“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.”
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is a funny, quirky, and heart-stopping rom-com between Alex, First Son of the US, and Henry, Prince of Wales. Set in an alternate timeline where the USA has elected its first female president, succeeding President Obama, and a slightly different royal family in England, this is mixed-media novel made up of insightful writing, witty text messages, and soul-baring emails to bring this trans-continential love story to life. Told in third-person from Alex’s point-of-view against the backdrop of the months leading up to the 2020 election, you get to experience his unhealthy work ethic, his hilariously relatable sexuality crisis, and a beautifully rendered slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance that takes place over the course of a year.
“I thought, this is the most incredible thing I have ever seen, and I had better keep it a safe distance away from me. I thought, if someone like that ever loved me, it would set me on fire. And then I was a careless fool, and I fell in love with you anyway. When you rang me at truly shocking hours of the night, I loved you. When you kissed me in disgusting public toilets and pouted in hotel bars and made me happy in ways in which it had never even occurred to me that a mangled-up, locked-up person like me could be happy, I loved you. And then, inexplicably, you had the absolute audacity to love me back. Can you believe it?”
McQuiston’s debut novel is stunning. Her words perfectly capture and deliver what her characters feel. You read about Alex’s family, and how their breaking apart and coming together makes him the man he is. You learn about Henry’s soul, and how his heart is battered and bruised and caged away, but still all-encompassing and worthy of the love he shys away from. Alex’s constant snark and Henry’s sporadic bursts of vitriol provide a light-hearted humour to their burgeoning romance, but it’s the scripture that is their emails in which McQuiston has truly outdone herself. They discuss nothing and everything. They share anecdotes, worries, lines written by others before them to express just how they’re feeling. They talk about the great big world and the even bigger presence of history, and how everyone fits into this constantly moving life. Watching the way these characters grow with help from each other and the others around them, and the marvelous way these correspondences are written, you will definitely begin to believe in that fickle little thing called love.
“That’s the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose.”
