A review by mediocremasen
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

emotional inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Good book, definitely worth a read, but don't think I'll ever re-read it.
In my opinion the reader definitely needs to be good with history to get the complete power of the story. I am not a history person and felt out of my depth at a few different parts because there was such a heavy reliance on knowing US and European history.
Speaking of heavy reliance...
Alex definitely has a drinking problem but it is never addressed. There are numerous mentions of him drinking to avoid feeling, drinking to the point of throwing up and blacking out on multiple occasions, and his first reaction to something negative being to get alcohol. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a character in the book that had substance abuse issues that was discussed and had a positive outcome. Definitely could have used that to help him with his alcohol dependency as well. I'm unsure if the author just didn't see it that way or if they didn't feel like getting into it, but I flagged it as an issue I saw very early in the book and it was just added to.

Also there was a scene in there towards the middle/end that I am ABSOLUTELY certain was only added to remind us that one of the side characters existed. It was a nothing scene that did nothing for the plot or the characters, just showed us a side character that hadn't been mentioned in a few chapters.
Overall glad I got it and read it and would encourage others to read it as well. Just wouldn't read it again.
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