One Last Stop

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-17

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Feeling Confident in Yourself

August arrives in New York unsteady with herself, her place in the world, and her past. She has tried to distance herself from those around her. When she first moves into the Flatbush apartment, she doesn’t even own a bed. She isn’t really sure who she is, trying to distance herself from the investigating skills instilled in her by her mother’s obsession with her brother’s case. However, she slowly becomes more confident in herself, even when she and Jane fight and when Jane seems to have gone back to the 1970s.

However, at first, Niko, Myla, Jane, and Isaiah become her models for confidence. Jane, for example, appears extremely confident to August, who is newly out as a bisexual person. Especially once they begin kissing “for research,” August discovers that Jane has been with a bunch of girls, which intimidates August. However, as August gets to know her—especially once they get together themselves—she discovers that Jane has fears and doubts just like she does. August gains more confidence in herself even when she isn’t sure what will happen with Jane. She comes to recognize and value her skills, both in terms of investigating and in understanding how she can help Jane on the Q. In the end, August is confident enough in her abilities and is willing to own that part of herself, as is evident in her decision to become a freelance investigator and researcher.

When Jane convinces her to jump between cars, August is terrified. She’d never normally jump between cars. Staring at Jane, however, she realizes that “[s]he trusted Jane and her time on this train and that cocky grin to get her there safely. Why can’t she do the same for herself. […] The Q is home, and August is the girl with the knife picking its stops apart one by one” (163). August “doesn’t believe in things. But she can believe in that” (163). At this point, August is reliant on Jane to take leaps of faith like this; however, by the novel’s end, August takes her own leap, jumping from the platform at Coney Island to kiss Jane and jump-start her separation from the Q.

Additionally, when Jane doubts herself, August helps her feel better. For example, Jane begins to fade when it first appears that August and Myla’s plan isn’t working, but August cheers her on, saying:

“‘You’re the first thing I’ve believed in since—since I don’t even remember […] It’s because you fight and you care and you’re always kind but never easy, and you won’t let anything take that away from you. You’re my […] hero, Jane. I don’t care if you think you’re not one. You are’ (375).

This is a reversal of roles for the two women, and it demonstrates how August has been transformed, not only in that she now has hope but also in that August’s confidence is key to carrying the day. It encourages Jane to keep fighting.

Belonging to and with People, Places, and Times

One Last Stop is a character-driven novel, and its primary conflict concerns both a fantastical crack in time and the magic of the Q subway line. By the second chapter, in fact, “August learns that the Q is a time, a place, and a person” (38), a sentiment that is repeated about August from Jane’s perspective in the letter at the novel’s end.

August doesn’t expect to belong to a people, place, or time. In fact, she did her best to keep her distance, not expecting to find a home in New York or with her roommates. At this point in her life, she has “lived in a dozen rooms without ever knowing how to make a space into a home, how to expand to fill it like Niko or Myla or even Wes with his drawings in the windows. She doesn’t know, really, what it would take at this point.” August realizes that “[i]t’s been twenty-three years of passing through touching brick after brick, never once feeling a permanent tug” (16). However, by the novel’s end, she reflects, “She was supposed to muddle through like she always did, bury herself in the gray. Tonight, under the neon lights of the bar, under Niko’s arm, Myla’s fingers looped through her belt loop, she barely knows that feeling’s name” (392). She realizes that she has found people who love her and support her, even beyond her romantic feelings for Jane.

Jane, too, finds herself in a liminal state, stuck on the Q without the flexibility to leave. She can’t go anywhere, and like August, she hasn’t known what a home felt like for a long time. At first, New Orleans felt like home, but once it seemed like Augie had passed away and she saw anti-gay bias run rampant in the news coverage or in priests’ approaches to addressing the arson, she decided to go to New York, where she similarly fell in love with the city. Where August becomes rooted by the people around her, at the novel’s end, Jane must wrestle with what it means to be someone from the 1970s who’s living in the 2020s. She settles into the apartment, finding comfort in both August’s friends and things that remind her of her time. As a result, she’s someone who belongs to two times, but her love for August grounds her in the 2020s.

Having Hope and Being Okay with Whatever Happens

At the beginning of the novel, August lacks hope. She’s still wrestling with memories of being left by her mother, Suzette, to fend for herself because her mom was so obsessed with her Uncle Augie’s missing-person case. She remembers when her mother forgot to pick her up from school because she was doing research—and how her mother neglected to save any of August’s baby photos when Hurricane Katrina hit. Instead, Suzette saves files from Augie’s case, making August feel like she doesn’t have a home.

Additionally, when August talks to Wes about Isaiah, encouraging him to pursue a relationship, she finds that she isn’t the only one with parental problems. They discuss how Wes was disowned when he dropped out of architecture school and how even Niko—who seems to have everything figured out—fights with his mom. The recognition that others have problems with their parents too is important for August because she idealizes people, not understanding that everyone must grapple with different issues in their lives. However, she learns to be okay and to understand that life has its ups and downs. Even if things aren’t perfect, they can still be perfect.

August’s transformation as a New Yorker allows her to wrestle with what it means to love a place even when something bad happens there. She has lived in several places, trying out three other universities before settling in at Brooklyn College. McQuiston makes it clear that New York itself is a crucial part of helping August to find hope in herself again. She writes that August is “standing on a New York sidewalk, nearly twenty-four years old, and she’s found herself back at the first version of August, the one who hoped for things. Who wanted things. Who cried to Peter Gabriel and believed in psychics” (345). At this point in the novel, she’s not sure what will happen when they disconnect Jane from the Q. Jane might stay in the present. She might go back to the 1970s. August must wrestle with the fact that she might not get what she wants. She might lose Jane forever.

When Jane seemingly goes back to the 1970s, August finds comfort in the fact that New York continues moving on. The city continues to exist, it “moves, trudges on, lights up and shouts and spits steam up through the grates the same as always” (382). In the end, having her heart broken is what “anchors” her to the city in a concrete way. Her instinct isn’t to run; rather, she settles in. When Jane returns, it becomes a bonus. August learns to be okay, even when it’s difficult.

As the story ends, Jane and August depart for California to visit Jane’s parents and August’s mom. Jane hasn’t spoken to her family in more than 50 years, and she hadn’t parted on great terms with them. However, Jane and August are hopeful, especially considering that Jane’s nephew is gay and is now married to another man. Their journey ends (as the novel begins) with McQuiston narrating that “[t]he line keeps shuffling forward until they’re the last ones outside the bus, clutching tickets in clammy palms. Maybe it’s insane to try this. Maybe there’s no way to know exactly how anything will turn out. Maybe’s that okay” (415). They must be okay, no matter what, but they’re also hopeful that good things will come.