I Kissed Shara Wheeler: A Novel

I can honestly say when I started this book, I was not at all sure where it was headed. That does not often happen to me! The characters are real and raw, and I think each and every one of us would be able to see ourselves in one or more of them. I appreciated Chloe’s honesty and tenacity. I adored her family. Her friends, both old and new, each brought an interesting perspective, lighthearted moment, or proud offering. This is a wonderful story I will likely read again. :)

I grew up in the South. I went to a Christian all girls high school, which was thankfully staffed with Richmond VA liberals who believed in giving a solid, well rounded education to their students. Still, it was the 90s, and I got the message everywhere--people like me shouldn't exist.

CMQ has written a different book here, tackling something they've skirted up against before with Henry's character in RWRB--the fact that many queer people grow up feeling like they shouldn't exist, that something is wrong with them, that they'll never quite belong. This time, they wrote that story with high school kids who weren't enormously privileged. They have decent homes and enough money to get to private school, but they're trapped in the world of their parents, a world that doesn't really have a place for them. This book is about them making space for themselves.

I wish I'd had this book when I was sixteen and not out, miserable, my body on high alert every day thinking someone would find me out, peel away my mask, and find out who I really was. I know there are going to be a lot of reviews railing against Shara, but boy is she relatable. When you're a queer kid with no support system, that stuff builds up inside you that you feel like you're going to fling yourself into the sun.

I didn't grow up with a queer community. There wasn't such a thing. This gave me a vision of what that might be like, what the future might be like for my kids. It made the 16 year old kid inside me feel not so terribly, terribly alone.

Beautifully done. Thank you. Thank you so much, from the very bottom of my gay little heart.

This is a great coming of story. Chloe green has moved from California to Alabama. She is trying to find herself as she is changing from someone from California to someone from Alabama. I found the plot very good and the character was very engaging. This is a story about growing up and finding out what you really want in life.he is not living up to people expectations, but to find the real you. I recommend this story for all who like romance.

If Paper Towns (John Green) and Tryst Six Venom (Penelope Douglas) had a baby, it would be this. I'm sure YA authors are sick to death of the John Green comparison, but here it applies.

Like Paper Towns, it is a book about quests and capers and clues--attempts to find a beloved, enigmatic girl who turns out to just be a regular girl and not the magic pixie dream the main character believes her to be.

The dialogue is cute, quippy, and upbeat (and maybe just a liiiiitle twee at times.) The ensemble cast is important, not just window dressing. Their myriad storylines are complex and fully realized.

And in the end, everything turns out more or less okay. And there is, of course, a graduation.

Like Tryst Six, there are two intense, "The Girl" lesbians who are absolutely obsessed with each other. They hate each other, love each other, love to hate each other, and are so wrapped up in the games and lies they're blind to it.

One of the main characters is a supposedly perfect girl, pretty and blonde and gentile, who's full of anger and fear. She's a little bit evil (maybe more than a little.) The pressure from her parents and her peers keeps her from coming out of the closet. She can't even admit the truth to herself.

The other is an outsider. An outcast. And she wears that reputation like an armor, along with mankiller boots and black eyeliner.

In Sum:

This book is a YA version of Tryst Six--less dark, less sexual, less violent.

This book is Paper Towns with competitive, villainous lesbians--There's more stomping, growling, pushing people off boats, etc. Also, the relationship between the mains is a little more equal and has more time to blossom before it blooms.

🦇 I Kissed Shara Wheeler Book Review 🦇

🦇 There's only one thing standing in Chloe Green's way of winning valedictorian: the town's favorite and Chloe's rival, Shara Wheeler. A month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe, then does the most infuriating thing: vanishes. Chloe and two other boys Shara kissed are left with a series of cryptic notes; a scavenger hunt to find her. Can Chloe drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair and square, or is there something else behind Shara's disappearance?

💜 Alright John Green fans. This one's for you. As always, Casey McQuiston's prose is a breath of fresh air. The narration instantly pulls you in as if you're listening to an old friend (the easily frustrated, type A kind you have to be patient with). Warning: this story WILL transport you back to high school. I can't explain it, but it felt like I was on campus, watching my fellow students live as the protagonists of their own unspoken stories, the entire time. There's so much to love in this one. For the sake of being succinct (you bookish bats know I can ramble): 💌 Chloe's amazing, artistic queer moms 💌 The whole found family of it all 💌 The EASY, natural queerness (it's never questioned, it just IS, as it tends to be in a CM book) 💌 The snippets from the burn pile before chapters (giving us glimpses into the minds of side characters) 💌 Chloe and Shara are both equally messy and chaotic 💌 The rivalry, the frustration, the angst 💌 Every side pairing 💌 All the theater kids 💌 Smith and Ash's interaction (AGH!) 💌 Rory and Smith (Just...more AGH) 💌 The reminder that side characters are going through it, too (don't forget to check on your best friends) 💌 The prose, the banter, the jokes; I literally laughed aloud, and that takes a lot

💜 This story is a reminder that there's so much more to a person than what you see on the surface. That sometimes you can romanticize someone you hardly know. And that you can unknowingly do that to yourself, too.

