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Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel, by Casey McQuiston (St. Martin’s Griffin, 432 pages) In an idyllic future United States where a Democratic single mom from Texas won the 2016 election, protagonist Alex Claremont-Diaz juggles the responsibilities of being First Son. Finishing his degree at GW is almost secondary to immersing himself in his mother’s reelection campaign and laying the groundwork for his own political career. If only he didn’t have Prince Henry across the pond as a constant (and bland) comparison to his own charming public political persona. Alex finds the comparisons as infuriating as Henry’s perfectly symmetrical face — which he may have used on a dartboard once or twice. After a fight at a royal wedding sends Alex and Henry falling into a $75,000 wedding cake, the two are forced by their respective governments to portray a fake friendship to avoid an international relations scandal. What begins as begrudging social media PR stunt turns into genuine friendship, but neither young leader is quite prepared for that friendship to blossom into romance. Author Casey McQuiston notes that
this story was supposed to be a “tonguein-cheek parallel universe” to what could have been our own election of the first female POTUS. Although McQuiston clearly draws from the media’s morbid fascination with the personal lives of the British royal family and the children of the POTUS, the main characters of Red, White & Royal Blue are certainly not perfect copies of their real-world counterparts. She name-drops some recognizable figures like Malia and Sasha Obama and Alexander Hamilton, but for the most part McQuiston develops refreshingly rich emotional lives for characters decidedly of her own creation. What especially rings true is the pressure of the global spotlight on young adults who are also trying to sort through the problems of average 20-somethings. Not only do Alex and his sister June face intense scrutiny as the children of the first woman president, but they also experience racist scrutiny because they are half Mexican, on their divorced father’s side. (Part of Alex’s aggravation toward Henry is born from the frustration that Alex has to work twice as hard to get half the respect simply because he’s brown.) Then a quarter of the way through the novel, Alex also comes to the realiza-
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THE CALM BEFORE THE SCORE Avery from Massachusetts throws a football around on the beach. Photo by Caleb Jagoda.
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tion that, “Straight people probably don’t spend this much time convincing themselves they’re straight.” The intricacies of Alex’s coming to terms with his bisexuality are portrayed with warm humor. Because he dated girls in the past, he chalks up male crushes to feeling like the heat is on too high or thinking Justin Trudeau is a powerful public speaker. Everyone discovers their sexuality at their own pace, but perhaps Alex would have noticed a tip on the Kinsey scale sooner if notable gay historical figures were taught in schools, so McQuiston uses Alex and Henry’s email correspondence as an opportunity to shed light on queer erasure from American and British history. Alex and Henry share their favorite quotes from famous LGBTQ love letters dating from King James (who commissioned the church to translate the Bible to distract them from his boyfriend, George Villiers), to Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok. McQuiston breathes new life into established rom-com tropes with this man-loves-man romance: going from enemies to lovers, getting stuck in a closet together, and arguing until they share a passionate kiss. Readers will be cheering on Alex and Henry to make it work despite all odds. (And living on different continents, keeping up global responsibilities, and adhering to hundreds of years of political decorum are some odds.) Red, White & Royal Blue succeeds as a fun romp with witty dialogue and an optimistic happy ending. It shows us how you can’t always plan how your life will turn out, but you can certainly embrace the person you’ll become. A — Katherine Ouellette