One Last Stop

I truly cannot express enough how much I loved this book. I enjoyed Red, White, and Royal Blue, and when I saw that Casey McQuiston had a new book coming out, I was excited, but One Last Stop far surpassed my already high expectations. This book is an absolute delight with an entire cast of characters to fall in love with, and a unique and creative plot that keeps you hooked. While the story and the romance are both wonderful and most certainly worth reading the book for, the thing that I found most enticing is the story it tells about queerness over the last fifty years. Jane, a 70s lesbian who lived and loved in a time where being gay was illegal, has been transplanted into the modern age by being stuck on a subway train. August is a Louisiana bisexual who moves to New York to reinvent herself away from her mother, whose obsession with finding her brother who's been missing since the 70s has stifled August and her own identity formation. August moves into an apartment shared by an electrical engineer-turned-artist, a real life psychic, and a former trust fund kid whose parents cut him off for not conforming to his family's expectations. Their neighbor across the hall is an accountant by day, drag queen by night. August's found family lives and breathes queer culture in a Brooklyn nearly - but not completely - foreign to Jane's experience in the 70s. McQuiston does a magnificent job showing just how far LGBTQ acceptance has come in the last half-century, but never forgets to weave in that there is still so much further to go as well. There's even nods to events in queer history that many of us today don't know about, like the arson of the Upstairs Lounge. This is a story deeply steeped in queer culture and is characterized by resilience, love, spirit, and determination - perfectly fitting to kick off pride month this year. Overall, this book was just so lovely. McQuiston poured their heart into this beautiful queer story that explores all kinds of love - family, friends, and romantic - and it shows on every single page. There are plot twists that you don't see coming, moments that make you laugh out loud, and moments that break your heart. Again, I loved Red, White, and Royal Blue, but I loved One Last Stop even more. I hate to compare them because they're very different types of queer story, but since McQuiston wrote both, the comparison is inevitable. You will not be disappointed - One Last Stop is whatever the opposite of a sophomore slump is. I cannot wait to see what stories McQuiston tells next!

At the start, the book felt a bit slow and August is a passive protagonist kind of watching the story drag her along with it. But pretty soon she takes the reigns and the story picks up, and everything is in full swing and it's absolutely amazing. The romance blossoms, and keeps getting better straight through to the end, pretty much making me forget all of my qualms with the story. But the main thing that kept pulling at me was the author's willingness to rely on coincidences, and she would often switch scope to forget about other aspects of the world. It felt a bit more like a fantasy novel because of that. Minor spoilers: specifically with August's school/classes. The story just directly drops them when the romance gets going, and then somehow August doesn't face any consequences for it. Which, I do appreciate the very focused romance without many distractions, I just wish it had been dealt with in a more logically consistent way.

This is the book of representation we need. This is the sapphic romance I have been searching for my entire life. This is nectarines and five sugars in coffee and leather jackets and pancakes. It’s requesting the perfect song on 90.9 while eating the Su Special. I will say right now that this is the best book I have read in 2022 and it trumps everything I’ve read and loved this year by a mile. Twenty stars, please. The soft melding of supernatural into this romance was absolutely amazing, but I don’t even need to talk about that. I need to talk about the love. The LOVE. Between all the characters. August and Jane. Niko, Myla, Wes, Isaiah. Literally everyone else. I cannot stop screaming in my head about how much I adore these beautiful people that should not be fictional. I need them in my life, right now. I need them to be my best friends. If I had found this in New York, I might not despise the city as much as I do. Ok, let’s get to this, because August and Jane are adorable and their story is so lovely. I got major invisible life of Addie Larue vibes with the chapters beginning with snippets of people catching glimpses of Jane doing something on the Q line and with august and her notebooks of recording janes life. But that was just a cherry on top rather than a focus. The things they talk about, the discoveries they make about one another, is just pure gold. You can feel the love spilling out of the pages between these two. I just… ugh there aren’t enough ways for me to gush about this romance. Then we have myla and niko and they are so precious I want to adopt them as my same-age parents. The family they’ve built is pure and loving and as august put, it’s like myla inserts herself into your life as if she’s always been there. And that’s how I feel about all of these characters. Like they have been with me all this time even though I’m just now moving in to their apartment. Each of them brings something so special to the book and it would not be the same without any of them. This book might have been august and jane’s romance, but it is just as much the core four’s story as well. I demand a Wes and Isaiah story, because I need so much more of their love and the adventures of Annie Depressant. And now I can get to the representation. I have hated all the sapphic romances I’ve read this year for multitudes of reasons, but this one is so much more than that. This is representation at its finest. Literally every letter of our pride alphabet is done so beautifully, I’ve never felt more seen and at home in a book. From drag queens to trans reveals, from questioning to being unapologetically you, this book gives you everything. I mean e v e r y t h i n g. It needs to be put on a billboard and blasted across the radio. I would call in so much to profess my love that they would accept a request a week early ‘just in case’. I’ve never wished I could read a book again for the first time like I have with this one. I want this family in my life like I want Christmas in July and Isaiah’s Easter brunch at 7pm and pancake Billy’s house of pancakes at 2am. If you are still reading this review, please stop waiting and read this book. It is worth it. I need it again.