💙 While I was reading this, a few people told me they DNF. The second half is SO much stronger than the first, though. I think the pacing is a bit exhausting because the scavenger hunt drags a little, but it's the second half where we see SO much character development from Chloe, Shara, Rory, and Smith.

💙 Religion (the story is set in small town Alabama, at a Christian school) plays a big part in the story. While that could have led me to disconnect, it didn't. It only adds to the discussion that queerness and acceptance (in ourselves and each other) needs to be an ongoing discussion. That sometimes you need to step outside of your bubble to see the world from a new lens.

🦇 Recommended for fans of Looking for Alaska, Paper Town, She Gets the Girl, Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and Imogen, Obviously.

✨ The Vibes ✨ 💌 Sapphic Romance 💋 Queer Cast 💌 Coming-of-Age 💋 Young Adult 💌 Enemies to Lovers 💋 Small Town 💌 Slight Mystery

💬 Quotes ❝ There’s a girl with brown eyes who reminds me of the first book I ever loved. When I look at her, I feel like there might be another universe in her. I imagine her on a shelf too high for me to reach, or peeking out of someone else’s backpack, or at the end of a long wait at the library. I know there are other books that are easier to get my hands on, but none are half as good as her. Every part of her seems to have a purpose, a specific meaning, an exact reason for being how and what and where it is. ❞ ❝ What’s the point of wanting and being wanted in return if the person they want isn’t truly you? ❞ ❝ “You know… if being a guy feels like something you have to do, like it’s an obligation or something…” Ash says carefully. “Maybe think about that.” ❞ ❝ This is the real tragedy: Everything extraordinary about her is trapped behind the myth. ❞ ❝ There are enough students comfortable with the way things are to create the feeling that you’re the only one who doesn’t belong. It can be hard, when all the rules claim to be good and moral and godly, to feel like you can challenge them without admitting something bad and wrong about yourself. ❞ ❝ There are things out there for you that you haven’t even thought of yet, that you don’t even know how to think of yet. Who you are here doesn’t have to be the same as who you are out there. And if the person you feel like you have to be in this town doesn’t feel right to you, you’re allowed to leave. You’re allowed to exist. Even if it means existing somewhere else.” ❞ ❝ “And to the girl who kissed me,” she says, “I have done some of the best work of my life because of you. And I know you have done some of the best work of your life because of me. I don’t know a better way to explain what love means to two people like us.” ❞

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is an entertaining romp involving a group of seniors at an Alabama high school of the conservative religeous sort. Chloe Green is a lesbian, the only one out of the closet in the school when her rival for class validictorian, Shara Wheeler kisses her and disappears a month before graduation. What follows is an entertaining journey, mystery, adventure that brings Chloe in contact with many people she had not known in her four years there after coming out from SoCal with her Moms.

The majority of the book is clever and entertaining, but until the last quarter there is not much heart. All the heart and goodness comes out towards the end. I enjoyed this one, a bit more than Ms McQuiston's previous One Last Stop. Good one.

4.5*

This is a book I'd love to see become a movie! I don't say that about a lot of books, I'd rather they live in my imagination than see them not live up to my expectations. But I think I Kissed Shara Wheeler would make for an awesome movie, a la the great teen comedies of the 80s- Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, etc., etc., etc. This whole group of characters, Chloe, Shara, Georgia, Rory, Smith, Ash, Ace, Summer, Benji, the moms, and all the rest of the crew, I would love to see them brought to life! The world Casey McQuiston built in I Kissed Shara Wheeler was incredible and I feel it just lends itself to the big screen.

I really enjoyed this story. The journey of not only Chloe, Rory, Smith and Shara, but their friends as well- it was such an entertaining read. I would have loved having a book like this back in high school, but I think it's a story any age group would appreciate. Out of the 3 books Casey McQuiston has written, this one is by far my favorite.

SPOILER ALERT

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I have enjoyed this author's other books so gave this a shot. I'm older than the target demographic but I like an easy read when I'm feeling unwell so I read YA books sometimes. When it started off as a standard "enemies to lovers" trope I assumed there would be a twist. Surely nobody still uses that obnoxious, overdone, unrealistic plot? But I was overestimating the author. The whole book really was just about the protagonist and her most despised rival figuring out they were in love. Yuck. I think that is not only cheesy writing, it sends a toxic message to young people, that hate is often a disguise love wears. In reality almost all of the people we hate, it's because they're jerks, and dating them is the last thing we should do. I'll try the next book and I liked the other ones but this one disappointed. Adding an extra star for the side plots/side characters that were the opposite of cliche. Lots of really interesting people with interesting flaws and fears and secrets. Nobody's exactly what you assume them to be, and some are wayyy different than assumed. And that is a great message to get out to youths! Even some of the parents and teachers unveil a hidden side, showing that adults aren't just one dimensional killjoys. If only the main plot wasn't so obnoxious.