gush of words to the head

Introduction

I’m not sure what kind of an environment you grew up in, but the one I grew up in definitely frowned upon reading romance books, especially if you considered them a worthwhile genre. Genre snobbery is not new to book spaces and sadly is not something that will ever go away anytime soon. As an impressionable kid who was told that only certain genres were worth reading, I found myself feeling pressured to enjoy things I didn’t like. I still remember being laughed at by everyone in the school library because I asked to borrow a book on Fairy Tales (age 11). While I would like to think that I spent the better part of my adolescent years unlearning these lessons thrust upon me at a young age, romance novels were still something I had never touched upon simply because in my head it was still deigned unworthy. Of course, I would never call someone out for picking up a Mills and Boon’s publication, nonetheless, never would I ever step into the romance section of my local bookstore either.That was before I was introduced to the extremely talented and nuanced works of Casey McQuiston.

That was before I was introduced to the extremely talented and nuanced works of Casey McQuiston.

For the few of you unfamiliar with this author, Casey is a self-described southern American (Think Texas, not the Amazon) pie enthusiast who writes love stories. And boy does she deliver! My first encounter with her works was through a romance novel connoisseur friend of mine who shoved Red White & Royal Blue into my face and said this was a must-read. Now, I could say that I accepted her recommendation with an open mind, took a week off to finish reading the book, and called her after to talk about what I liked or disliked about it.   I could say that, but then I would be lying. Instead, I was victim to the cardinal sin of book-dom. I judged it based on its cover. 

This all transpired when I was around 21 years of age, bored at home during a lockdown with no end in sight, fresh out of university with an unprecedented amount of time on my hands. Basically, the perfect recipe to try out new things and maybe discover some new things about myself, but alas, even my newfound inspiration to be a pioneer and expand the horizons of my hobbies did not allow me to be caught reading a book on love, definitely not a pink one. Now, here’s a bit of a confession, this wasn’t my first romance book, I read The Notebook to impress a girl I was into back when I was seventeen and had promptly hated it so much it had almost made me want to give up the pursuit of this girl for liking the book. (No hate to fans of Nicholas Sparks, I have since seen the movie and have found it more palatable, but I still hold the book in a rather low regard.)

About a week or so later, having been reminded multiple times to pick up the book and having nothing better to do to while away the time, I gave in and read the book. Forget a week, it took me less than two days to tear through the pages (turn of phrase, no books were violated for the purposes of this review.) and I was absolutely smitten by the book. This is why, when I heard Casey had a new book out called One Last Stop and when my friend said it was “classic McQuiston” I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Here’s what I thought about One Last Stop and what it means to find love in times of global catastrophes and online speed dating and “hookup culture.”

Plot Summary

One Last Stop is an ode to millennial culture and one of the best modern-day escapist books I have come across. It deals with August Landry a twenty-three-year-old college student drowning in student loans and insecurities. She comes from Louisiana and has a strained relationship with her sleuth mother who has dedicated the better part of her life and that of her daughters in trying to find August’s long-lost uncle. August has moved to New York City to complete her college education and to be away from her overbearing mother. Once there, she finds herself rooming with a part-time psychic Niko, his artist and thrift shop manager girlfriend Myla, and the mysterious night-owl Wes. Oh, there are also a bunch of drag queens and a lovable no-nonsense diner waitress and fry cook who makes up the ensemble, but you should read the book and find out how they fit in for yourself.

What I enjoyed about this book

If I can leave you with one thing here today (or tonight) it is that this book is easily the most relatable modern-day story I have read in a long time. Romance or otherwise. Every character is quintessentially millennial in their struggles and their expectations of the world. Often times I found myself finding some of the characters so relatable that I couldn’t help but groan and sigh out loud at their struggles or scream out “I know right?!” in incredulity to my walls.

