“One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston

I’ve wanted to read this book since I saw it being described as “magic subway lesbians” in a magazine review. Previously I’d heard of Red, White, and Royal Blue which is McQuiston’s other book, but I’d never read it. So I was thrilled when my book club selected this book to be our next pick!

Let me preface this by saying that it is very good. It’s excellently written. All of the characters are hilarious and larger than life, from the transmasc psychic to the drag queen working at a diner. They’re all delightful and super entertaining to read about. And the writing is terrific! McQuiston clearly knows what she’s doing. Yes it’s romance, but it’s also about magic and being queer and finding your family.

Having said that, there’s a lot of elements that really rubbed me the wrong way. So much of the plot feels like McQuiston checking off all of the tropes that queer readers will love. There’s the protagonist who has a hard time opening up to other people. There’s SO MANY queer characters. There’s the roommate who never talks to anyone opening up about how his parents kicked him out. There’s the love interest who’s a radical queer feminist and covered in tattoos. We KNOW that we’ll love it, but also I can see what you’re doing there. It just feels like every plot point is designed to inject dopamine directly into my veins, which is fine, but I’d like something I can find new or different in the plot beyond the number of queer characters. Representation is objectively a good thing, but I expected a little more from the novel beyond that.

There’s also just the amount of sex. I’m fine with reading about it but wooooow that last chapter was a lot even for me. If you are asexual or aromantic, this might be a hard read for you. I also just left thinking, is that what allo relationships are like? Is that what people do? It’s all queer sex so I’ll support that being seen and written about, but I kinda wish that I had a bit more of a heads up.

Then there’s the ending. Yes it’s romance and it therefore gets a happy ending. But I feel like the story could have been a lot more interesting and stand out more if it ended differently. If Jane went back and they didn’t end the story together. There was a half of a chapter where this was teased and I thought that seeing August’s development and her coming to terms with it MUCH more interesting than the final chapter where they just had a lot of sex. You never see a book where that happens and the author goes through the recovery detail with as much care as the romantic details. (Which McQuiston is definitely capable of.) Queer happiness is a radical act, but queer happiness after a tragedy to me seems like something with more depth to it.

Definitely read this book and adore this book, and find other queer authors to read and love. But also, I think there’s areas to improve and make changes to in future works. And maybe that’s just for me, and that’s alright.