Reviews tagging 'Death'

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

46 reviews

undecidedpersonality's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Outing, Cursing, Grief, Homophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Racism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

Minor: Biphobia, Child abuse, Transphobia, and Colonisation

nils_0's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Sexual content

sophieamreacher's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Much better than the film, more romantic and well thought out. I liked the emails and transcripts. The politics was a bit over my head at times but good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, and Outing

Minor: Sexism, Classism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Deportation, Sexual assault, Addiction, Grief, Death, and Biphobia

ofpoetsandprose's review

funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

Why didn’t I read this sooner? I love these boys and their story so much. It’s fun, it’s heartfelt, it’s surprisingly emotional. I love it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death

ladyames20203's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this book so much, I wish I’d read it sooner 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Grief, Addiction, Mental illness, and Stalking

stephmcoakley's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Biphobia, Death of parent, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Car accident, Classism, Death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexual content

maverique's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I. LOVED. IT. I loved it so muchhhhh. I decided to read this book ahead of the movie release because I had somehow never heard of it in my whole life and also because I'm just starting to get into queer books and media. I loved the story tbh. I walked in guessing that it would be angst for like 9-10 chapters and then cutesy romance towards the end but I was soooo wrong. Like I was able to predict about half the story but I'm not even going to lie, some of the stuff in the plot surprised me. This book really touched the part of me that still has hope and I don't think I can get over that anytime soon :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Grief

Moderate: Biphobia, Death, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Colonisation

james1star's review against another edition

funny inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

If you can’t gather by the genre and cover of this book but it’s a gay romance between Alex, the First Son of the (female - something I didn’t know going into this and was happily surprised by) President of the USA, and Henry, Prince of Wales (the Queen’s grandson). Their relationship starts as rivals to friends to lovers and I won’t say anymore plot wise to avoid spoilers. 

I liked it, the writing is very readable and bingeable, the plot is engrossing, and the characters are all quite developed. The world McQuiaton creates is very liberal and pleasant but still retains its problems - maybe a little too unrealistic but it’s fiction so what can you say? the escapism and heartwarming elements were very enjoyable. The romance was again nice to read, my favourite parts certainly being Alex and Henry getting to know each other on a deeper level, with their email exchanges holding true depth (I kind of wished these were a bigger part). As their relationship was growing and leading to sexual exploration, I wasn’t really that interested as someone who doesn’t like smut/sex scenes but they weren’t as prominent a part as I thought at first and I definitely got more into the book as it went along. I also found the beginning to read a little like YA but with clearly adult themes so it was slightly mismatched but again as it went on it did mature. The long chapters and storyline that drags maybe a bit too long in my opinion was again something I wished was shortened, it seemed like you have to go through a lot to get to the main plot points at times.

I guess my major issue was how when ‘bad’ things happened, there wasn’t really any repercussions. Things were sewn up a little too easily to be believable and in some aspects I feel this does a disservice to queer people’s experiences in some sort of way. The MCs are clearly not like the ordinary person with their wealth, titles, power, and ultimately: privilege so it’s hard to relate to them - again I know it’s fiction and whilst I enjoyed this I would always choose a romance (or any book genre) where the MC is someone I can relate to better - so I didn’t really have much of a connection. Much of the book also rests on the idea of things coming out and the rather big (international) implications they would cause in the real world but the impact isn’t representative of this in this book. It’s also a little idealistic at times too where quite a lot of things (specially within the British Royal family) wouldn’t happen - again it’s fiction and I get the ‘alternative reality’ aspect apples to many but I dunno it’s just hard to see things like anti-colonialism being important to some members of the Royal family. 

It may seem like I’ve focused on the negatives and I get that I probably have done in this review but I feel this book has gotten so much hype and praise so maybe I’m evening it out a little bit? Maybe? I dunno. But I DID LIKE IT, it’s a good book and one I would recommend but I do still have my problems - do other queer books deserve the hype more? Yes I do think so. BUT I’m still super happy a book with two queer MCs that are in the ruling organisations of two very influential countries with a whole cast of queer and diverse characters who deal with lots of issues is getting the limelight. A book like this with such great representation and visibility wasn’t the ‘it thing’ to read when I was younger and I wish it was. So yes, I’m very happy about this book’s success and do recommend giving it a read - it’s great for a lighthearted pick-me-up read that can appeal to many. Bring on One Last Stop! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Addiction, Sexual harassment, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, Homophobia, Death of parent, Grief, Outing, Mental illness, and Drug abuse

deetabz's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Outing

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Death, Sexual content, Racism, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Stalking, Cancer, Colonisation, and Drug use

cdoubet's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Outing, Sexism, Bullying, and Misogyny

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Racism

Minor: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Vomit, Alcohol, Cancer, and Sexual harassment