August has moved to NYC to attend yet another college and get away from her mom's issues. Her mom's spent literal decades looking for her missing brother, who's been missing/presumed dead since the 70's. August was brought up with no other family and living the life of Nancy Drew, which she eventually got quite sick of.
In her new NYC life, she acquires some great new queer roommates and a job at the pancake house. And she also gets a crush on the punk girl she spots on the subway. However, Subway Girl turns out to be a mystery of her own. Jane Su is somehow trapped on the Q train in perpetuity--not having to eat or go to the bathroom or sleep, but has been in some kind of weird half-netherworld for decades, operating as kind of an angel on the subway (my interpretation, not authorial) and not really being aware that it's not the 70's any more. Until she meets August, magic happens, and Jane starts to come into more focus.
It's very romantic to be the chosen one who starts helping this hot, sweet girl get her memories back, is what I am saying here. Fortunately, August has DIY PI skills and her roommates include a psychic and a former engineer with tech skills to help solve this incredibly weird semi-metaphysical situation.
Overall I think this is a very well done book. It's an odd situation that's not fully explained but mostly explained as things go on, and I do like how Jane's 70's life actually lined up with things that went on in August's, though I won't get into details here. Their relationship is very sweet and romantic and they agree to be together as long as they can, even if somehow they can magic Jane back to her own timeline (or not). As per her previous book that I've read, the author can sure do awesome, steamy romantic passages, even if I was too lazy to bookmark them as I read on this time :P
About the only thing I can quibble about is one thing that hit me a little personally. There's a slight beta romance going on between August's apartmentmate Wes and their neighbor Isaiah (a.k.a. the drag queen Annie Depressant). Upon meeting Annie, August is told that Annie has been in love with Wes for years, but Wes "has this thing where he's terrified of being loved and refuses to believe he deserves it," so it hasn't gone very far. Then there's this conversation, which hit me in the feels:
"Does it ever, like...I don't know. Make you lonely? To love somebody who can't meet you there?" "Sometimes. But, you know, that feeling?" When you wake up in the morning and you have somebody to think about? Somewhere for hope to go? It's good. Even when it's bad, it's good."
Ah, yes, this is how I feel as well in my own life with my own pointless crush who said no. So I was very eager and hopeful to see how the tide would turn for Wes, as it were. However, that's about the one thing that I felt got a little short shrift--I guess Wes just saw Annie looking hot and being helpful (more or less) and is all "I love you," and there we go? It's that easy to get over his shit?! God, I wish!
Anyway...four and a half stars from me. Good read, y'all!
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