12.25 hours
English language
Published June 1, 2021 by Macmillan Audio.
For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.
But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.
Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. …
For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.
But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.
Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.
Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.
Content warning Spoilers ahead
This book was amazing. I love that the author writes books that she wishes she would've had available while she was growing up. It brings me profound joy to see somebody who escaped the confines of evangelicalism, and even better when that person's success yields books that are as delightful as this one.
I was so excited about this fun queer romance, but unfortunately I just couldn't get behind it. I'm not sure if my tastes have just changed since reading McQuinston's RWRB a few years ago, but I hated the writing style. I found myself editing in my head while reading this one. I even noticed a sentence missing a period. 🫠
I certainly didn't have expectations of exceptional prose for One Last Stop - I was just there for a good time. But, the style was too clunky for me to enjoy it.
This gave me some Big Feels.
It's been a few years since I was on a big trans lit kick (Nevada, He Mele A Hilo, The Masker, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones, a few others I can't recall the exact titles for rn), and I think I forgot what it feels like to feel queer resonance with a work.
The romance here, the descriptions of emotions, touches and responses to touch, intimacy, sex… there were many moments that I read through a film of tears. It felt Good.
But as the book wore on, some of the cracks around the edges started to feel more Significant. In particular, the politics of this world rang hollow for me, to the point of taking away from the rest of the plot some. It is extremely painful for me to watch queerness become deradicalised and more domesticated—more acceptable to cishet, patriarchal, Liberal …
This gave me some Big Feels.
It's been a few years since I was on a big trans lit kick (Nevada, He Mele A Hilo, The Masker, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones, a few others I can't recall the exact titles for rn), and I think I forgot what it feels like to feel queer resonance with a work.
The romance here, the descriptions of emotions, touches and responses to touch, intimacy, sex… there were many moments that I read through a film of tears. It felt Good.
But as the book wore on, some of the cracks around the edges started to feel more Significant. In particular, the politics of this world rang hollow for me, to the point of taking away from the rest of the plot some. It is extremely painful for me to watch queerness become deradicalised and more domesticated—more acceptable to cishet, patriarchal, Liberal society. To become a "Blue State" thing. I think this book wants to be radical, but it ends up feeling like a performance of radical politics to me by the end, rather than imagining a fundamental shift to how we live, relate, share, exchange, and—yes—fuck. And I think that lack of fundamental reimagining bleeds into the rest of the text in places, and… I dunno. This kind of thing is Important to me, so it was tough when it fell short. It just felt… very NYC at times.
I'll write a more detailed review in a reply to this review if anyone's interested in particular criticisms; I wanted to keep this spoiler-free.
In any case, fucking good feels when they hit. Pretty interesting scifi or whatever kinds of elements. The pacing was solid, it moved along and kept me reading. It breezed along, was full of beautiful snapshots and gut punch emotional moments, and it was good to read a text with a lot of happy queers—even in hard times. It just… has some weird shit going on that I couldn't ignore.
I really enjoyed this book. It's a love story, but it's also a story about friendship, the LGBTQ+ rights movement, self-worth, breaking toxic patterns, and so on.
Every chapter is packed with information. There are lots of side plots along with the main one and there's no filler at all. This can be a little overwhelming since there are not many scenes to just breathe, so I'm glad that I took ten days to read this.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in LGBTQ fiction, you can tell there's a lot of heart in this, and it's hard because LGBTQ history is, but it's worth reading and it's necessary.
Es lohnt sich, das Hörbuch (Berliner Bibs haben es) zu hören ohne vorher auch nur ein Wort über den Inhalt zu lesen um Spoiler zu vermeiden.
War das 1. Hörbuch das ich freiwillig gehört habe, da die Sprecherin nicht nervig oder monoton war, sondern wirklich angenehm. Die Story ist angenehm und inspirierend, wenn natürlich auch cheesy hoch drölf und voller Plotholes. Trotzdem eine sympathische, lesBIsche Butch/Femme Romanze mit vielen queeren Charas, Community und Detektiv_innen-Aspekt. Allein die ausführlichen Sexszenen hätte es für mich nicht gebraucht, auch wenn diese tatsächlich erfrischend wenig cringy waren.
I somehow missed that this was going to have a paranormal element—the protagonist’s love interest really is stuck on the Q—and I didn’t love that element. But I liked the characters and the sex scenes were good and I would definitely date a 1970s punk dyke
I finally finished a book! It was fine for what it is, but it’s definitely not my kind of book.
This was extremely sweet and spicy and the time travel elements had the feeling of an 80s action movie plot, I really enjoyed it.
Purchasable
https://audiobookstore.com/audiobooks/one-last-stop.aspx.