The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Publication date: August 2024
LGBTQ+ author? Queer and non-binary
Setting: Modern day France, Spain and Italy

This romance is a phenomenal non-binary and queer AF romance novel set in a dreamy location.

Theo and Kit are childhood best friends who dated for a long time before breaking up right before the start of dream European vacation. It’s been years since they have spoken to each other, but they coincidentally show up at the same tour at the same time once again.

To dispel some of the building sexual tension between them, Kit and Theo start a competition to see who can hook up with more people on the trip. And off they go, eating, drinking and fucking their way across France, Spain and Italy.

What shined for me in this book was the portrayal of Theo’s gender identity. The first half of the book is told from their perspective. McQuiston, who is non-binary themselves, avoids using any gendered language for Theo. One time they call outfit androgynous. Another time they think about when their hair was longer or they wore make up. But honestly it’s easy to miss. The first half book passes without me being entirely certain what gender Theo is.

The second half of the book is told from Kit’s perspective. He is a cisgender bisexual man. He refers to Theo as “she” for many chapters until Theo comes out to him as non-binary. Kit makes the switch instantly to calling Theo “they/them” and often remarks on Theo’s handsomeness.

There is a lot of creative sex described in this book, but in my mind it’s for a purpose other than hotness. It’s rare for a non-binary person to be a main character in a romance novel. And it’s also rare for them to be having sex that doesn’t feel cisgender and/or straight. Theo’s adventures are incredibly queer no matter what gender they are partnering with, which feels perfectly right to me.

Where this book drags a bit with the many descriptions of mind-blowing food, wine and art. McQuiston describes them beautifully and creatively but there are just quite a lot of these scenes. When I had been to one of these places, it took me back to a beautiful memory. But when I hadn’t I found myself a little bit bored.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy.