This is going to be one of those books I read again and again isn't it? Somehow, McQuiston managed to create this beautiful family, made of messy little humans, a subway line, and pancakes. Yes, this book mainly centers around two women falling in love, but it's also an ensemble book. I wish I could go to the all parties mentioned in this book because they are pure chaos.
August is a relatably awkward character, someone I either am or want to be friends with. Jane would terrify me. Jane would haunt me. I would be in love with Jane, too. Can I run away to New York City and live under a Popeyes and fall in love with a subway ghost?


The senses are used to paint a New York City that can only belong to Jane and August and somehow, we get to experience it, too. The crackly music on the radio, the textures of fabric, the smell of waffle cones and maple syrup, the taste of dollar slices and dumplings and strawberry milkshake poptarts and the softness shorn hair. This book is poetic, but not in language. It's poetic in that it lets you feel, see, smell, taste everything.


CW: Clairvoyance, seance, natural disaster, memory loss, gentrification, anxiety, masturbation, on page sex, drinking, drugs, internalized homophobia, homophobia, arson, profanity, death of family members, missing person, riots/ protests, violence, food descriptions.