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A review by hannahshriver5
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
i have a lot of thoughts about The Pairing and they are quite all over the place so i am going to make a list (also mostly just for myself, but i love a lengthy review)!
a) 1st novel (let alone romance) i have found that has a nonbinary main character! huge!
b) i got lost in all of the specific examples of food, drink, art, places, etc. i admire the dedication CMQ has to their craft and generally, i love a good, specific reference but this was a LOT.
c) the "TheoandKit" of it all reminded me of I'll Give You the Sun but lacking the fullness - it felt cheesy.
d) very much appreciated the turmoil around what it means to be present in a relationship and the complexities of "giving yourself to a relationship".
e) it felt like a lot of plot points were resolved with sex? this is always disappointing to me as a reader (and an asexual)
f) this book was very much so marketed as being horny! and slutty! and i love that! but 2 things...they did have a lot of sex! but it to me all of the sex scenes were pretty vanilla interactions - this definitely points more to what society says about queer sex than CMQ's branding of their book. HOWEVER, this book was missing the emotion within the sex scenes that i know from CMQ which wasn't really it for me.
g) i love Fabrizio and Orla
h) the plot was incredibly predictable and there wasn't much to make up for that
moral of the story is: i wish i would've loved this book and i just sort of liked it! i don't regret reading it though :) and i am really happy that we live in a time where there can be so many kinds of queer stories
p.s.i don't know how i feel about the fact that Theo's identity isn't named until halfway through the book. i mostly bring this up because CMQ has talked about how this was very intentional. ofc i am speaking from my own lived experience as a cis person! but i wish that trans and queer authors (and artists) didn't have to take the opinions of others in such consideration when doing their thing! gender is so incredibly relevant in the way that we move through the world and is also entirely made up and i think what threw me about this book is that i feel as though the first point is lacking in the narrative but maybe that's just me.
a) 1st novel (let alone romance) i have found that has a nonbinary main character! huge!
b) i got lost in all of the specific examples of food, drink, art, places, etc. i admire the dedication CMQ has to their craft and generally, i love a good, specific reference but this was a LOT.
c) the "TheoandKit" of it all reminded me of I'll Give You the Sun but lacking the fullness - it felt cheesy.
d) very much appreciated the turmoil around what it means to be present in a relationship and the complexities of "giving yourself to a relationship".
e) it felt like a lot of plot points were resolved with sex? this is always disappointing to me as a reader (and an asexual)
f) this book was very much so marketed as being horny! and slutty! and i love that! but 2 things...they did have a lot of sex! but it to me all of the sex scenes were pretty vanilla interactions - this definitely points more to what society says about queer sex than CMQ's branding of their book. HOWEVER, this book was missing the emotion within the sex scenes that i know from CMQ which wasn't really it for me.
g) i love Fabrizio and Orla
h) the plot was incredibly predictable and there wasn't much to make up for that
moral of the story is: i wish i would've loved this book and i just sort of liked it! i don't regret reading it though :) and i am really happy that we live in a time where there can be so many kinds of queer stories
p.s.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Dysphoria