I really enjoyed I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston!!
I think it addressed so many different things, and it did it well. I loved the self-discovery that so many of these characters went through and it was so nice to see their happy endings.
I didn't like Chloe at the start, and it was sort of a struggle to not just get upset at her actions, but I think by the end of the story, she truly grew so much and I love that she fell in love.

Also, I was also OBSESSED with Rory and Smith (maybe more than the mc's love triangle? rectangle?). Definitely would not mind a spinoff of Rory and Smith after highschool <3

Overall, this was really real and I loved how messy and dramatic it all was

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review :D

4.5/5 !!

A disappointing book displaying only obvious attempts to check every box and appeal to a specific group of tik tok preteens. This book will not be able to age past 2022, outdated expressions and references already sprinkled throughout. The plot was predictable which made everything else seem inconsequential since we already knew what was going to happen. No character has any depth, most of the side characters only there for the tokenism. I’m struggling to find the true conflict of this book, being only left with a string of self indulgent pandering to McQuiston’s young fans.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is the kind of novel that perfectly captures what it’s like to be a teenager in a way that is transcendent and affective. Author Casey McQuiston shows their range in their first foray into YA, and I hope they stay a while.

It started out with a kiss… three of them actually. And the disappearance of Shara Wheeler, small town Alabama’s reigning prom queen and the picture of perfection. When Chloe Green discovers that her surprising lip lock with her nemesis is only a part of the puzzle, she’ll team up with Shara’s quarterback boyfriend, Smith, and Shara’s bad boy next-door neighbor, Rory, to find out where Shara went. And why Shara kissed them all right before running away.

This is the YA story I wish I would have had in my own adolescence. It speaks to so many universal teenage experiences while also centering a spectrum of LGBTQIA+ characters in a really important way. It’s not written to tick boxes; rather, it’s written to show honest depictions of growing up through a lens that we need more of in fiction.

The narrative arc and characters’ growth both feel honest and real. As a reader, there will be times when you want to shout at them, tell them to pay more attention. Other times, you’ll want to encircle your arms around them and tell them that it’s going to be okay. There’s wit, humor, and unpredictable shenanigans, all of which would translate impeccably to the screen.

This is hands down one of my favorite reads of the year, and I cannot wait for it to be available to the masses.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for my review. The author does a great job of creating complex characters and found families. I really liked the journey that the main character goes on because it is not the typical coming out story (not that there is anything wrong with a coming out story, but it is nice to see that there is a wide variety of experiences). I also loved all of the supporting characters--it would be great to see them get their own stories.

I did struggle a bit seeing where things were going, but waiting for the characters to get there, but it was satisfying once we got there. It was also a little difficult to like the main pair--particularly Shara because she was so manipulative, but again it is satisfying once everything comes to a head.

A great YA debut!
With graduation right around the corner, Shara, Chloe's rival at her Christian school, expectedly kisses her and then disappears. Chloe discovers notes from Shara that force her to team up with Smith, Shara's boyfriend, and Rory, Shara's neighbor, to figure out where she went.
More of a mystery than a romance, the story unfolds at a nice pace and is enjoyable even when not totally realistic. The main characters are interesting and face quite a few challenges in embracing their various identities. Chloe is fairly flawed, which can make her a bit unlikeable (and is frustrating when her lack of self-realization continues a bit too long), but it also allows for a clear growth arc. Though the negative impact of religion/religious schools on the LGBTQ+ community is definitely a major theme, not all believers are demonized.
This book provides a lot of great representation that allows teens to see themselves and the challenges they may face reflected in ways that are ultimately empowering and hopeful. As a high school librarian, I will be purchasing and recommending!

4.5 (for now, gonna sleep on it)

One of my most anticipated read of the year, and I was lucky enough to get an arc. When I tell you there were real tears.

Full review to come v soon, but for now:

First book of the year, and what a way to start off 2022. I have A LOT of thoughts, full review to come soon.

emoji thoughts: 😍🤣😡😭🥺

I am a huge fan of McQuiston's adult titles and her YA debut did not disappoint! Full of twists, turns, laughs, drama, and romance this book is a wild ride you will not want to put down. Shara Wheeler is the IT girl at Willowgrove Christian Academy - beautiful, smart, virtuous, girlfriend to the star quarterback, principal's daughter - and Chloe Green's academic rival for valedictorian. One day out of the blue Shara follows Chloe into an elevator and kisses her, then leaves just as abruptly without a word. Shara disappears from the school prom the next day. Wanting to find out where she is and what the hell was up with that kiss, Chloe sneaks into Shara's bedroom looking for clues. The boy next door, Rory, has the same idea and bumps into Chloe as he climbs through the window. After their initial shock, the two look around and discover a pink envelope with a cryptic note from Shara. The two hunt down Shara's boyfriend, Smith, and soon the three of them are a on a wild goose chase finding notes from Shara in hopes one will lead to where she disappeared to.

