If you’ve been reading TCR for a while, maybe you remember this article that I wrote (almost three years ago, woah). I reviewed one of my favorite novels ever, One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, one of my favorite authors ever. Here it is if you haven’t read it!
Since then, McQuiston has published two novels, including one released this past summer called The Pairing. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but here’s a little taste of what you should expect.
The Pairing starts from the perspective of Theo, a 28-year-old who is finally using their voucher for a European Food and Wine tour in the last possible month of its validity. Four years prior, they broke up with their childhood friend and lover, 28-year-old Kit, on a flight from Los Angeles to London, where the tour would have started. Theo has finally started to move on, but Kit just so happened to use his voucher on the same tour. Cue awkward interactions, entertaining fellow tour members, and a competition between the former bisexual partners on who can hook up with the most people in foreign cities while on the tour. Halfway through the novel, the perspective switches to Kit’s, which is a device that McQuiston does not usually employ in their novels, but one that I enjoyed.
Along the way, readers meet the other eclectic tour group members and slowly learn how Kit and Theo broke up in the first place. The characters are fun and extremely nuanced, so it’s nice to absorb information mixed with the present-day action, which takes place throughout the three-week tour.
Sounds chaotic, right? Well, yes, it is. But McQuiston is nothing if not a well-timed humor machine, so somehow it all balances out. One thing I will say, though, is that if you don’t understand the technicalities of being a sommelier or a pastry chef, you may get a little lost at times (like me). I appreciate how knowledgeable the characters are in their respective fields, but wine is pretty boring to me, and this wasn’t quite engaging enough for me to follow everything. However, in terms of niche special interests, they are well-researched and well-integrated into the story.
On a different note, I’d like to return to one point I made in my One Last Stop review because I was onto something then that I think rings true in this novel as well. McQuiston does a fantastic job inserting themselves and their experiences into their characters, while also telling the stories and starting discourse that need to be circulating. In One Last Stop, it’s sapphic relationships and queer activism in the 1970s. In The Pairing, it’s non-binary relationships, and how exploring gender identity and coming out can be extremely difficult for people. I think the way Theo comes out to Kit in the novel as non-binary (yes, minor spoiler, my apologies) is well-handled, and it’s a very necessary example in literature of representation that is sorely lacking in relationships that include non-binary characters. I hope this is a start in the right direction for the rom-com genre.
Ultimately, while this is not my favorite novel of McQuiston’s, their writing is masterful as usual, and the charm of these characters and the stunning descriptions of Europe won me over. I give The Pairing 4.5 out of 5 stars!
TL;DR: European Food and Wine Tour + Estranged Exes Reuniting = Masterpiece.
Senior Emily Hanson is the Managing Editor of The College Reporter. Her email is ehanson@fandm.edu.