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A review by bandysbooks
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
RWARB is one of my favorite books so far this year, so when I saw that Casey McQuiston was coming out with another book, I was beyond excited. I couldn’t even wait to get a physical copy and just scooped it up on audiobook. Maybe allowing myself this much excitement and hype was the problem.
Unfortunately, One Last Stop fell flat for me. The main character and her potential romance are both interesting enough characters and the overall plot concept is cool. My main issues are that the pacing dragged significantly in places and I feel like certain parts were entirely unnecessary to the plot.
Additionally, there was a bit of cringe factor sprinkled into this book. There’s a part where a Lesbian character from the 80s is essentially told that LGBTQA people do not face discrimination or intolerance anymore. I wish that it were true, but it came across as an overly simplistic and untrue answer. Also, there is sort of a weird white savior dynamic going on. I don’t necessarily think that was intentional, but parts of the story do really highlight that.
I will say that I love this author’s attempt to write very diverse characters. Most of the cast is LGBTQA+ and quite a few characters are POC. I applaud that, however, I do wish that more was done to develop them and include them more comprehensively in the actual plot. Most of them show up as very brief character mentions without much actual development.
All in all, I feel like this was an ambitious concept, one that I really wanted to love. Unfortunately, the execution just wasn’t there. I’ll still try Casey McQuiston’s future books, but this has definitely tempered my expectations.
Unfortunately, One Last Stop fell flat for me. The main character and her potential romance are both interesting enough characters and the overall plot concept is cool. My main issues are that the pacing dragged significantly in places and I feel like certain parts were entirely unnecessary to the plot.
Additionally, there was a bit of cringe factor sprinkled into this book. There’s a part where a Lesbian character from the 80s is essentially told that LGBTQA people do not face discrimination or intolerance anymore. I wish that it were true, but it came across as an overly simplistic and untrue answer. Also, there is sort of a weird white savior dynamic going on. I don’t necessarily think that was intentional, but parts of the story do really highlight that.
I will say that I love this author’s attempt to write very diverse characters. Most of the cast is LGBTQA+ and quite a few characters are POC. I applaud that, however, I do wish that more was done to develop them and include them more comprehensively in the actual plot. Most of them show up as very brief character mentions without much actual development.
All in all, I feel like this was an ambitious concept, one that I really wanted to love. Unfortunately, the execution just wasn’t there. I’ll still try Casey McQuiston’s future books, but this has definitely tempered my expectations.