4.5/5 stars
oh my goodness my face is covered in tears still and I'm just so happy but omg Sarah J Maas owns my soul (long ass review coming your way)

i had very high expectations going into this experience (rwrb is my all-time favorite novel) and was not disappointed at all — in fact, i think it exceeded my wildest dreams. casey mcquiston has managed to somehow write a subway-located time travel mystery love story with drag queens and pancakes and pocket knives and lost relatives that, at the end of it, makes you feel like the world is better because of a purple paperback. (was that too deep? oh well. fuck it.) i loved every second of this. i loved every character, every line of dialogue, every joke and beautiful quote. i loved august with her prickly exterior and veronica mars vibes and acts of service. i loved jane and her tattoos and her insane sweet tooth and her good heart. i loved wes and myla and niko and isaiah (annie depressant owns my soul from now on) and every minor character who added a little bit of light to this story. please read this book so you, too, can feel happy and laugh and scream with me about it.

i’m not normally a fan of late additions to series with aged-up characters (the penderwicks, i am Looking at you), but this was genuinely fun to read !! (i picked this up after starting the disney+ adaptation, which is off to a good start.) the fact that there was literally one line about romance between characters (mentioned with disdain!!) and then the plot continued to move forward with the same banter, spunk and twist as before was definitely important to that. while i don’t think this novel is vital to the series as a whole and that the main trilogy is perfect on its own, it doesn’t take away from its predecessors — it brings back what readers loved so much about them in the first place.