skygiants | (no subject)

I've read a lot of books by former fandom authors in my time, but Casey McQuiston's Red, White and Royal Blue managed to give me a more consistent impression that I'd accidentally downloaded a 100k fic off the AO3 to read on my Kobo but forgotten which cute CW leads it was supposed to be an AU of than anything I've ever read before. Bug or feature, depending on your personal taste!

The plot: Alex is the photogenic, media-savvy son of the current (female) President of the United States; Harry is the differently photogenic and media-savvy grandson of the Queen of England. At first, Alex thinks that he hates Harry and Harry hates him, which leads to a mild international incident and an order for the two of them to pretend to be best friends for the media! which in short order reveals their inevitable sublimated attraction! which in short order leads to a TOP SECRET PR NIGHTMARE RELATIONSHIP!

PR nightmare bonus points: Alex's mom is currently running for re-election against a standard-issue Republican nightmare, and Alex is heavily involved with her campaign! meanwhile, Harry is closeted by royal family mandate! (Alex starts out the book considering himself as straight but works through that with relative speed.)

Important side characters include Alex's quippy and supportive sister and their bisexual best friend, the VP's daughter, who taken together form a triumphant photogenic and media-savvy White House Millenial Trio; Harry's quippy and supportive royal sister with a Scandalous Past and their significantly stuffier, less quippy, and less supportive royal brother; Alex's supportive politician dad (divorced); Alex's morally ambiguous Senatorial mentor; various assistants and bodyguards; and, of course, the President of the United States.

Every younger character (except Harry's stuffy brother) is funny, likable, and woke, with the ability to spout pop culture references whenever the plot may call for them. Every older character (except Harry's stuffy relatives and the Republican nightmare) is intelligent, perceptive, tolerant, and cool. The world in which this all takes place has no Brexit and no Trump, and although fiction tips the hat to reality at a number of key points -- email servers, last-minute scandals, election-night nail-biters -- this is a rom-com and an escapist fantasy and there's no real doubt that love and tolerance are going to triumph over any obstacles in the end.

...which, in all honestly, made it kind of difficult for me at times, and maybe contributed as much as the extremely fandom writing style to that persistent AO3 feeling: it's fix-it fanfic of reality, a shinier and glossier version where everybody on the political stage is pretty and clever and either having their own queer love story or being a supportive side character in someone else's queer love story. I respect the agenda and the choices, and it's all very tropey and readable and not at all intended to feel like salt in the wounds, but there were moments ...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sovay

I respect the agenda and the choices, and it's all very tropey and readable and not at all intended to feel like salt in the wounds, but there were moments ...

I am reminded of friends who stopped being able to watch The West Wing during the W administration.

From:

evewithanapple

There's a podcast running right now, "The West Wing Thing," that basically argues that The West Wing is responsible for the current uselessness of the Democratic party and the general neoliberal-ization of American left-wing politics. I don't know if I entirely agree, but points are certainly made.

From:

skygiants

For sure - honestly, I've been sort of meaning to rewatch Parks and Rec but I'm even wary of that.

From:

dimestore_romeo

I found this very fun and tropey, but the one thing that was super difficult to get past was how bad the British stuff was? The details, the slang, the cultural mindsets? The presidential family was much more layered, but the royal family was poorly done.

Aside from that - felt super AO3, super indulgent, blasted through the whole thing in a night and generally had a good time!

From:

skygiants

hahahaha omg, the poor one-note-apiece British royal family! I spent a lot of the book wondering what specifically the real world Queen Liz II had done to annoy the author so much that she inexplicably became the novel's final boss villain...

From:

aella_irene

The names because I'm sorry but Prince Philip a) exists and b) is 97. Princess Beatrice also exists. Prince Harry is in fact legally Prince Henry. I have read thinly veiled RPF where they've made more of an effort with the names.

From:

skygiants

a.) in the author's faint defense, there is a relatively short list of Approved British Monarchy Names

b.) that said, you will notice that throughout this review and comments section I completely forgot that technically the book calls him 'Prince Henry' and it's not just straight-up Prince Harry fanfiction

From:

aella_irene

Okay, but the thing is, Philip isn't one of them. If they don't have a Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark marrying in, there's no reason for anyone to be called Philip! (This may be one of those things that I don't need to obsess over, but I demand internal logic). *pours one out for the Royal Wedding Romance in which the hero was called Richard and had the middle name Leopold because there was a clear divergence point and line of descent*

From:

dimestore_romeo

YES this was nightmarish! I was getting so confused and kept mixing the characters up with the royals with the actual names and got mega grumpy, and the Philip thing was ridiculous.

From:

happydork

Huh, that is so good to know! It's been on my radar for a while, and I had it in the back of my mind as a good comfort read, but maybe not so much, given the givens. :/

From:

skygiants

I mean, I think everyone's feelings about whether it's successfully escapist or not will vary (and the American political stuff is, uh, definitely SIGNIFICANTLY more fleshed out than the British stuff; what's going on in British politics? who knows! who cares! Prince Harry's donating lots of money to charity and the tabloids are into it, that's nice! prime minister what prime minister?) buuuut yeah. When Alex's emails to Harry got got his mother embroiled in a private email server scandal right before the election I just had to put the book down for a bit.

From:

bookblather

I'm gonna read it and hope for a Neverending Story outcome. Wish me luck and I'll drag you all after me.

From:

skygiants

GODSPEED

From:

evewithanapple

This is, I think, a problem with any kind of lighthearted story that has a political backdrop (this, and Long Shot) - by itself, it's a cute story! But asking your audience to believe in a world where politics can be good and people are kind and want the best for everyone is just too big of a stretch right now. Maybe we'll never get there again. I don't know.

From:

skygiants

Yeeeeah. It would be nice to think there's a time in the future where such a thing will feel plausible again, where the suspension of disbelief won't be absolutely too much to deal with, but now --

From:

aella_irene

I took a look at this, and I just couldn't, not least because I felt weird about the Presidential Family being The Best and the Royal Family being The Worst, and not both sides being...sometimes good, sometimes bad, ultimately human. Also, I cringed at Alex thinking Henry is The Worst because Henry is...professionally polite? And then shoving him into a cake. Henry is not the bad guy here!

(Also the names were an issue.)

Edited Date: 2019-06-30 11:15 am (UTC)

From:

skygiants

HAHAHAHA yeah, Alex's absolutely out-of-control dislike of Henry at the beginning [Because Of Sublimated Lust] is ... well, again, it's very fanfic-tropey in a way that it's harder to believe actual humans behave, or at least not actual humans with constant experience of being in the public eye and wearing Professional Faces.

(iirc it is later revealed that the reason Alex is SO angry is because once, after their first meeting during a stressful day, Henry asked if his bodyguard could get Alex away from him and therefore Alex thinks Henry dislikes him, which seems ... like a very personal take ..... for someone in the public eye who is disliked by THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME.)

From:

bcgphoenix

Yeah, ngl, normally this is the kind of thing I would've eaten up like CAKE...back in early 2015 when the mere thought of politics didn't make me want to scream and never stop. Maybe I'll grab it in a few years! But right now...yeah.

From:

skygiants

It would have been so much easier if everything just took place in a thinly-veiled fantasy world where it was all fantasy politics and I didn't have to deal with seeing actual horrible politicians' names occasionally dropped into text!