I don’t know about you guys, but I think life is kind of rough and awful right now. There’s a global pandemic, people are protesting for the right to die because they refuse to cut their own hair, the country’s leadership is iffy at best, and on top of all that we still have to do schoolwork. Things are overall not great or comforting. But you know what is? Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.
This book is one of the best things I have ever read, and I say this as a not-that-retired former bookworm. I have always been a fan of a good romance, so when I say that this changed the game, I want you to understand just what that means. I read this for the first time last August, in one sitting, and felt the entire range of human emotion in that five hour period. I cried for 80 straight pages and then couldn’t stop smiling at the ending for like three days. I finished it and immediately started to reread it. Since that first time I’ve reread it like four times, and I still go wild every time. I could go into so much detail about how great this book is, but I’ll just go with my top ten list of things about it that make me go absolutely insane. In no particular order, here we go. (All the quotes are directly from the book, so if they entice you to read it, good. They’re meant to.)
1: The Premise
“Oh my God, I thought you were getting into international relations or something.”
“I mean, technically—”
“If you finish that sentence, I’m gonna spend tonight in jail.”
The book is about the First Son of the United States falling for the Prince of England. As if a romance starring young, well educated, handsome men in the public eye wasn’t enough, they also begin as enemies. I go absolutely WILD for a good Enemies to Lovers story, and this has it down perfectly. There are simply not enough dramatic queer love stories out there, and this manages to be everything I didn’t know I needed, starting just at the premise.
2: The Characters
“Sugar, I cannot express to you how much the press does not give a f— about who started what,” Ellen says. “As your mother, I can appreciate that maybe this isn’t your fault, but as the president, all I want is to have the CIA fake your death and ride the dead-kid sympathy into a second term.”
Okay so there is not a single character in this book that I do not love. Everyone, from the main couple (Alex and Henry) down to the high school best friend that makes a brief appearance in the middle of the book is well written, distinct, and realistic. I think a lot of characters in books bug me because they’re so normal, with no weird habits or unflattering moments, but Casey McQuiston created people so real and human that sometimes I genuinely forget they don’t exist. (Which is sad because Ellen Claremont, President in Red, White, and Royal Blue, is someone I would legitimately die for, she’s so incredible.)
3: The Setting
“”Is this your TED Talk?” June asks. “You do realize America is a genocidal empire too, right?”
“”Yes, June, but at least we have the decency not to keep a monarchy around,” Alex says, throwing a pistachio at her.”
Which brings us to the setting. This book is set in a slightly alternate universe from ours, but only slightly. The British Queen is named Katherine, not Elizabeth, though they are generally similar in age and beliefs. (I guess if you write in a romance with a fictional Royal you may as well just make a whole new fictional royal family.) The US president is Ellen Claremont, who won in 2016. The book starts in September 2019, and carries on through the 2020 election. I don’t know about you all, but I personally love the feeling of escaping into an alternate 2020 where there is no quarantine and the administration isn’t made up of incompetant and actively harmful people. I’m much happier escaping into the other 2020 where Alex and Henry are navigating a secret relationship as they fall in love with each other. Most everything about reality is the same beyond that though, making it so easy to just slip into it, and the realism is so good I can hardly articulate it.
4: The Humor
“The first slide says: SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATION WITH FOREIGN MONARCHS: A GRAY AREA. Alex wonders if it’s too late to swan dive off the roof.”
I cannot possibly describe to y’all in a single article the immense amount of humor in this book. Some characters are witty and sarcastic, others are clever or snarky, and some are just so distinct that their reactions are golden. Situational comedy is honestly so well done here too. Within the first chapter comes “Cake-gate,” where Alex and Henry crash into the $75,000 cake at a royal wedding, then have to spin it into something not liable to create a world war. Some characters are just odd, making anything they say great, and others are so realistic I could die laughing. I can’t express how funny this book is, so you’ll just have to find out for yourself but please, take my word for it. It’s SO good.
5: The Ending
“History, huh? Bet we could make some.”
