Once you get going you won’t want to stop
Bella Fraei is a Wellington teenager who reviews YA books. This week: Red, White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston’s first published book, Red, White & Royal Blue, follows the romance trope of enemies to lovers and forbidden love because of where they come from. More importantly, it shows the journey of a slowly built love between two young adults who are figuring out themselves and how they want to fit into the world. Alex is the first son of the United States, and Henry is a British prince.
Alex and Henry have a very captivating relationship, because of the abominable start they get off to, when accidentally both end up toppling into Henry’s brother’s $75,000 wedding cake. The two are made to do damage control for a weekend and act like they are best friends. This slowly turns into them being legitimate friends. Then at one of Alex’s famous New Year’s parties their feelings start to unravel; but that’s only the beginning. I thought it was sweet and unique how they send each other intense and romantic/lustful emails — it’s like a modern way of sending love letters.
I loved this book because the author created a whole new world and included things that bother people, things for which people get discriminated against or that are unusual, and made them all possible by bringing them into the light. For instance, the concept of having a female president, because this has obviously never happened before, an openly gay Latino senator and a gay prince.
These things aren’t as uncommon in New
Zealand as we are slightly more progressive but they are still real problems that it was good to observe being written down for the world to see.
My favourite character is Princess Beatrice
(or just Bea), Henry’s older sister. She is always supportive of Henry and stands up for what’s right but isn’t overly dramatic. She knows how to take a joke and is often the sensible one in party situations. Bea had a tough time for a while when her father died after becoming addicted to cocaine, but she overcame the shame of it. Bea is cool and gives off a rock ’n’ roll princess vibe as well as being very composed at the same time. She plays a large role in helping Alex and Henry come out to the Queen.
The book delves into some pretty deep feelings and doesn’t shy away from hard situations — like when Henry blocks himself off from the world and behaves stubbornly rude or arrogant. This is not spoken outwardly but it can be inferred as depression. Alex also gets high anxiety, particularly when he has taken on too many things, becomes worried about everything and feels helpless. As his sister June states a few times, “Sometimes you have
The author created a whole new world and included things that bother people, things that people get discriminated against or that are unusual and made them all possible by bringing them into the light.
a fire under your ass for no good goddamn reason. You’re gonna burn out like this.”
This is an important lesson to just take a chill pill and not rush into everything.
The story could have been less mushy and cringy in some parts. I love romance novels but sometimes it’s a bit much. The political aspect got really confusing, but it did help me learn a few new words. I didn’t enjoy it when they went on for pages talking politically, because it was hard to understand what was going on.
Near the end is when the majority of the more exciting stuff happens and my favourite part was when Nora (Alex’s best friend and the vicepresident’s granddaughter) discovers that Alex and Henry were outed in a really horrible way, for political reasons. I love mystery and this was a satisfying surprise and compelling plot twist.
Overall, I give this book a 9/10. It was fun to read and I wanted to keep reading it. I would recommend it to my friends. It is more suited for 14-year-olds and onwards as there is drinking, drunkenness, mention of drugs, lots of sex, and kissing. There’s frequent swearing and the politics can get confusing.
I think the main lesson is not to judge a book by its cover or expect the worst from anybody without knowing what’s going on for them.
See Bella’s Books video on nzherald.co.nz Stream the LGBTQ love story, Red, White & Royal Blue on Prime Video.