The love that August and Jane share is some of the best-written passages I have come across. Yes, there are certainly some risqué and steamy sections to this affair but it is in no way gratuitous and manages to draw you in and manages to immerse you better into the story. Casey is in no way a stranger to writing excellent passionate scenes, you can find similar writing in Red White & Royal Blue but certainly, this one takes the cake in terms of the raw physical nature of the love that August and Jane share.

The characters other than Jane and August also have meaningful plots and overcome their own obstacles in style, the dynamic that they share is something you would want in your own friend group and will leave you smiling from ear to ear every time they sit down to share a meal together or go out to party. The characters are all extremely sassy and there is no shortage of quick wit from any of the characters, truly a rom-com in every sense of the word.

What I wish the author did better

My biggest gripe with this story is that there were not enough scenes where all our characters hung out together. We were always used to referring to at least one of them in the third person which is an honest shame considering just how amazing the few scenes they all shared were.  This is a big deviation from what happens in Red White & Royal Blue where our heroes all pretty much spend most of their time together. I feel especially shortchanged when it comes to the audience’s interactions with Wes because he sounded like a terrific guy and one that I would certainly have loved to spend more time with.

While this book does an excellent job at making August well-rounded and not making her prey to the “woe is me, I am but a potato whom nobody could ever like” archetype, there are some throwaway lines and bits that I feel ruined the experience for me. Some unfounded bits about August being insecure of her body, something that was not established before in the story. Minor grievances, but hey, in a book this good you have to be nit-picky.

Now, there is one major plot decision that the author took towards the end of the book that I vehemently disagree with that I cannot talk about here for spoiler reasons. But the gist of it is that I felt that the author introduced a cheap bait and switch just to extract a reaction from the audience and then two pages later undo any emotional impact that the decision might have had. (Read the spoiler section of the review where I discuss this in more detail).

Another thing that I truly wish the author could have done better was if she had added a few memorable bits of dialogue between the characters. Red White & Royal Blue had one of the most iconic lines in modern literature with “History huh? I bet we could make some.” That kind of casual and easy banter between Jane and August is missing in this book and I wish that that wasn’t the case.

Parting Thoughts (SPOILER SECTION)

(SPOILER SECTION)

*THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS PLEASE LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK*

This book is easily shaping up to be one of my favorites of the year and I am absolutely in awe of the way Jane’s character was written. Given that she was of Asian heritage and from the 70s, I would have also liked to have explored the race angle of things apart from just the sexuality issue. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo does this excellently and I would have loved the same love shown to Jane’s story arc.

I really wish that Casey had not made it seem like Jane was sent back to the 70s only to retcon the decision two pages later. It felt unnecessary considering that my emotions were already heightened to give a genuine reaction. Why make me explore a possibility if you are going to abandon that entire idea two pages later?

Time travel is always iffy because it opens a can of paradox worms that make you think of what-ifs and hypotheticals that ruin an otherwise good story, I’m glad that Casey navigated that well but in the back of my head, I always knew that Jane would never go back to the 70s because then she would have to resolve the Augie mystery (or come off as selfish) thereby making sure August never came to NYC in the first-place undoing Jane having ever left the subway. Crazy, I know, but thankfully we never had to think of this paradox.

(END OF SPOILERS)

Final Rating

Here are my final category-wise ratings so that you may see for yourself if this is something you’d be interested in reading.

Plot:  5 / 5 (Love how the author wrote herself into a corner with the constraints of the universe and managed it well.)

Characters: 4 / 5 (Excellently well rounded and relatable characters. Only wish we got to see them interact with each other a lot more.)

Prose: 3 / 5 (Romance as a genre in my opinion has some of the most passionate pieces of prose and this book delivered. My only wish is that the main leads had some quotable dialogues.)

World-building: 4.5 / 5 (Picturesque descriptions of New York, particularly love the emphasis laid to describing smells.)

Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5

Introduction

I remember not too long ago when I download the e-Book version (sacrilege!) of William Golding's 1954 "classic" must-read book Lord of the Flies. It was a rather short affair. When you're used to 600-page fantasy word-fests, 200 pages seems flimsy in comparison. I went into it fully expecting to fall in love with it from page one. After all, what was not to love? It offers a sensational critique of groupthink (much like one of my favorites 1984) and offers a crystal-clear view into the primordial instincts of man and asks the reader to dig deep into their conscience and face their own sense of morality. For those of you unfamiliar with the work, the big question that one needs to ask oneself having read the book is this:

“Is man inherently evil?”

I remember having finished reading the book, feeling a sense of incredulousness. That the author would portray our race as being so selfish and prone to violence. That, mere children, would find it in themselves to be such savages when provided the right set of circumstances. After all, these are schoolyard kids who know not how to take the life of another. Strongly repulsed by the conclusion that Mr. Golding had to offer, I promptly remember 3 starring the book (excellent description of the visuals and I was quite a fan of the pacing) and decided to never give the book another glance.

That was until now.

Having eschewed dystopia in my late teens after faithfully binging it up until the age of fifteen, I picked up Red Rising by Pierce Brown after hearing much hype about it online. The synopsis also appealed to a more belligerent and rebellious side within me, a side that had lain dormant in me and chose the current political climate around the world to rear its head once again.

If you're new to dystopian fantasy or for some reason you've never heard of this series before, the series (yes, it is a 6 part series with the 6th one yet to come out) follows Darrow our protagonist, a lowly Red class miner living under the Martian surface who is responsible for aiding the terraforming efforts of Mars to make the planet habitable for future generations since Earth is a dying planet. (Where is the fantasy element you ask me?) He is told that he is a daring pioneer to risk his life so, that despite him occupying the lowest rung in the social strata his obedience and his willingness to sacrifice so much for the future of humanity will be rewarded by making him a hero amongst men.

Falling prey to this propaganda Darrow suffers humiliation and toils under the boot of the Gold class (the upper-class nobility) until one day his life is upended by the knowledge that everything he knows to be true is a lie. He is shown how Mars has already been successfully been colonized centuries ago and that his people are all toiling away so that the colors (classes) on the surface enjoy the luxuries afforded to them by the labor of his people.

Joining forces with a rebellious anarchist group he decides to infiltrate the Gold training academy pretending to be a Gold citizen himself so that he may expose and tear down the system from the inside. The academy as it turns out is a Hunger Games crossed with Sid Meyer's Civilization kind of arena where the different student tribes fight each other and form alliances and wage wars until one tribe rules over all others. There is an added layer of complexity here that the ruler of the winning tribe gets special favors, so one has to watch one's back not only for enemy attacks but also for tribe schisms and civil wars.  All this while he is forced to stay true to his mission and not be led astray. Not to mention that there are plenty of other students in the academy with their own hidden agendas and secrets.

What I enjoyed about the book

The biggest thing that this book has going for it is its characters. Each character is fleshed out well and Pierce Brown does well not to skimp out on giving each character their own fully formed arc. There are some instances especially towards the end where you feel that some of the characters who came off as resourceful and domineering in the beginning suddenly feel reduced to side characters and love interests all to glorify our supreme protagonist. This is the unavoidable curse of the "chosen one" narrative but to be fair this is not that big a shortcoming and I feel the author will do all his characters justice in the future parts of the series. (Stay tuned for those).

The pacing is something that I truly love about this. Every chapter ends in a cliffhanger that leaves you clamoring for more and plenty of twists and revelations keep you glued to the pages. Nowhere in the book do you feel that there is a wasted paragraph. The entire plot is tightly written but amazingly this does not come at the cost of world-building or character growth moments.

The prose is terrific especially when you think of how YA literature is not known for its use of language. Certainly, this is no Oscar Wilde story with its aestheticism but fans of flowery prose will have something to look forward to as they pick this one up.  Here are a few out of context snippets that I particularly enjoyed:

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”

“Promises are just chains," she rasps. "Both are meant for breaking.”

