I really loved One Last Stop, so I was excited to read Casey McQuiston's take on YA. And let me just say, this book did not disappoint. It gave me John Green vibes in the best way. I love a ragtag group of unlikely friends, very Breakfast Club. This book has you on your toes the entire time, trying to figure out where Shara Wheeler has gone, and why she's left these notes for Chloe, Rory, and Smith.

This book also did something really interesting: it criticizes Christian fundamentalism while not making fun of people who choose to believe in god. I'm not a religious person, and I criticize the church all the time, but this book didn't just go for the low blow and I appreciated that. It showed how harmful Christianity can be, but ultimately left it up to the reader to decide how they feel about it.

Also, we love a chaotic bisexual, and Chloe doesn't disappoint. She's messy and complicated and makes mistakes throughout the book. It felt real and relatable, and I think both teens and adults will really love this book and see themselves in it.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuistion is undboutedly a fantastic young adult LGBTQI romance with elements of mystery that I found just really worked.

REPRESENTATION! This author nails all the elements I am looking for.

The protaganist Chloe Green is feeling shocked after Shara Wheeler, the most popular girl in school, kisses her then vanishes on prom night.

Chloe and two others are left clues to locate Shara and bring her home safely before graduation.

The author does a fantastic job discussing issues that young people are facing today such as identity, gender identity, and sexuality.

Another fantastic book by Casey McQuiston!!!!!

I didn't let myself get too excited about this one because of all the problems I had with McQuiston's last release One Last Stop, but as most of those problems were just because of my personal reading preferences, I should've known they'd come through with a great YA debut. This book is very Paper Towns meets Perfect on Paper and maybe a bit of But I'm a Cheerleader. It's an odd combination that works really well. The characters' journeys of self-discovery are really fun and satisfying to see unfold, and the mystery is both frustrating and well-crafted. Chloe, the main character, is a really frustrating character to follow, and I think she was a little too dense and narrow-sighted for me, and I think maybe that's what dropped a star, but this is an awesome book, and I definitely recommend it.

Another great book by Casey McQuiston! A story of a group of Seniors that struggle to be themselves in a Southern religious environment. I’m all for their successes (and struggles) in the journey to discovery ❤️ And that Valedictorian speech…chefs kiss…absolutely relatable and applicable to EVERYONE! This is a must read for middle and high school students!

I've fallen off of YA in the past few years, but this sucked me right back in! It was so mysterious and fun and sweet and just so wonderful. I will read and love anything that Casey McQuiston writes.

This book was a departure from McQuistions other books!! i was very pleasantly surprised! I love how there was an aspect of mystery besides the usual romance.

This is one of those books where I wished half stars worked. 4 stars seems like too much but 3 seems like too little. I didn’t dislike “I Kissed Shara Wheeler” but I can’t say I loved it, or even enjoyed it greatly.

I really liked “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston so I kept hoping it’d get better. Unfortunately, it just never got there for me. This has a slow start and took way too long for me to get invested in the characters. I think my major problem was that I didn’t like Chloe or Shara so I didn’t really care about the small mystery and got bored with it pretty quickly. It’s very rare for me to like the side characters more but I was more interested in Smith and Rory’s story than Chloe and Shara.

While I didn’t care for the main storyline, there were things I did enjoy. McQuiston is an excellent writer and I loved their humor and how everything just flows together. There’s so much queerness here and I loved it all so much. I loved Chloe’s friend group and found myself frustrated with Chloe when it came to Georgie, who stole my heart. All the teens go to a private Christian school that still believes in and lives by the #nohomo rule and I enjoyed watching them deal with that successfully in different ways.

While I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading this, I think there are better books out there. I know that others seemed to like this a lot more than me based on the ratings I’ve seen. I’d take a look at other reviews to get a better feel for the book.

