Book Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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“Red, White & Royal Blue” is a queer “millennial” romantic comedy between the U.S. female President’s son Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry of England.

Buy “Red, White & Royal Blue”

“Red, White & Royal Blue” follows the fake friendship between Alex Claremont-Diaz, the U.S. President’s son, and Prince Henry of England, who happen to be nemeses. A confrontational picture of the two at a wedding makes the tabloid, resulting in Alex and Henry having to reclaim their disastrous narrative by becoming diplomatic friends to save Alex’s mother’s electoral campaign… but they accidentally become lovers instead.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of “Red, White & Royal Blue.”

It just kept on going in circles and it saddens me to say that I didn’t feel much of a connection to these characters. I’m not saying that I don’t like an LGBTQIA+ novel with a happy ending, but it just feels like everything was handed too conveniently to Alex Clairmont-Diaz.

And as for the language employed in this book… it was abysmal. Who the hell talks like that? They talk like millennial confused Gen-Z preteens on the Internet but they’re clearly in their early 20s having sex…. It just created so much cognitive dissonance while reading.

It reads like YA but the content is adult, new adult at the very least.

There’s no real growth or connection. All the side characters feel like cardboard characters enabling the main character, only being there to move the plot along. They urge Alex to face his feelings rather than have him understand and fail on his own when building the foundation of his relationship with the Prince of England.

It just felt so bland and cheesy? Corny? Forced? As I said, the target audience of this book is questionable.

Not to mention that the book could’ve been half of its original size which is the same critique I had with the first Casey McQuiston book I had read last year, “One Last Stop.” I preferred “One Last Stop,” and no, it’s not just because I am a bisexual woman. The stakes were higher and the characters felt more fleshed out.

As for the “Red, White & Royal Blue” movie, it wasn’t much different but at least it didn’t meander aimlessly for too long. Unfortunately, I am unsure if I will give Casey McQuiston a third chance.

“Okay, so,” Alex says. “Yeah. So here’s what we’re gonna do.

You are gonna go be, like, five hundred feet away from me for the rest of the night, or else I am going to do something that I will deeply regret in front of a lot of very important people.”

“All right …”

“And then,” Alex says, and he grabs Henry’s tie again, close to the knot, and draws his mouth up to a breath away from Henry’s. He hears Henry swallow. He wants to follow the sound down his throat. “And then you are going to come to the East Bedroom on the second floor at eleven o’clock to-night, and I am going to do very bad things to you, and if you fucking ghost me again, I’m going to get you put on a fucking no-fly list. Got it?”

Henry bites down on a sound that tries to escape his mouth, and rasps, “Perfectly.” (p. 134)

“I fucking love you, okay?” Alex half yells, finally, irreversibly.

Henry goes very still against the mantelpiece. Alex watches him swallow, watches the muscle that keeps twitching in his jaw, and feels like he might shake out of his skin. “Fuck, I swear.

You don’t make it fucking easy. But I’m in love with you.” A small click cuts the silence: Henry has taken his signet ring off and set it down on the mantel. He holds his naked hand to his chest, kneading the palm, the flickering light from the fire painting his face in dramatic shadows. “Do you have any idea what that means?” (p. 271)

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