the beach, Henry and Halle talk intimately about how to give Halle more romantic experiences. They’re about to kiss when their friends resurface.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Halle”
Halle meets Henry in the art building before they have lunch. She wants to see the sculpture he’s working on but he isn’t ready to show her yet.
Henry texts Halle that he’s sick. She brings him soup and hangs around to chat for a while. Henry tells her more about his moms, Yasmine and Maria, who are both doctors. He also tells Halle his reasons for going into art instead of medicine or sports.
Halle takes a call from Gigi, who’s upset that their mom won’t let her get her belly button pierced. She passes the phone to their mom, who informs Halle that Gigi is now going on campus tours even though she’s never wanted to go to college.
Afterward, Halle and Henry continue hanging out. Being with Henry makes Halle wonder if she could survive falling in love with him.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Halle”
That weekend, Halle goes to see Cami, who’s also sick. On the way, Will calls. She doesn’t answer but wonders if everything is okay with his family. At Cami’s, Halle is horrified to discover that Cami was drugged without her consent at a party. Cami tells Halle that she was drugged without her consent and attacked in high school. They talk about drinking and partying and make plans to get food.
Will calls Halle again. On the phone, he reveals that Gigi is at his house in San Diego. She wasn’t going on a tour but went to campus to party. She and her friend got into an argument and Gigi found Will. Worried, Halle drives to Will’s. Will greets her with a kiss because Gigi doesn’t know they’re broken up. Halle scolds Gigi for being irresponsible but Gigi doesn’t want to listen to her.
Afterward, Will suggests that Halle and Gigi spend the night because Gigi needs a ride home with her friend in the morning. Halle texts Henry but doesn’t tell him she’s with Will. She and Will get into an argument about their breakup and their upcoming holiday plans. Halle ends up telling Gigi the truth about Will.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Henry”
Henry and his friends get ready for their Halloween party. Finally, Halle arrives and Henry is happy to see how well she’s getting along with everyone. However, Henry gets jealous when he sees her talking to another guy. He asks Russ how to tell the difference between liking someone as a friend and wanting to date them. Russ insists that Halle is interested in Henry and urges him to act on his feelings.
Henry asks Halle to dance. While dancing, he asks about her book and they talk about each other’s costumes. Afterward, Henry takes her home and they kiss.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Halle”
Halle and Henry continue kissing. They get ready for bed and Henry performs oral sex on Halle. During the encounter, he turns on the voice recorder on her phone so she has something new to listen to while masturbating. Afterward, they lie in bed talking.
In the morning, Halle meets her friends at Blaise’s Diner. Everyone is convinced she and Henry had sex. Halle tells them the truth and is thankful no one judges her for being a virgin. She explains that she wants to sleep with Henry, but isn’t ready yet. Her friends also give her advice about birth control. They spend the rest of their breakfast planning Aurora’s upcoming birthday party. They decide to host a Reese Witherspoon-themed sleepover at the hotel.
Chapters 11-19 Analysis
The more time that Halle and Henry spend together, the deeper and more complex their relationship becomes, as they gradually become aware of The Transformative Power of Love. Both Halle and Henry have unique romantic and sexual experiences that add nuances to their distinct friendship dynamic.
Halle has never been in love and wants to experience the excitement and depth of such a relationship. However, she “didn’t like [Will] touching [her]” and therefore isn’t sure if she’ll enjoy sex with other people (197), which creates a conflict in her character arc. Her prior lack of connection with Will leaves her hesitant to rush into a sexual dynamic with Henry. At the same time, Halle still needs “to further [her] romantic experiences” to finish the romance novel she’s working on for the competition (155). Her relationship with sex and love has thus been complicated by her past experiences that make her hesitate, while her desire for literary inspiration helps her overcome her insecurities in her dynamic with Henry.
Meanwhile, Henry has a reputation for being sexually experienced. He is growing attached to Halle but also isn’t accustomed to being celibate for so long. These aspects of his sexual past inform his relationship with Halle as the two protagonists grow closer in the narrative present. While Henry feels attracted to Halle, he also wishes to respect her feelings and does not want to pressure her, which shows his growing sensitivity to her needs and his own emotional maturation. The novel thus uses Halle and Henry’s sexual histories as foils to intensify their relationship, and to imply that their deepening emotional connection is allowing them to experience love and sexuality in new ways: While Halle is starting to open up physically, Henry is starting to open up emotionally, which enables their personal development to complement one another’s.
In these chapters, although the protagonists have been spending the majority of their time together, they remain confused about the true nature of their relationship. Their reliance on their friends for support and advice reinforces The Importance of Friendship. The scenes where Henry asks Anastasia and Russ for advice capture Henry’s attempts to make sense of his own emotions. In Chapter 15, for example, Henry tells Anastasia that he likes Halle but doesn’t “know how to or want to date someone” because he fears this relationship label will ruin “how good things are” (149). Anastasia encourages him to tell Halle how he feels about her despite his fears. Similarly, in Chapter 18, Russ urges Henry to “step up and do something about [his] feelings” (187). These friendship dynamics suggest that platonic relationships also play a significant role in furthering the protagonists’ character arcs.
The novel also relies upon the “friends to lovers” romance trope to develop the relationship between Halle and Henry. At the novel’s start, Halle and Henry agree that they’re just going to be friends who help one another out. In their ground rules, they even promise not to fall in love with one another. However, the more time that they spend with each other, the more complicated their relationship becomes, foreshadowing how they will end the novel as a committed couple in a romantic relationship instead of a purely platonic one.
Halle and Henry’s developing dynamic also helps them face The Challenges of Personal Development in their individual lives. They continue to invest in one another’s hobbies and pastimes, worries and anxieties. For example, Halle asks more questions about Henry’s moms and his artistic aspirations. Her interest in his family and artwork illustrates her desire to know Henry and conveys her care for him as a person, which helps Henry feel closer to her. Henry, meanwhile, continues to show interest in Halle’s work for the writing competition. He asks Halle questions about the project, helps her gain new experiences to inform the novel, and assists Halle with her other responsibilities so that she has time to write. Henry therefore recognizes how important the competition is to Halle and how closely she identifies with this creative endeavor. His support forms a contrast to Halle’s previous dynamic with Will: Instead of expecting Halle to build her life around accommodating him, he instead helps her pursue her interests the way he pursues his own.
Meanwhile, Henry talks to Halle about drinking, partying, and sex without embarrassing her. He also takes her on a date on the hillside, an activity that aligns with Halle’s particular interests and needs. He also listens to her talk about her family and friends without judging her for her emotional responses to these conflicts. Halle and Henry are learning to encourage one another to do well, while also giving each other the time and space to take care of themselves. These aspects of their relationship help Halle and Henry to balance their often-competing responsibilities and desires while furthering the development of their romance.
