Casey McQuiston follows her wildly popular debut, Red, White & Royal Blue, with another slightly off-kilter and entirely absorbing romantic comedy, One Last Stop. McQuiston's voice crackles with wit and youth as she adroitly depicts the chaotic joy and struggle of her early-20s characters. The book opens as 23-year-old August moves to New York City for school and a fresh start, away from her mother's obsessive decades-long search for August's missing uncle.
Despite a humorously wacky group of roommates, August's new reality also comes with the less-enjoyable aspects of being a young adult, including a ho-hum job working at a diner and a pervasive "what am I doing with my life" feeling. One Last Stop takes a light supernatural turn when August finds out, after several months of commuting together, that her new friend Jane, a strikingly attractive young butch woman, is trapped on the subway--and has been for decades. The romance that blossoms between 1970s' Jane and 2020s' August is layered, sweet and passionate, but it's an unexpected connection they have that might just free them both.
McQuiston makes the confusion and uncertainty of new adulthood exciting and often funny, while also paying respect to the queer activists who came before and the resilience of the queer community. One Last Stop is an exuberant but thoughtful romance sure to delight McQuiston's fans, and anyone who enjoys a good love story. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels