One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is an inclusive LGBTQIA+ romance with a touch of fantastical experiences added to it. In comparison to McQuiston's famous work Red, White, & Royal Blue, which is a dramatic romance, One Last Stop shows the struggles and victories of love that is found in tight and unknown spaces, along with a recurring theme of finding community, peace, and true love with people far away, whether it is by time period or by distance. Published in 2021, McQuiston introduces main character August Landry, a twenty-three-year-old bisexual with the hunch that moving to New York will change her life and take her down the right path, and she doesn't mind if that means her literal career path or her love life. August then meets Jane Su, the punk rock lesbian girl of her dreams, and someone who has been mystically and confusingly stuck on a running train since the 70s. Through trials of hardship and love, August tries her hardest to aid Jane in gaining her identity and memories back along with battling her own problems with love and family.
While One Last Stop presents a swoonful, sweet love full of sacrifices, it also shows a story full of queer pride. The other characters that are friends and family to August and Jane are all queer, and throughout the book small stories of their pasts bring awareness of LGBTQIA+ struggles. Through these small stories, I learned of the protests working for lesbian rights in the 70s from Jane, the complex thought processes and confusion of "who do I love?" through August, and the impacts unaccepting, ignorant, neglectful parents can cause to any child that is different than the "norm" from the story of August's uncle.
One Last Stop is written in August's perspective, and while there are times where the story breaks down Jane's, the book leaves a missed opportunity to dive into Jane's perspective, thoughts, and feelings about her not-really-a-life and August. Also, the story of One Last Stop includes characters of different sexualities, races, and social classes, and while the stories of those characters were very well-written, one of the opportunities McQuiston missed was to connect the individual backgrounds and cultures to the stories the characters tell. For example, even though it is mentioned that Jane's family was from a traditional Cantonese immigrant family, the book didn't dive into how that affected her own personal battles with her sexuality and identity.
However, because of the diversity of the book, minorities off all sorts will be able to feel comfort from One Last Stop. As a queer Asian-American myself, it was incredibly comforting to read about Jane, a character with the same family dynamic as mine, and August, a person who struggles with their sexuality; All. The. Time. The diversity of McQuiston's writing is definitely one of the most notable and praiseworthy parts in all of her works.
A book that paints a bustling NYC subway as a first-love location, One Last Stop's wholesome, fantastical, and diverse love story is enough to make any reader happy with the outcome.
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