Last and in no way least, the larger questions that this book manages to ask. The author makes it abundantly clear how much this series is inspired by the Lord of the Flies. We see similar if not the same themes of factions breaking out among teenage kids and them fighting and squabbling over pittances and power. We are treated to our characters navigating the same scruples as their counterparts did in Lord of the Flies but in a much better way because we are made privy to their inner monologues and the thought process behind every action is explained in excellent detail. Readers who wish to spend time in the psyches of their characters and ponder over questions of philosophy and morality, do check this one out.

What I wish the author did better

The biggest shortcoming this book has is that it is not the most original of stories. Especially if you're a connoisseur of YA dystopia it becomes abundantly clear to you the different ways in which other kindred series have influenced Pierce Brown. At times, the author himself pays too much of an homage to the classics that came before him that you can't help but feel like you've heard this story before.

Another change that could have greatly benefited this book is the introduction of multi-person PoVs. There are enough well fleshed out characters here that they all deserve their own thoughts and feelings to take center stage at times. I wish more authors took the time out of their day to do this as it would greatly improve the reader's experience and help readers to better identify and attach themselves to their favorite characters.

Lastly, the world-building in this book is not the best, in the sense that given that the entire book is set in a futuristic Mars colony in space, we rarely if at all see any cool and futuristic weapons and tools. The few that are introduced are not given good enough descriptions. If you're expecting a pioneering work of science fiction and fantasy like Dune then I'm going to have to ask you to lower your expectation.

Parting Thoughts and Predictions

(SPOILER SECTION)

*THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS PLEASE LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK*

The moral strife that Darrow goes through in the book, both as he is forced to reckon with the realization that he has been lied to and as he is made to come to terms with the fact that the love of his life Eo has died is interesting and entertaining to read about. As power seduces dear Darrow it is interesting to see his shifting allegiances. I would not be surprised if at one point Darrow decides to fully enmesh himself into the Gold hierarchy and turn his back on the Reds.

After all, power corrupts.

At the same time, I am not fully comfortable with the way Darrow found himself so easily falling for Mustang/Virginia. After all the beautiful scenes we had with Eo, it seemed rather anticlimactic to have him canoodling in caves with Virginia with nary a worry. Will he beat himself up as he falls deeper in love with Mustang is something I'm especially interested in knowing about.

The Passage was in my opinion an absolute genius concept. Till then I was afraid I was just reading some Hunger Games fic and I think the Passage really upped the emotional attachment I had with the characters. For Darrow to murder Julian and then to call Cassius a brother for so long just goes to show his commitment to duplicity and his hatred towards the Aureate. But I did feel that he developed a bit of a soft spot for Cassius again towards the end, so I am extremely excited to see where his loyalties will lie at the end of it all.

Sevro easily deserved his own PoV and I am really hoping that we get a good peek into his inner thoughts and why he chose to follow Darrow so faithfully despite being a capable leader himself.

At the same time, I am not fully comfortable with the way Darrow found himself so easily falling for Mustang/Virginia. After all the beautiful scenes we had with Eo, it seemed rather anticlimactic to have him canoodling in caves with Virginia with nary a worry. Will he beat himself up as he falls deeper in love with Mustang is something I’m especially interested in knowing about.

(END OF SPOILERS)

Final Rating

Here are my final category wise ratings so that you may see for yourself if this is something you’d be interested in reading.

Plot: 4 / 5 (Fast paced and exciting throughout, derivative at certain points)

Characters: 3.5 / 5 (Well fleshed out, many characters worthy of having their own PoVs, sadly towards the end they all seem to pale just to make our star burn brighter)

Prose: 3.5 / 5 (Surprisingly refreshing given the quality of prose this genre is used to.)

World Building: 2.5 / 5 (Wanted more, imagery is extremely monochromatic and leaves you lacking for some nuanced and delicate picturization, technology is extremely commonplace and hackneyed)

Overall Rating: 3.75/5