Read this book for the Number Challenge, where I’m reading books with numbers in their title corresponding to the respective months of the year.
My pick for January (One) : One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston.
Did it ever happen with you that you step “on a train/bus/metro— 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.” No? That’s totally understandable because in real life that’d be too weird and creepy.
But in our fictional world, where most often than not creepy behaviour count as romantic and we drool over it anyway, it happened.
That’s exactly what happened with August Landry one morning when she was late for college, had slipped on ice and spilled coffee all over her shirt. A charismatic and hot stranger on the subway offered August her scarf and she, in turn, offered away her heart.
At this point it might sound like I didn’t enjoy the book but I really did.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is a sapphic time travel subway romance following a cynical 23 year old August Landry. She moved into New York to leave her childhood and her past behind and make a new life for her. But the truth is, she is lonely and “it’s appealing to move to a big city where being alone looks like a choice. ”
August is special. She is observant to the point it’s creepy. She can charm her way into any building and withdraw any information. She knows how to pick locks and has dedicated her entire life looking for a lost person. Basic detective shenanigans. But she’s done with it. She’ll be a part-time waitress, graduate from college and live a normal life.
Jane, the stranger, the subway girl, who coincidentally is on every single Q train August is on and who August thought to be a New York Hipster in love with the 70s, actually turned out to be girl from the 70s stuck in the train in a time loop. She hasn’t left the train in 42 freaking years!
As fate would have it, August is thrown right into the very shit she was trying to escape. She’ll have to do everything she’s come to hate— investigate, commit arson, theft and every damn thing she could because what better motivation than getting laid, right?
I loved the books for all its crazy and likeable characters. I loved the humour in it. I laughed my ass off half the book. Never was I bored reading it. The plot revelations were perfectly timed and I loved the way August’s and Jane’s stories were connected. I kinda hoped the closure August and her mom had in the end was something else, but it was bittersweet and I liked it the more because of it. There were bits and parts that was so foreign to me that I couldn’t relate much in those moments plus the Americanism I couldn’t care to Google.
I was so dumb I didn’t realize until the end of the book that the author of Red, White and Royal Blue had authored this one too (even though it’s written ON the cover). 🥲
Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I’d recommend it to everyone who loves time travelling or queer or romance stories or all the three.
Leaving you with a meme that’s so apt on the MCs of this book! 😂
Travelling Bibliomaniac 