One Last Stop

         

Title: One Last Stop

Author: Casey McQuiston

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, June 1, 2021

Pages: 377

Genre: LGBTQ Romance

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train. 

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

So good even the second time around. I love August and Jane. They are the absolute cutest. Subway Girl and Coffee Girl have such a cute relationship.

I love where this book lives. It is definitely a contemporary sapphic romance. But it is also a little bit sci-fi? There's this level of magical realism to it with Nico and his ESP. Speaking of Nico. The found family in this book is absolute perfection.

Myla and Nico, Isaiah and Wes, and the Billy's Pancakes crew all come together in this beautiful mix of queerness and joy. They're all very weird and somehow perfect for each other.

There are some potentially triggering themes in this book. August's familial dynamics are rough. Her mom has been chasing down the truth of what happened to her older brother for most of her life, and by proxy, August's life. Just like "the case" framed her entire childhood, it carries over into her adulthood as well. For the first 5 years she's officially an adult, she pretty much chooses everything to be the exact opposite of how she was raised. But throughout this book, her arc of finding her way to utilizing the skills she perfected helping her mom with the case, and what she wants to do was really cool to see.

Ratings

Stars: 5/5

Spice: 2/5