Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel

Amazing chemistry! Absolutely engaging and captivating! I couldn't turn away. An emotional rollercoaster until the very end. Crying is mandatory. Superb Directing! It is not often I rearrange my entire schedule to read a book, attend a Screener and watch a movie over and over. This movie is a very welcoming change from the typical cinematic creation of late. The story progresses quickly at first, but when the two main characters connect, it is like you are transported into another world, their world, and you can not move until you know they are safe, happy, and together. Let's get back to movies like this. A++

Review title: Audre Lorde, Please Look Away Alternate review title: Shockingly, Less Homonationalism than Anticipated This book reads like fanfic--it's funny, sweet escapism and wish fulfillment, exactly as McQuistion intended. Frankly, RW&RB is not typically the type of book I go for, precisely for that reason. But I'm burned out from work, sick on vacation, and feeling some kind of transmasc bi way about the movie trailer, so I thought, what the hell. I could use an absolute cotton candy of a book right now. McQuiston's writing is snappy, funny, and page-turning (a la Rick Riordan, shoutout to the Lightning Thief cameo). More than that, the book is self-aware and occasionally self-critical, to my surprise and delight. Sometimes, I want to read queer stories that don't make me cry or fume or fall into deep introspection. Sometimes, I just want to read about a disaster bisexual and his broody boyfriend pining with a side of geopolical escapism, meritocratic fallacies be damned.

Impulsively bought this book as soon as I watched the trailer for the movie. Now, I ultimately finished this book with no regrets at all. I read for Henry and Alex's love story, and I got exactly what I was looking for and more that I was surprised to enjoy. In the case of Henry and Alex, despite seeming otherwise, their story was a slow-burn of love that had me swooning and "aww"-ing for all of their scenes. As for the politics of the US and the UK, I thought I would be lost and confused. But it painted a picture that surprisingly allowed me to be heavily invested in the world Casey wanted to show. And not only that, Casey knew how to carefully explore each main character and their experiences, that I found myself understanding them and falling in love with all of them. Casey has a way of writing characters to be believable, smart, and incredibly human. And their deep and clever world-building expanded a version of this world that allows you to get lost in its fiction. Recommended!