While not as strong as Red, White, and Royal Blue , this second outing in the romance genre has made McQuiston an auto-purchase author. The stories are filled with such an energy and wit that it is beyond pleasurable and easy to be lost in the narrative, with some of the most quickly endearing and well-realized characters. She also does representation for the LGBT community wonderfully and is maybe the first queer author who I have read and can now say loved. August is a twenty-three year old college student with a load of existential dread and identity crisis, like everyone in their 20s is, who moves to New York. When she gets on her commute to Brooklyn College, she meets Jane, a charming and mysterious leather-jacket wearing time traveler displaced from the 1970s. August makes it her second job to use everything she knows and has been taught to help her. Nonetheless, the coming-of-age story and cast of quirky characters make this a good read. While the premise might appear whimsical, it is grounded in a very intimate and personal romance that gives it a lot of heart. Time travel is a personal weakness of mine and this helped to demonstrate why.

This was a refreshing break from your typical sapphic novel. My thoughts are below in no particular order: I enjoyed the theme of solving one little mystery at a time while trying to resolve two much larger mysteries. I was constantly on the edge of my seat. August and Jane were fun and relatable characters and the author did a good job with developing the characters and their relationship. I found the language to be a bit cringe at times. I almost stopped reading after the first couple chapters because it seemed like the author was trying too hard to sound cool with some misplaced cultural references and language. Once I got past the first couple chapters, I was hooked more so by the mystery than by the romance. Then the romance stole the show. The romantic scenes were tastefully done. It wasn’t Outdrawn level detail but it wasn’t The Secret of You and Me kind of reservation either. It was smack dab in the middle. Overall, this was a really fun book with a good dose of mystery and sci fi - a lovely break from your typical sapphic romance novel. I highly recommend!

This is not your run of the mill sapphic romance. It's written with a gusto, a literary value that stands out. It's sci-fi, it's fantasy, it's a love story told by an author who has something to say about living in NYC for the first time. Nothing is left unsaid. Every loose end is tied, I appreciate that. The spice is muted but still present.

It was a great book! The entire book was very descriptive, so it was easy to picture it in my head. I like how easy it was to relate to bits and pieces of each character, it made everything feel “familiar” so to speak. I already purchased another book by this author and started it less than an hour after finishing this book.

This is Ms. Casey McQuiston’s sophomore novel and she’s now officially an auto buy author for me. I loved this book, especially the characters! This found family, Groupon of ragtag misfits. The main character, August, was so closed off and cute. I loved seeing her get comfortable and be herself around people. Seeing her finding herself and coming out of her shell and being open was so gratifying to read. Jane was a sweet badass. The romance between the two was sweet and progressed nicely. It was so relatable. The side characters were just as amazing and super entertaining. Myla was my favorite. She made me LOL so much in this book. She was a reflection of myself with her personality. There were so many funny and magical moments. I had a big, goofy smile on my face reading this. It made me want to go back in time to my 20’s and live in NY so I could be like these characters. Also, I really started to crave pancakes. I need a place like Billy’s. There were some plot twists and connections I didn’t see coming. This is a cute, feel good story about finding yourself, learning to open up, hope, and believe in love. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Read this story about cute girls falling in love with each other on a train that transcends time.