skygiants: Drosselmeyer's old pages from Princess Tutu, with text 'rocks fall, everyone dies, the end' (endings are heartless)
[personal profile] skygiants
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 ...

Date: 2019-06-29 05:45 pm (UTC)
sovay: (Rotwang)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2019-06-30 12:14 am (UTC)
evewithanapple: agron looks incredulous and exasperated | letsey_x @ lj (spar | the border lines we drew)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2019-06-29 05:59 pm (UTC)
dimestore_romeo: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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!

Date: 2019-06-30 11:11 am (UTC)
aella_irene: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2019-06-30 12:45 pm (UTC)
aella_irene: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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*

Date: 2019-06-30 12:47 pm (UTC)
dimestore_romeo: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2019-06-29 09:03 pm (UTC)
happydork: A graph-theoretic tree in the shape of a dog, with the caption "Tree (with bark)" (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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. :/

Date: 2019-06-29 10:19 pm (UTC)
bookblather: A picture of Yomiko Readman looking at books with the text "bookgasm." (Default)
From: [personal profile] bookblather
I'm gonna read it and hope for a Neverending Story outcome. Wish me luck and I'll drag you all after me.

Date: 2019-06-30 12:10 am (UTC)
evewithanapple: jack and katherine stand on the rooftop | <lj user="evewithanapple"</lj> (newsies | put it in all of the papers)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2019-06-30 11:14 am (UTC)
aella_irene: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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)

Date: 2019-06-30 11:33 am (UTC)
bcgphoenix: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2019-06-30 03:57 pm (UTC)
meganbmoore: (Default)
From: [personal profile] meganbmoore
It SOUNDS like a delightful fanfic but but awkward original fiction.

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