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A review by kingrosereads
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
A classic NYC magical romcom where a girl meets a girl on the subway.
August is a cynical 23-year-old that doesn't believe in magic or emotional attachments. She's transferred to several colleges and just landed at Columbia on her journey. Her mother is an amateur private investigator who has been obsessed with solving her brothers disappearance for nearly fifty years. She raised August as her little accomplice and now she has a sense of detachment and a bunch of criminal-adjacent skills. She quickly finds an apartment with three quirky roommates that accept her immediately with open arms. With their help she lands a waitressing job at a 24-hour diner (a neighbor staple) that opened in 1976. After a rough shift, she meets larger than life, beautiful, badass Jane on the subway. By some miracle they keep running into each other on the Q. Slowly, their feelings for one another begins to grow. It becomes obvious that it was impossible that August should run into Jane every time she's on the subway. She discovers that Jane in displaced in time from the late 1970s and with the help of her roommates, she tries to find a way to free Jane from the Q and send her back to her time.
I think this was cute and sexy sapphic romcom. It kind of reminds me of The Lakehouse and I think this concept is interesting. Sorry for sounding cliché, but the city was definitely a supporting character in this story. I loved the relationship August develops with her roommates, co-workers, neighbor, and Jane. She went from almost being alone to having a whole village supporting and loving her. The whole book is a corny, cliché, wholesome NYC story.
I think the story runs on just a little too long for my liking, I could feel it lost some of its steam about 65% of the way through and picking back up around 80%. The cover was definitely deceiving! I thought this was a clean romance, and it definitely wasn't! I loved Jane and I appreciate her punk feminist cinnamon roll attitude. I do think August was rather bland until the very end of the story. I appreciate the queerness that's just oozing from this story.
I was deeply disappointed in the comment about racism not being as big of an issue in 2020, ESPECIALLY since Jane is Chinese-American and this book was published in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I can understand that August is a young privileged white woman (and I think this was pointed out) who wouldn't experience acts of bigotry firsthand in a city that (for the most part) is accepting of her bisexuality, but come on dude.
It's also a little disturbing how much sex they were able to have on the subway. I hope you're comfortable with semi-public sex cause that's all their encounters are. Also, the scientific explanation on what happened with Jane and their plan to return her to her time was clunky and repetitive.
I would definitely recommend this story.
August is a cynical 23-year-old that doesn't believe in magic or emotional attachments. She's transferred to several colleges and just landed at Columbia on her journey. Her mother is an amateur private investigator who has been obsessed with solving her brothers disappearance for nearly fifty years. She raised August as her little accomplice and now she has a sense of detachment and a bunch of criminal-adjacent skills. She quickly finds an apartment with three quirky roommates that accept her immediately with open arms. With their help she lands a waitressing job at a 24-hour diner (a neighbor staple) that opened in 1976. After a rough shift, she meets larger than life, beautiful, badass Jane on the subway. By some miracle they keep running into each other on the Q. Slowly, their feelings for one another begins to grow. It becomes obvious that it was impossible that August should run into Jane every time she's on the subway. She discovers that Jane in displaced in time from the late 1970s and with the help of her roommates, she tries to find a way to free Jane from the Q and send her back to her time.
I think this was cute and sexy sapphic romcom. It kind of reminds me of The Lakehouse and I think this concept is interesting. Sorry for sounding cliché, but the city was definitely a supporting character in this story. I loved the relationship August develops with her roommates, co-workers, neighbor, and Jane. She went from almost being alone to having a whole village supporting and loving her. The whole book is a corny, cliché, wholesome NYC story.
I think the story runs on just a little too long for my liking, I could feel it lost some of its steam about 65% of the way through and picking back up around 80%. The cover was definitely deceiving! I thought this was a clean romance, and it definitely wasn't! I loved Jane and I appreciate her punk feminist cinnamon roll attitude. I do think August was rather bland until the very end of the story. I appreciate the queerness that's just oozing from this story.
I was deeply disappointed in the comment about racism not being as big of an issue in 2020, ESPECIALLY since Jane is Chinese-American and this book was published in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I can understand that August is a young privileged white woman (and I think this was pointed out) who wouldn't experience acts of bigotry firsthand in a city that (for the most part) is accepting of her bisexuality, but come on dude.
It's also a little disturbing how much sex they were able to have on the subway. I hope you're comfortable with semi-public sex cause that's all their encounters are. Also, the scientific explanation on what happened with Jane and their plan to return her to her time was clunky and repetitive.
I would definitely recommend this story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Biphobia, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Xenophobia