I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There is a lot I really liked about this book! Casey McQuiston's writing is, as always, near perfect. Her dialogue, characters and plot pacing were great. I don't know if she writes teens quite as well as new adult, but certainly no glaring issues. The one this I will say that wasn't my fav with this one was the plot from about 50 percent on. I do admire that I usually don't know where her books are going, and that definitely keeps me engaged. But I just would have picked a different route for the end of this book. But I am sure others will like it. Overall glad I read it, and I will definitely keep picking up her work. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely one of my favorite books of the year. Casey McQuiston continues to impress me by writing stories that are engaging but cover important topic. I’ve been describing this to everyone as a YA Search Party meets 13 Reasons Why with the lesbian romance from Teenage Bounty Hunters. It was so much fun and I loved every minute reading it.

It's sometimes hard to read great YA books because I can relate to hard to the flaws of the characters. That's exactly what happened with I Kissed Shara Wheeler. Freshman year, Chloe Green moves with her moms from LA to rural Alabama where she attends a private Christian high school, and competes against the principal's perfect daughter, Shara Wheeler, to be the top of the class. For four years Chloe has imagined herself and her friends as the only people who matter in this town, and she can't wait to put everyone else behind her after graduation, until Shara goes missing and leaves clues behind for Chloe, a bad boy musician named Rory, and Shara's quarterback boyfriend Smith to find her. It's a great book about realizing that people can be more complex than you've imagined them to be.

DNF'd kind of early but I'm still rating it high! Objectively speaking, I think this is probably a great book! I see a lot of friends loving it and I'd probably recommend it to a lot of other readers. It just, personally, isn't for me. That sort of "bad friend trope" can just really kill a story for me... so it's my bad for not realizing it was so prevalent before requesting a copy to review!

Let me start this review off by saying, I absolutely loved the representation in this book. The queer rep was on point, and I will always be here for that.

However, that might be the only thing I enjoyed of this book. It isn't that I thought this book was bad by any means. I think my problem is that this book seemed way too juvenile for me.

I found that I could not relate to any of the angst and drama that was going on. And I was never truly sold on the romance. I think I would recommend this book to someone middle or high school aged that may enjoy it more than me.

With that being said, I do enjoy Casey McQuistion's writing and am looking forward to what comes next!

Thank you so much to @netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely fantastic.

I was worried when I first started it that this would turn out to be another Looking For Alaska type YA novel, but how I underestimated Casey McQuiston is beyond me! McQuiston managed to gay-ify (I'm allowed to say this, I am gay) this trope and thus add a depth of meaning rarely seen in YA novels.

AND they made a character I was so determine to hate hate hate (Shara Wheeler) that I ended up understanding and identifying with. This was a truly wonderful read.

This was so much fun! I have loved all of Casey's books thus far and "Shara" was no exception. While it did feel a little clunky and all-over-the-place in the last quarter of the book, it wasn't enough for me not to overall adore this book and these characters and I need a Smith & Rory book liiiiike, yesterday.

Chloe is a transplant to Alabama, having moved to False Beach with her mothers when her grandmother needed help, and then stayed to finish high school. Having grown up in Los Angeles, Willowgrove Christian Academy is quite the culture shock; the high academic standards she expected, but uniforms, the moral behavior code, and mandatory Bible class were outside her experience, and caused her to spend all four years pushing the envelope. The dress code is her primary target, but as the bisexual daughter of lesbian mothers, the moral code is a serious problem for her. Surrounded by closeted members of the LGTBQ+ community who dare not come out while attending Willowgrove, lest they be expelled, as others have been, for violating the moral code, Chloe is trying to make it through high school, fighting for valedictorian with the principal’s seemingly perfect daughter. But near the end of senior year, everything unravels - but the outcome is seriously in doubt.

This novel is topical and current, and deals with issues that face teens today. The shifting friendships and relationships among the characters are typical among high school students, as is the quest for personal identity, and for those who enjoy social drama, there’s plenty to be had. Of more interest, at least to me, is the level of awareness and activism demonstrated by the characters, showing how a small spark can be fanned into a significant flame - as long as those doing the fanning are aware of the direction they’re going, and do their best to steer the flames in the proper direction.

