About the Book- Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
“You see, for me, memories are difficult. Very often, they hurt. A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they’re inaccessible. You must invent an entirely new system.”
Read on for our review of Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Our Review of Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
I know this book has been loved and cherished by many. I mean they even made a movie based on the book and even that was a success and fan adored. So I might be digging my grave when I say that I didn’t enjoy the book as much as it was hyped up to. On the contrary, I loved the movie because it compiled the best parts of the book and for those who haven’t read the book, I would say that the movie is perfect. well, they have changed a bit of the details in the movie. I think the major miss in the movie was not taking in the character of Alex’s sister June, who is massive in the book and the movie didn’t give her a character. That was a bit disappointing but otherwise, I would say the movie got it all right. It’s weird that for perhaps the first time, I loved a movie adaptation than its original source.
Let’s dig into why I didn’t like the book. The main thing is that the book is more of fillers than actual events and plots. Overall the book has four to five actual plot events and the movie portrayed that and voila it’s complete. So basically what they have shown in the movie is the only things that are happening in the book rest all of them are just plain fillers, the inner workings of the white house, family banters, lovers tiff and make outs ( and a whole lot of it). For me, that meant passing through a lull in the book with nothing much exciting happening.
The book opens with a bang with that whole cake scene and then from thereon, it just takes on a linear path and seems to bring down the pace level to an extreme low then towards the end when something of a spark happens the book is neatly wrapped and bow-tied.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, I would say that the pace of the book is extremely slow not because of some narration technique but simply because it doesn’t have anything much to say or show. So they are simply passing through till something can pass as a plot twist. To my surprise, when they adapted it to the big screen with all the best parts tied in, it actually felt like the perfect Rom-Com. I just wished the book had more substance, events and less fillers. Otherwise, it is a good rom-com but has a dreadful lag in the middle.
Squirrel Rating