Okay, if you’re used to heterosexual media, you might be used to an ending where both people are happy and alive. It’s not necessarily that easy in queer media. So when I say that I love the ending, I mean it for so many reasons. I’m not going to spoil it, but it’s a happy thing, and it doesn’t feel like fan service or feel like it’s forced. It feels natural, realistic, and fills me with enough love for the book that I immediately start to reread it.
6: The Representation
“Like countless other Americans, I was afraid to say this out loud because of what the consequences might be. To you, specifically, I say: I see you. I am one of you. As long as I have a place in the White House, so will you. I am the First Son of the United States, and I’m bisexual. History will remember us.”
I’ve found, when looking at media I like, that representation is often so touch and go. The minority becomes a token, or a stereotype, and I have to be satisfied because at least they’re a part of the story, right? This book didn’t do that once. Casey McQuiston has mastered the skill of adding representation to her book, and she did it by not making it a huge deal when it didn’t need to be. One of the secret service agents is a transwoman with a wife. The deputy chief of staff is a woman of color. One of the senators is a gay Mexican man. Of the 6 main characters, 3 are confirmed queer, 3 are people of color, and 3 are women. Alex Claremont-Diaz is Mexican American and can’t even pass for white. But none of these facts are pushed onto the reader, and so it doesn’t seem unnatural or forced. Just like how real life isn’t a diversity contest or whatever, neither is the book.
7: The Romance
“Dear Thisbe,
I wish there wasn’t a wall.
Love, Pyramus”
Okay I cry easily, this is true. But I usually am set to cry for a quick few minutes then be good. I cried for a solid 80 straight pages, sometimes enough that I had to clear tears off my eyelashes in order to read more. A solid portion of why I was crying was the romance. I want to be loved with even a fraction of the love that was written about. There are some lines in this book that even now, without context, I go absolutely feral over. And the format of the book sometimes changes to emails, and there is a whole stretch of pages of emails where Alex and Henry are writing full on love letters to each other, including quotes from historical love letters. Can you imagine someone writing you a love letter, and doing research into historical letters to find a quote that speaks to you from someone hundreds of years ago? Can you honestly tell me that if you got one you wouldn’t just fall more in love on the spot? I absolutely would. This book made me fall in love with the characters, but it also made me fall in love with their romance itself.
8: The Political Commentary
“One does not foster a lifelong love of Star Wars without knowing an “empire” isn’t a good thing.”
I’ll be honest, if you don’t like competent politicians, low key dumping on Mitch McConnell, and awareness of the damage the British Empire did, you probably won’t love this. It’s not a conservative perspective, and it’s very distinctly anti-imperialist. There’s a lot of the book that focuses on what people do with the power they have, and why they might want that power. It’s honestly really great, because the frustrating real life issues of politics, while they are still mentioned, aren’t the entire story or focus, even though politics is a huge part of the book. It’s balanced so well, and I truly love it.
9: The Genre
“Given the choice, he’d rather read one of the hundreds of glowing pieces of fan fiction about him on the internet, the up-to-eleven version of himself with devastating charm and unbelievable physical stamina, but June flat-out refuses to read those aloud to him, no matter how much he tries to bribe her.”
I used to love to read YA novels. I loved them, because they were about people my age, at points of life similar to mine. I still love YA novels, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a part of me that sits in the back of my head whining about how I’m not in high school anymore and so that’s not really something I relate to anymore. Red, White and Royal Blue is New Adult fiction, and is centered on people in and just out of college! That’s me! It’s relatable again! It’s a genre I’m still exploring but it’s one I really like, so it definitely is a huge plus for the book overall.
10: The Relatability
“Straight people, he thinks, probably don’t spend this much time convincing themselves they’re straight.”
As someone who had a sexuality crisis while in college, watching Alex come to terms with his bisexuality is the single most hilarious and relatable moment I have ever seen in any media, ever. I have never seen a sexuality crisis that I got more than this one. Things I had experienced and thought in my life showed up nearly verbatim on the page, and it makes me absolutely wild to see my experiences reflected onto the page like that. And it’s not just the sexuality crisis, but all of the interactions between characters are so realistic and well written I just feel like I could have them myself. It’s truly a mark of a good book to have every moment be relatable, and Red, White and Royal Blue achieves it.