A review by vader
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“O, fathers of my bloodline! O, ye kings of olde! Take this crown from me, bury me in my ancestral soil. If only you had known the mighty work of thine loins would be undone by a gay heir who likes it when American boys with chin dimples are mean to him.”


June 2019 was an extremely bad month for me. I had a plethora of personal problems that rendered me unable to do hardly anything enjoyable. The only bright spot was this one novel: the sweetest contemporary romance you’re ever going to read.

Red, White & Royal Blue manages to have it all in only a few hundred pages: lovable characters, heart-wrenching romance, political commentary, realistic depictions of lovesick young adults, snarky banter for ages, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, fake relationships, and a message full of hope. Oh, and emails. Lots of the most romantic, fluffy, overdramatic, hilarious, emails.

“i thought, this is the most incredible thing i have ever seen, and i had better keep it a safe distance away from me. i thought, if someone like that ever loved me, it would set me on fire.
and then i was a careless fool, and i fell in love with you anyway.”


Alex Claremont-Diaz is a college student, son of two high-profile American politicians, one of them the first female president of the USA. His whole life is driven by his ambition to become the youngest member of Congress. He doesn’t allow himself to catch a break, he doesn’t think he can get one if he wants his dream to come to fruition. His schedule is too full to do anything but work and focus on the official functions he’s got to attend.

It is during one of the latter that he runs into his sworn enemy, his nemesis, the Moriarty to his Holmes, the Palpatine to his Yoda: Prince Henry of Wales.

“But he thinks about Henry, and, oh. He thinks about Henry, and something twists in his chest, like a stretch he’s been avoiding for too long.”


Stupid Henry, with his perfect face, and his perfect hair, and his perfect manners can do no wrong, and it absolutely infuriates Alex. The youngest son of the British Royal Family is obviously a sham. He’s shady. There is no way in hell anyone can be like that, not that Alex wants to know what he’s actually like, no. He just wants to not cross paths with His Royal Pain in the Ass, ever, and it seems like the feeling is mutual. Unfortunately, the candidness of their hate leds them to make a scene during the wedding of older sibling Prince Philip, and suddenly they have a fake friendship to maintain, lest the people believe diplomatic relations between the United States and the United Kingdom are anything less than ideal.

Hilarity ensues.

“EXPLORING YOUR SEXUALITY: HEALTHY, BUT DOES IT HAVE TO BE WITH THE PRINCE OF ENGLAND? She apologizes for not having time to come up with better titles. Alex actively wishes for the sweet release of death. The one after is: FEDERAL FUNDING, TRAVEL EXPENSES, BOOTY CALLS, AND YOU.”


But romance is not the only present thing in the novel, no. There is actually a lot of accurate commentary and representation of real, current issues related to the Western political climate. Alex is the biracial (half-white, half-Mexican) son of the first female American president. Casey McQuiston manages to accurately portray the struggles this represents, for Alex and for his family. This portrayal might feel a little bit over the top or on the nose at times, but the thing is, they are the truth. It’s completely believable that a Mexican family living on the White House would get rejection from White conservatives, it’s completely believable that the British crown would try to hide the fact that one of its heirs is gay. It’s completely believable that a female president would be received by doubt, and have a far harder campaign than a male counterpart with far less credibility (2016, anyone? And we all know how that ended).

“We’re gonna do it together. And we’re gonna make it work. You and me and history, remember? We’re just gonna fucking fight. Because you’re it, okay? I’m never gonna love anybody in the world like I love you. So, I promise you, one day we’ll be able to just be, and fuck everyone else.”


However, in spite of all this, we get hope. We get a feeling that things are bad, but we can work to make them better. We get a relief from the harsh reality that we are currently living in. We get to see a world that is as flawed as the one we lived in, but that we could maybe achieve if we keep fighting bigotry. The result of a successful fight against bigotry.

“In an hour, every person in America will be able to look at a screen and see their First Son and his boyfriend.
And, across the Atlantic, almost as many will look up over a beer at a pub or dinner with their family or a quiet night in and see their youngest prince, the most beautiful one, Prince Charming.
This is it. October 2, 2020, and the whole world watched, and history remembered.”