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In One Last Stop, we follow August, a bi, 23 year old student and recent New York transplant trying to find her place in the city. As she gets acclimated to her new job as a waitress, her eccentric new roommates, and school she grapples with her own personal feelings of displacement. On one of those days where nothing seems to be going right, August spills coffee all over herself before her first class of the semester. On her Q train commute she meets a hot mysterious girl named Jane who gifts her a red scarf in her time of need. Soon, Jane becomes the best part of August’s daily commute until eventually August considers that maybe it’s not just luck and something more supernatural is at play after months of the two always sharing the same train, and the same train car without fail!

The story moves from here as we navigate August and Jane’s growing relationship as well as trying to solve the mystery that keeps Jane, a riot girl from the 70s, trapped on this particular train line forever.

THE PROS

JANE FUCKING SU
Jane Su, aka the new love of life! She was such an icon, so nuanced and beautiful and endearing. She was suave and cheesy, and adorable and vulnerable. She was so strong and brave, angry, hurting and she was fucking wonderful. What a magnificent character.

THE ROOMMATES
The found family dynamic between August and her new roommates —Niko, a latinx trans man and psychic, Myla, a black engineer/artist, and Wes, a quiet tattoo artist and man of few words —was sooo great. Their dynamic was just so fun and comforting and these characters were so interesting I was dying to know about them particularly Wes because he has such a cute romantic subplot 😩🙌🏽

THE WRITING + Queer History
Casey Mcquiston is very gifted at writing character interactions and I feel like all tge interactions between August and her roommates, August and Jane etc, were all so fun, and occasionally emotional depending on the moment. Mcquiston just writes great dialogue in my opinion and I loved how the writing flowed, a nice mix of poetic introspection and easy, balanced dialogue. I also want to say I love how queer history was woven into this story particularly the inclusion of the Upstairs Lounge fire in ��73. It made the whole time travel gimmick feel very grounded and necessary

THE ROMANCE
Okay this is story was really good at investing me in the chemistry between Jane and August. If there’s one things sapphics have, it’s the ability to yearn™️ and the emotional yearning between these two was top tier but this story also delivered when it came to the sex scenes and I appreciated that so much. Sapphics deserve! And Jane Su my god 😩 what a legend! The butch queen we needed in sapphic lit. The sex scenes were fun and the story was so sex positive I lived!

THE CONS
August...
okay i feel bad saying this is a con because I don’t dislike august in fact she sorta grew on me eventually HOWEVER I felt that alll the other characters felt infinitely more interesting than her. She just felt so dry in comparison to all the other people in this story so at slower parts of the narrative I felt bored cuz August could not carry the story alone. Since it took me a while to warm up to August I was left feeling a bit detached from the story at the beginning

The concept of the whole oh no jane’s stuck on the subway mystery was very cool but at times i did feel slighted that we don’t truly know what her and August’s relationship would be like off the train (tho there is a very nice epilogue style chapter that shows some of it) i was dying for more moments of Jane acclimating to modern society

Overall this was a really nice, incredibly queer story that I’d be glad to revisit because some of these characters have my heart 💗