Scan barcode
A review by obscurepages
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
5.0
Red, White & Royal Blue is a delightful, heartwarming, and hilarious story that will surely make you cry, laugh, and ultimately, fall in love. This is one of my most anticipated reads this year, and boooyyy, it did not disappoint.
Y'all this book. I just feel like, this book has almost all the things I want to see in a contemporary novel: the angst, the fluff, the drama, the smut (YES, THE SMUT. This book is NOT YOUNG ADULT. The author has stressed this out so many times already.), lovable characters, excellent dialogue, interesting plot, family and friends themes, identity theme, coming-to-terms-with-sexuality bits, pining, enemies-to-lovers trope, and probably a lot more things but I just can't remember them as of this moment! But anyway, I'll try to talk about them one by one.
Great writing
There's something about the author's writing style that just gets me. It's not complicated, instead it's light and hilarious. But at the same time, it can also get elegant and poignant. And of course, at other parts, it's also very steamy. The author just managed to pull me in with her words, and evoked several emotions (and tears) out of me, and it's just so good. Some flashback parts confused me a little bit though, but other than that, I loved it.
Precious characters (yes, even the minor characters are precious)
I am not even kidding when I tell you all the characters are precious. Even the minor characters are precious, not just Alex and Henry!
Alex has so much charm and tenacity and wit. Best of all, he has a heart of gold. He truly does. With his aspirations in life, his goals, you can see it and it's amazing. I have to commend the way the author handled his coming-to-terms-with-his sexuality part. There was a line there that says, "I thought I knew my identity, that there were no questions left." For me, that was just so good and so real, because it shows that no matter how old we get, we're still going to discover new things about ourselves, and that questioning your sexuality and coming to terms with it has no age limit and that it's a totally different experience for everybody.
Henry, oh Henry. He is this bright and lovable character who's holding too much burden on his shoulders. There's a lot of struggle in Henry's character arc (I'm not saying Alex didn't have struggle, he did!, but Henry's story will break your heart), a lot of loneliness and fear and repressed emotions, and he deserves all the happiness and love in the world. He deserves it. At one point in the book, he goes, "I'm as much of a person and a part of this family as you. I deserve to be happy as much as any of you do." It's heartbreaking and also perfect and brave. I love this guy.
And of course, the minor characters. Wow. June, Nora, Bea, Pez, President Mom, Shaan, Zahra, Raphael Luna, EVERYONE. All of them has a distinct character, has their own story to share, and they all made this book extraordinary.
Nerve-wrecking, heart-aching plot
What I loved about the plot is that it's not just your usual pining romance, learning-to-love, finding-your-true-self kind of plot. There's also politics in it, so it definitely added thrill and emotions and complexity. And although I'm not the best at politics nor am I a 100% familiar with American politics, I LOVED IT.
On other hand, the plot does remind a little bit of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (if you've read both Simon vs. and RWRB, you'll know what I'm talking about). And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I just feel like I should have realized it immediately. But apart from that, everything is great—the angst, the fluff, the plot twists, the turn of events.
I can't believe I'm doing it (I've been holding off on giving five stars recently for some reason, I didn't even give Gideon the Ninth full 5 stars), but damn, I give 5 stars to this book! I just loved it so much! And thank God, it's already been optioned for film! Yep! You heard that right! Red, White & Royal Blue has been optioned film! SCREAM WITH ME AAAAAAHHHHHHH
Also, content warning: vulgar language/profanity and sexually explicit scenes(not in the level of Fifty Shades or anything, but there are steamy scenes).
(This book review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm.)
Y'all this book. I just feel like, this book has almost all the things I want to see in a contemporary novel: the angst, the fluff, the drama, the smut (YES, THE SMUT. This book is NOT YOUNG ADULT. The author has stressed this out so many times already.), lovable characters, excellent dialogue, interesting plot, family and friends themes, identity theme, coming-to-terms-with-sexuality bits, pining, enemies-to-lovers trope, and probably a lot more things but I just can't remember them as of this moment! But anyway, I'll try to talk about them one by one.
Great writing
There's something about the author's writing style that just gets me. It's not complicated, instead it's light and hilarious. But at the same time, it can also get elegant and poignant. And of course, at other parts, it's also very steamy. The author just managed to pull me in with her words, and evoked several emotions (and tears) out of me, and it's just so good. Some flashback parts confused me a little bit though, but other than that, I loved it.
Precious characters (yes, even the minor characters are precious)
I am not even kidding when I tell you all the characters are precious. Even the minor characters are precious, not just Alex and Henry!
Alex has so much charm and tenacity and wit. Best of all, he has a heart of gold. He truly does. With his aspirations in life, his goals, you can see it and it's amazing. I have to commend the way the author handled his coming-to-terms-with-his sexuality part. There was a line there that says, "I thought I knew my identity, that there were no questions left." For me, that was just so good and so real, because it shows that no matter how old we get, we're still going to discover new things about ourselves, and that questioning your sexuality and coming to terms with it has no age limit and that it's a totally different experience for everybody.
Henry, oh Henry. He is this bright and lovable character who's holding too much burden on his shoulders. There's a lot of struggle in Henry's character arc (I'm not saying Alex didn't have struggle, he did!, but Henry's story will break your heart), a lot of loneliness and fear and repressed emotions, and he deserves all the happiness and love in the world. He deserves it. At one point in the book, he goes, "I'm as much of a person and a part of this family as you. I deserve to be happy as much as any of you do." It's heartbreaking and also perfect and brave. I love this guy.
And of course, the minor characters. Wow. June, Nora, Bea, Pez, President Mom, Shaan, Zahra, Raphael Luna, EVERYONE. All of them has a distinct character, has their own story to share, and they all made this book extraordinary.
Nerve-wrecking, heart-aching plot
What I loved about the plot is that it's not just your usual pining romance, learning-to-love, finding-your-true-self kind of plot. There's also politics in it, so it definitely added thrill and emotions and complexity. And although I'm not the best at politics nor am I a 100% familiar with American politics, I LOVED IT.
On other hand, the plot does remind a little bit of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (if you've read both Simon vs. and RWRB, you'll know what I'm talking about). And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I just feel like I should have realized it immediately. But apart from that, everything is great—the angst, the fluff, the plot twists, the turn of events.
I can't believe I'm doing it (I've been holding off on giving five stars recently for some reason, I didn't even give Gideon the Ninth full 5 stars), but damn, I give 5 stars to this book! I just loved it so much! And thank God, it's already been optioned for film! Yep! You heard that right! Red, White & Royal Blue has been optioned film! SCREAM WITH ME AAAAAAHHHHHHH
Also, content warning: vulgar language/profanity and sexually explicit scenes
(This book review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm.)