![]() What follows is a kind of queer bodice-ripper for the Trump era, a novel whose political fantasies feature as prominently as its romantic escapades. His feelings for Henry, however, give him reason to reconsider, and soon he comes out as bisexual. Henry is gay and knows it, but Alex has always thought of himself as straight. Though the handsome young men begin the novel appearing to hate each other, their relationship shifts when Prince Henry kisses Alex on a snowy New Year’s Eve in the Kennedy Garden. Prince Henry (full name: Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor) is much more measured and guarded - a Jane Austen lover with a smile “made to be printed on money.” Alex Claremont-Diaz, whose mother is running for a second term for president, is sharp, passionate, and eager to kick-start his own political career. Red, White & Royal Blue concerns a rivalry-turned-romance between the Prince of Wales and the First Son of the United States. And yet, while reading this propulsive, pulpy rom-com, I couldn’t help but imagine how much my younger self might’ve enjoyed it - how it represents a whole category of books that might’ve helped fill the literary drought of my adolescence. Casey McQuiston’s debut novel isn’t marketed at teenagers, and its sexual content would likely make many parents uncomfortable. ![]() What would it have meant to encounter a book like Red, White & Royal Blue in high school? A great deal, I suspect. This was to say nothing of the YA titles I encountered, which presented visions of the world so unlike my own, I might as well have been reading science fiction.Īs a kid, books had alleviated my loneliness. To be sure, I enjoyed a few adult books in these years - The Lovely Bones, I Know This Much Is True - but getting through them involved more effort than reading had ever required. If such a novel existed, I couldn’t find it. Piggle-Wiggle: a novel that was entertaining, well made, and vaguely relevant to my life experience as a quiet, nervous high schooler who hadn’t yet figured out he was gay. I wanted the 14-year-old equivalent of Mrs. But the books themselves had something to do with my changing reading habits, too. Partly this was a function of age - now that I was older, I was eager to try on different identities: the theater kid, the flute player. I still loved the Harry Potter books, but few other novels held my attention with the same intensity. I never noticed the page numbers.Īll that changed when I became a teenager. In those days, reading was something I did automatically, with unthinking pleasure. (“I am not telling anyone who is going to die,” she insisted, “but I would like to reassure you that I, too, am exceptionally fond of Hermione.”) Following the publication of the third Harry Potter novel, I wrote Rowling a fan letter she responded by personally addressing my concerns about the fates of certain characters. As I got older, I graduated to authors like Lois Lowry and Sharon Creech, though my favorite writer (naturally) was J. Frank Baum, and Laura Ingalls Wilder were, for me, like air, water, and shelter: necessary for basic functioning. WHEN I WAS A KID, I read books like my life depended on it.
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