by Kelly Keene

Title: One Last Stop

Author: Casey McQuinston

Star rating: 4/5

Synopsis: A young girl named August moves to New York to try and find some purpose to her life, and escape her mother’s obsession with solving a missing persons case. She rents a room with other quirky yet loveable people including an electrical engineer turned sculptor, a psychic, and a night owl with a dog named poodles. August starts school, and works at a local 24 hour pancake house and begins to find family and connection in Brooklyn. She also meets a girl named Jane on the Subway. Jane and her hit it off, but when August takes the leap to ask Jane out, Jane doesn’t show. This is a love story, meets self-discovery, meets time heist mystery. 

Memorable Quote: “The older she’s gotten, the more she prefers thinking of love as a hobby for other people, like rock climbing or knitting. Fine, enviable even, but she doesn’t feel like investing in the equipment.”

“When you spend your whole life alone, it’s incredibly appealing to move somewhere big enough to get lost in. Where being alone looks like a choice.”

*Spoiler Warning*

My take: 

One Last Stop was fun, lively and super relatable. We have all wanted to break out from our families at one time or another, or move somewhere new to try and discover who we are and what we want to be. August’s defensive approach to love, friendships and vulnerability in the beginning are feelings so many heart-break survivors can relate too. I really liked the author’s perspective on the value of moving to a big city and making it your own. I appreciated the normalization of queer relationships, and liked that I fell in love with diverse characters that were complex and so much more than just “a lesbian” or “a drag queen.”  I wanted to eat pancakes, bagels, and popeyes chicken the whole time I read this book.  The descriptions of subway cars and stops also felt real and authentic.  

My one issue with this story was questioning the healthiness of Jane’s and August’s relationship at the back end of the story. Leading up to the attempt to break Jane free of the timeline, Jane felt almost like a pet who was kept in a cage, and August had all the power. Considering that the reader follows August’s perspective throughout the story, the power dynamics don’t feel as off balance, but when we pull back and realize that Jane is someone that August kind of keeps to herself and brings treats to, I start to worry. Jane is from another time period. She was a person who had friends, and family, and a whole life. While it is romantic that she joins August in the future so they can be together, it puts her almost 100% in the safety and care of August. For someone who was so free and never tethered to a long term relationship before getting time warped and confined to the subway, this dependent relationship felt unfair. Knowing that this was the first relationship that August had EVER, it also seemed a bit restrictive for her. She never had a girlfriend before and now she has one that she can NEVER walk away from. That’s intense. Also, poor Jane is waiting and available. All August has to do when she needs Jane is hop on a train, and there Jane is. August, however, is not always readily available. Jane has to wait for her, and is sometimes powerless by comparison.

Overall though, I really enjoyed the book. Dialogue felt authentic, and there was just enough whimsy and steaminess to keep me smiling, laughing and dreaming. I do think I would have appreciated an ending where Jane did go back to her original timeline though. It would have been so sweet if, after losing Jane, August gets a phone call from her uncle Auggie. Then, despite losing her first love, she still gets her uncle back, and that is a gift that Jane made possible for her.