This was such as fun romp through young adult romance tropes; Casey McQuiston somehow managed to take all the conventions of the genre and make them feel fresh. I am more impressed with her every time she releases something new. I Kissed Shara (Sh-air-ah? Sh-are-ah?) Wheeler is an instant teen drama classic with a heart. One of the best books I’ve read this year so far.

Let me start by saying this: I had high expectations for this book. Casey McQuiston wrote one of my favorite books of all time, 'Red, White & Royal Blue,' and their other book, 'One Last Stop' was also incredible. This was their first foray into YA (a genre I read a lot of), and I knew it was going to be good. But ... I have to say, I was a little let down.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the book and am glad I read it - competitive teens, a treasure hunt of sorts, emerging queer identities, a bookstore, hand-written letters, drama club and McQuiston's signature sass - but I guess I didn't really GET it. I was never a person who had the crazy drive to succeed above all else in high school, and I didn't grow up in a small town (quite the opposite, in fact, although the Christian school setting as a queer person was familiar to me), so those aspects, while well-written, didn't really move me in the way I think they will move a lot of other people. And frankly, I didn't LIKE Shara Wheeler, even at the end when everything is tied up nicely - I felt like she didn't deserve someone like Chloe, who I had a lot more sympathy for.

There's a book for every reader, of course, and just because this one didn't quite work for me, doesn't mean I won't recommend it. It just wasn't my favorite of McQuiston's books (as if anything could top RW&RB, let's be honest).

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Published May 3, 2022.

4.5/5 Stars: LGBTQ+ Romance following two archenemies, one of whom disappears and leaves cards and clues for the other. TW: homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, internal homophobia, large amounts of Taco Bell consuming (this one is a joke for serious reasons).

Casey McQuiston has done it again!! I loved this SO much! Shara was so complex, the bisexuality rep was stunning, the look into small town Christian themes whilst being gay and weird was so relatable, this book had everything to love and more. I am so impressed with the deep dive thoughts of how a young person comes into their identity and being non-binary; this was definitely a very interesting perspective to read and I really enjoy it! The friendships in this were spectacular and the mystery of Shara and her legacy as the popular girl was so fun to explore and will give everyone the closure they need about the popular kids from their high school lol.

The plot was very Paper Towns-esque but Casey really made it her own and the relationship between Chloe and Shara was hilarious. They are enemies to lovers and the trip in between is so fun, quirky, weird, and intense. Casey never fails to catch you with those amazingly timed pop culture references throughout the entire novel, especially with Chloe, who, in my opinion, I hope there is one of her in every high school across the world. I also really want more of a backstory, and preferably a whole book dedicated to Chloe's moms' love story!! They are so cute and witty and are solely responsible for the amazingness that is Chloe.

I adored this book beyond words and will never not read a Casey McQuiston book. She always makes me giggle, scream, cry, and laugh my socks off in every one of her works. I highly recommend this to every jock turned theater kid, book nerd, queer person, and overall enjoyer of books because I cannot see anyone not loving this! Utter perfection...

Casey McQuiston continues to be one of the best when it comes to balancing humor and raw emotion. Her description of Chloe as a frustrated teen that's addicted to being an outsider as a defense mechanism put me right back in high school, but came with the catharsis of Chloe figuring herself out a lot earlier than I did. The mystery at the center of the book was a page-turner -- and more satisfying than the self-referenced Paper Towns within its pages -- but it took a turn that I wasn't expecting and that made the end all the more gratifying. I loved Casey's previous books because they were adult romances with a vibrant YA energy, but with "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" she proves that she's capable of tapping into the teen mindset and brings all of her other authentic assets as an author to the younger reader space as well.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this! I’ve seen some awesome things about it! It was as fantastic as I’ve been hearing, and I’m so glad I got this early copy. I’ll be buying a copy to put on my shelf at home. Highly recommended!!