“Red, White & Royal Blue” — Casey McQuiston’s Take On Love

We are coming to the end of 2019 and we are in the world of the America’s First family which has a Mexican woman from Texas as the President. The moment you read that premise, you know you are in a story, which will bring a smile on your face.

Red, White and Royal Blue written by Casey McQuiston is a book surrounding two boys Alex, son of America’s President and Henry, the Royal Prince of Wales who fall in love.

McQuiston brings to us an issue which history has repeatedly reminded us of and sometimes we have seen it or sometimes we have turned a blind eye to it.

In McQuiston’s world, we have a female Mexican-American president, a progressive woman, which is unimaginable in today’s scenario, but she does not let us forget that this world, though imaginary, has the same struggles, the same ideologies, and the same history, and so, this is also the same world, which will find it hard to accept that the son of the president of the USA and the prince of England are in love.

The problems are same, the struggles are same, but what brings one closer to the characters in any world, real or imaginary, is LOVE.

McQuiston writes about sexuality and romance in the most comical way and how homosexuals have the same love hormones that heterosexuals have for each other. The raw expression of love, in its purest form, takes us through the roller coaster ride of how somewhere the entitled and the privileged do have to and have given up a lot as we see our LGBTQ history.

McQuiston builds a fine narrative of Alex and Henry on how their love blossoms and at the same time they are more than what the world sees.

McQuiston gives us a perspective of the other characters that is of the sisters and brothers of Alex and Henry living in the first families but chooses to put her entire focus on Alex and Henry instead.

Alex is a character you wouldn’t like much in the beginning but when he lets his guard down for love, he takes us through an amazing journey. I felt Henry’s character could have been explored more but more often than not the narrator of the book is Alex telling us about lives of people around him. Henry deserved a lot more space in the book, I believe.

Nevertheless, this book is going to be one of the most loved love stories of 2019.

McQuiston gives us her take on what love does to one and what one can do for love.

If you have read love stories of heterosexual couples and want to explore a new kind of love story, this book is for you.

(Article Submitted by Sukaina, The Night Reader @ Instagram: @thenightreader.28)