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xeni 's review for:
Red, White & Royal Blue
by Casey McQuiston
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. There were a lot of great stuff: I loved Henry and Alex, both in their own right and together. They make the best couple. Their respective friend and sibling pair were wonderful. Completely unrealistic dynamic, but I love all of it regardless.
I loved this view of America - a progressive, modern, fresh, forward-moving future with a female and POC president, who has surrounded herself with diverse people of all ages, races, sexual orientations, etc. It's the view many people had of America. Unfortunately, reality kept messing with my brain while reading this. It's all a bit too shiny, a bit too perfect. No America that exists right now would ever elect a female POC. Or an openly gay senator. Or process a running candidate for president for tampering with the election. And that really pushed me out of the narrative.
Especially since the first impression I had was 'oh nice, a very cool, progressive America that likes change for the better'. However that is only the world Alex lives in. You can tell all the misogyny, racism, bigotry, etc. all still exist under the veneer of privilege.
The last section of this book coincidentally takes places on Nov 3, 2020. I just so happened to read it on exactly that date, while the election results were coming in, in the USofA. It was a very strange phenomena - on the one side we have this fictional, spruced up world in which a female, Democratic, POC is running for reelection against a typical WASP, older, male, rich elite. On the other hand we have two old, male, rich WASPs - one completely insane and the other not far off with his crazy neoliberal lifestyle - and still it's a huge controversey.
I know I would have enjoyed this book more without the heavy political messages. Without so much heavy handed Americanness. I'm so tired of hearing about America and it's messed up politics all the time. The romance and characters were nice, but not enough to deal with that huge shadow hanging over this book.
I loved this view of America - a progressive, modern, fresh, forward-moving future with a female and POC president, who has surrounded herself with diverse people of all ages, races, sexual orientations, etc. It's the view many people had of America. Unfortunately, reality kept messing with my brain while reading this. It's all a bit too shiny, a bit too perfect. No America that exists right now would ever elect a female POC. Or an openly gay senator. Or process a running candidate for president for tampering with the election. And that really pushed me out of the narrative.
Especially since the first impression I had was 'oh nice, a very cool, progressive America that likes change for the better'. However that is only the world Alex lives in. You can tell all the misogyny, racism, bigotry, etc. all still exist under the veneer of privilege.
The last section of this book coincidentally takes places on Nov 3, 2020. I just so happened to read it on exactly that date, while the election results were coming in, in the USofA. It was a very strange phenomena - on the one side we have this fictional, spruced up world in which a female, Democratic, POC is running for reelection against a typical WASP, older, male, rich elite. On the other hand we have two old, male, rich WASPs - one completely insane and the other not far off with his crazy neoliberal lifestyle - and still it's a huge controversey.
I know I would have enjoyed this book more without the heavy political messages. Without so much heavy handed Americanness. I'm so tired of hearing about America and it's messed up politics all the time. The romance and characters were nice, but not enough to deal with that huge shadow hanging over this book.