A review by purplepenning
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

This was just not my cup of caffè.

Two privileged sybarites, both misunderstood and misunderstanding, accidentally reunite on the world's most incidentally but deeply bisexual tour of France and Italian on which they out-Bourdain everyone, experience everything and everyone, and discuss very specific food and wines very specifically. I gave up trying to look it all up because it was already taking me forever to get through the book and glazing over the barrage of epicurean terms took me out of the story less than doing the research required to get an inkling of the items discussed. A little art and architecture and Volkswagen mechanics and POP culture references are thrown in as well — these god-touched hedonists have mastered so many interests by their late 20s! —but the writing is good on a sentence level so it's not all entirely unbearable. 

I mean, I don't hate Theo or Kit. I found them to be an odd mix of endearing and insufferable. But I'm glad they have each other and their full-bodied delight in tasting the world. I'm just so glad my brief vacation with them is over. 

One Last Stop continues to be my favorite Casey Mcquiston book — I genuinely loved that one — which is a minority opinion, so as always, your mileage may vary here.