Book review: Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Red, White and Royal Blue 

by Casey McQuiston

Finished reading: 09/11/21

My rating: 3/5 stars

“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.”

Red White and Royal Blue is an adult LGBTQ+ enemies-to-lovers romance between Alex, the fictional First Son of the USA, and Henry, the fictional Prince of England. This book has truly taken the online book community by storm. I cannot go online without seeing rave reviews, fan art and quotes from this book. The premise made me smile and I was in the mood for something light and easy going so I decided to give in and finally give it a go.

This book was actually a lot of fun to read! I found myself laughing out loud in a few places. The dialogue was wonderfully witty and sarcastic, and the characters were loveable. I also thought it had really great social commentary about queer history and provided a hopeful message about being on the right side of history. I wasn’t really expecting this from a moderately smutty gay political romance novel, but I was pleasantly surprised! I also really liked the use of emails and news articles and comments sections, these highlighted the celebrity culture of the story and made for a more interesting read.

I see a lot of people rating this book 5 stars and I completely understand why it is so well-loved by so many. I definitely enjoyed reading it but there were a few things that bothered me. Firstly, there was a bit of a cultural barrier. This is an American book written by an American author for American readers and its representation of Britain and British people was very much a stereotypical American perception of Britain. As a British reader, I cringed so much reading this book. It wasn’t necessarily bad or insensitive or offensive, it was just a little too cringey and unrealistic for my liking. Which I realise is a kind of ridiculous thing to criticise from this genre of book, especially considering that I am not exactly the target audience. But there were so many important messages sprinkled throughout this book that I can’t quite understand why the same level of attention wasn’t put into representation. This of course won’t bother the majority of American readers, but it frustrates me a little that this book is playing apart in perpetuating a false representation of British culture. I am not sure what research McQuiston did into researching the British side of things, but I am fairly certain that a British person was not a part of this process as I’m sure their reaction would be similar to mine. The British characters felt Americanised, and this didn’t sit quite right with me. Similarly, as a British reader, I was a bit lost with the American politics as this is not something I have a great deal of understanding in. Again, I accept I was not the target audience, and I don’t necessarily think this is a fault of the writing, but it did affect my enjoyment of this book.

The plot was also incredibly predictable. I accept that this is perhaps a trope of the genre, but I feel that the premise could have been pushed further than it was. I wanted a little more danger in this forbidden romance, but it felt overly comfortable in my opinion. There just wasn’t enough conflict to drive the plot which led to safe choices. I knew exactly where things were headed and wasn’t surprised to see these unfold. I also thought that there were too many characters. The plot could have been fulfilled by a smaller cast of characters and I’m not sure what purpose many of them served. The conflict resolution in particular was just too neat and tidy and not particularly believable.

All in all, I’m still grateful that this book exists and for the joy that these characters brought me. I can’t say it’s a book I’m likely to read again but in terms of queer literature, I see this being a milestone. Interestingly this book had similarities to the Swedish Netflix drama ‘Young Royals’ and I’m sure the book played some part in inspiring the TV show. I personally preferred Young Royals to Red White and Royal Blue but I think both are interesting in their own right. I hope this book paves the way for more light-hearted queer literature in the future. I am keen to read McQuiston’s second novel One Last Stop as I really enjoyed her writing style and humour and hope this will come across better without the questionable British parts.