Juana Garcia/The Cougar
To follow a debut novel, author Casey McQuiston releases a story in “One Last Stop” that caters to an underrepresented community in romance literature.
Set in New York, the main character August is finding a new place to move to in the city so she could attend a new college. The novel features many side characters, including August’s roommates and co-workers that really give the book life.
Judging by the book’s title of “One Last Stop”, there are many scenes involving the subway stops of New York. It is here where August meets the book’s love interest, Jane.
Jane as a character alone is such an important love interest in the fact that she is an Asian butch lesbian that August becomes infatuated with quite literally at first glance. Not to mention Jane is a character from the 1970s in every way. This includes her fashion, music taste, beliefs and the fact that she has not aged a day since the decade as she has been stuck on a subway train for over 40 years.
In many media platforms and stories to tell, lesbian or bisexual women in relationships are not highlighted, or if they are, only cater to a certain stigma. So, “One Last Stop” is a breath of fresh air for the sapphic community.
With McQuiston’s book, the reader can see a friend group that is not entirely made up of straight or white characters, and it helps paint a picture of what many real friend groups look like in the world today.
And it really is characters like Niko, Myla, Wes and Isaiah who make the book what it is. Their personalities and friendship with August make scenes that are supposed to just be filler before the romance plot so lively and entertaining to read.
The one thing about “One Last Stop” is even if the two main characters are not the biggest personalities in the book, there are still moments that make the reader root for their story.
Some of the scenes between Jane and August can get lost among the others as the setting pretty much stays as the subway train every interaction the characters have. This can have the reader rooting for August to solve Jane’s problem of being stuck on the train, but also have an impatience to when there will finally be a scene change.
A lot of the book is written to solve Jane’s problem and get her off of the train. But, there is a lingering question of if she would go back to the 1970s or if she would stay in the 21st century with August.
Anticipation comes in reading the novel, almost making the ending feel rushed. Those reading want more from the main couple in the book. We only really get a quick montage of what August and Jane’s life is like after Jane is released from the train and staying in the 2000s with August in the last handful of pages.
But with the happy ending the two main characters are given, finishing the book can give the reader a happy and hopeful feel that sometimes is not always the case with these stories.
With a book that was set to follow in McQuiston’s debut novel, ‘Red, White & Royal Blue‘s footsteps, “One Last Stop” was able to hold its own.
Overall, “One Last Stop”does wonders for LGBT literature in creating a story about a woman-love-woman relationship that holds a plot and a clear connection between the main characters.
