A review by wardenred
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

 

That’s the way it happens on the subway—you lock eyes with someone, you imagine a life from one stop to the next, and you go back to your day as if the person you loved in between doesn’t exist anywhere but on that train. As if they never could be anywhere else.

Wow! I loved this more than I loved Red, White & Royal Blue, and I have to tell you I loved RWRB a whole damn lot. Yes, there are some minor flaws here and there, parts that could be shorter and tighter and such. But I can't even focus on those, because 99,99% of this book was exactly what I needed.

It was awesome how Casey McQuiston handled the fantastical element here. This is definitely soft sci-fi with a bit of magic thrown in, but through it all, the story remains just so... realistic? Maybe it's because of my own relationship to every subway I've been in: for some reason, it always feels like this liminal space where anything can happen. But mainly, I think, it's because all the characters are just so well-written and so alive on the page. I feel like they're actual people I've been hanging up with, and I don't just mean August and Jane. I mean absolutely every character in the book.

While I absolutely adored the romance (two girls who are used to running and never putting roots run into each other and become each other's anchors, basically? what's not to love???), every non-romance-related plotline was just as important and exciting. I have such a weakness for stories about queer misfits building homes together and becoming a found family, and this book is that. I also happen to have a weakness for stories about diners and similar places and the working relationships that evolve there, and this book is that, too. And I happen to quite enjoy stories about people making sense of their pasts before they can figure out a future, and new adult stories about getting stuck on that threshold on the cusp of Actual Adult life, and stories about grown-up children and their parents putting distance between them only to slowly come together again, on different terms, with a hope of building a different relationship. In all of these regards, One Last Stop absolutely delivered.

Honestly, it feels like this book was written for me. Can I get a sequel, please? Or a dozen?