Casey McQuiston's latest novel The Pairing is a sexy European adventure that celebrates queer love
American romance author Casey McQuiston joined Mattea Roach on Bookends
When two people break up, it's usually for the best, right?
Getting readers to root for exes getting back together is no easy task. But it's one Casey McQuiston accomplishes seamlessly in their latest novel, The Pairing.
The Pairing tells the story of Kit and Theo, two exes with a long history of love and friendship. They accidentally end up on the same European food and wine tour after not seeing each other for four years.
To make matters worse, they originally planned to take that same trip together, years earlier, but they broke up on the flight there — leaving them both with unresolved feelings, frustrations and a need to prove that they're totally, 100 per cent over each other.
Trapped together at some of the most romantic places in the world, Kit and Theo jump headlong into a friendly European hookup competition to get their mind off their ever-present chemistry.
But the book's called The Pairing for a reason — and their shenanigans find them closer together than they could have imagined.
Writing this plot required "a lot of tightrope walking," said McQuiston on Bookends with Mattea Roach. They were determined to make sure neither of the main characters were "the bad guy" or seemed cringe for all their pining.
"You have to come up with a reason for the breakup that's big enough that it was justified … but not so big they can't come back from it."
Part of what made it successful, they explain, is the foundational friendship the characters shared even before they got together. "If it was this person who was your 'person' for so long, of course there's that void that you can't really move on from. I was intrigued by that connection. I felt like there was so much to work with in there."
The draw of romance
This is McQuiston's first take on the "exes-to-lovers" trope, but it's not their first rodeo when it comes to romance novels.
McQuiston started writing their debut novel Red, White & Royal Blue after they lost their father to brain cancer in 2014. Dealing with that grief, and a rough breakup at the same time, they tried different ways of coping — from cake decorating to textile art and then revisiting their dream of being a writer.
"I had somewhat given up on being a novelist for a while. I saw it as a very impractical career choice. I was really scared of chasing it," they said. "And then all of the worst things that could happen, happened." So they had nothing to lose.
There's something about the satisfaction of the connection between two people being consummated or being completed.- Casey McQuiston
After reading The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan and feeling "unqualified happiness" for the first time in a while, they became inspired to write a contemporary romance featuring a secret love story between a fictional U.S. president's son and a prince of England.
They set to work — typing away at the story in a Google Doc at their day job — and in 2019, Red, White & Royal Blue was released.
Thanks to its endearing characters, compelling plot and a healthy amount of social media buzz, it became a blockbuster success. It was later adapted for the screen starring Nicholas Galitzine, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Uma Thurman — making McQuiston the new face of queer romance writing in North America.
They followed up Red, White & Royal Blue with the sapphic romance One Last Stop and the YA novel I Kissed Shara Wheeler. And with their latest novel The Pairing, they haven't looked back when it comes to writing stories within the genre of queer romance.
"There's something about the satisfaction of the connection between two people being consummated or being completed — in this really poetic and symmetrical and satisfying way — that just scratches something in my brain," they said.
Ever-evolving storytelling
While McQuiston's books are known for being about queer joy and escapism, the way it manifests in their storytelling has evolved — as has their own relationship to their queer and non-binary identity.
In fact, when they were writing Red, White & Royal Blue, they weren't out as queer to their family.
I've come into my own as a non-binary person and as someone who experiences a lot of different kinds of love.- Casey McQuiston
"A big part of what I was trying to create for myself with Red, White & Royal Blue was all of the things I wasn't getting from my physical life: the validation and support, the community, the celebration of my own queerness that I feel like I hadn't been able to fully let myself have yet," they said.
"Fast forward to many years later and to many times of being in rooms of hundreds of people who are in community, in queerness and transness, around my books. The way that has healed me, and given me this sort of 'do-over queer adolescence', has changed me a lot."
It's also altered the way they write about sex and love in their novels — particularly after having grown up in purity culture and worked through the shame that comes with it.
"I've come into my own as a non-binary person and as someone who experiences a lot of different kinds of love. I am able to write about it a bit more confidently," said McQuiston.
The Pairing celebrates queer sex and love, but not with the parades and rainbows of Red, White & Royal Blue.
"So much of what I reach for now with wish fulfilment is not about big loud moments, but it's about these quiet moments of peace."
Representing queer joy
When it comes to representation, McQuiston is strong in their stance that their books are written for the people who see themselves in the characters.
"From my experience, a lot of my early relationship with queerness and transness was concealment ... I'm [now] able to begin dismantling the little shelter I built around my truest self," they said.
McQuiston is not so concerned about teachable moments in their books, but rather making people feel seen.
I'm now able to begin dismantling the little shelter I built around my truest self- Casey McQuiston
"For a long time in U.S. publishing, the way to get a queer story published, if it wasn't tragic, was for it to be doing a public good — which is a very didactic kind of storytelling," said McQuiston.
"That was why there was such a huge barrier of entry for queerness and romance because romance is a pleasure genre. Whereas I often come to representation from a place of, 'Well, sometimes what's important is having a good time and being horny.'
"Sometimes that is resistance too, you know?"
This interview was edited for length and clarity. Produced by Erin Balser, with help from Katy Swailes, Barb Carey and Lisa Mathews.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