Casey McQuiston has done it again!

I'll admit, this one took me a bit longer to get into than McQuiston's first two novels, but hang in there reader! The novel starts off with a different feel than Red White and Royal Blue or One Last Stop. I definitely felt some cringe at the Southern-Christian-School stereotypes, but that's because BOY are some of them true, and boy do they hit close to home.

Nonetheless, while I started off wondering if I was going to like this one at all, I got sucked into Chloe's story and her pursuit of enemy Mega-Bitch Shara, and the discoveries about herself and her friends as well. Maybe by the second half of the book or so I was thoroughly invested and in it with Chloe to the end. A fabulous book with a definitively satisfying ending!

Thanks NetGalley for this eARC!
Casey McQuiston is downright masterful at creating friend groups I want to join. Whether they’re the White House trio, planning a Subway heist, or at a Christian school in Alabama- her supporting cast is always top notch.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is part mystery- Shara disappeared after kissing three people and has left then clues regarding her whereabouts- and part coming of age/romance. My favorite parts are when Chloe (the MC) is with her friend group- because again, that’s really where McQuiston shines.

Being set at a Christian school in Alabama but featuring LGBTQA+ characters, there is definitely commentary on the harmful environment that can foster. Having grown up in a similar religious situation, but now embracing more of (as she put it) “Jesus the brown socialist” theology, I thought it was handled well. At no point is religion itself judged- just the hypocrisy of the brand of Christianity pushed by the school.

It’s not as good as RWRB, but I’d say on par with One Last Stop. Definitely worth. Read.

Casey McQuiston hits it out of the park once again! I was so thrilled to be able to review this book, as I had throughly enjoyed Red, White, and Royal Blue as well as One Last Stop. McQuiston has such a way of bringing characters to life, and this book continued in that pattern. This felt like a film/Netflix series rom-com, but even better because of the depth of Chloe's character. Each chapter made me fall a little more in love with the town and these characters. Their shenanigans were zany but believable, and the dialogue felt fresh but not overly gimmicky. I would recommend this to any fans of rom-coms, YA lit, queer love stories, and anyone who enjoys coming of age stories with a twist.

I' am torn about how I feel about this book. On one hand, the plot of trying to figure out where Shara Wheeler went did drive my curiosity. I wanted to know what led up to the situation, and whether it was going to be resolved by the time the story was completed. The situation felt a little absurd, but I'm willing to let that slide when it comes to a piece of fiction. However, the thing that made it difficult to read was the author's regular need to declare things that are not factually true. For example, towards the beginning, the author declares that it is a "Southern" thing to buy flowers at school to send to your crush or friend. However, I did this overseas and my friends in California confirmed they did this in their high school. So, there are a lot of assumptions that get made that make the main character annoying and untrustworthy as a whole. The other thing is the I am better than you energy the main character gives off because she's not from this small town originally, she's queer, and goth alternative. Honestly, it makes the character more exhausting than enduring. It's an overdone trope that doesn't offer anything new to the trope in this book. It left me a bit disappointed as a whole.

The problems for me were the characters and the marketing.
The marketing:
* I was expecting a Sapphic romance. I didn't get that.
* I was expecting a ROMANTIC COMEDY. I got no romance. I got no comedy. It got to the point where I was wondering if something was wrong with ME. WHY AM I NOT LAUGHING?

The characters: this is essentially a romance between Rachel Berry on steroids and the wife from Gone Girl. Chloe Green is obsessed with beating her high school rival Shara Wheeler who kisses her and then disappears. Finding out she isn't even the only kissee adds to her mania. Paranoid and making increasingly bad choices on how to treat her friends and responsibilities, she, Rory (the other kissee) & Smith (Shara's boyfriend) search for her via a psychopath level scavenger hunt.

"ᴡʜʏ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɪ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʜᴇʀ? sʜᴇ's ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ!"--> me, screaming with rage as I throw my kindle across the room again. I nearly DNF'd this 8736 times.

The pluses-
* The writing. Kasee of Longhand Pencils is gonna have the easiest time creating a set and I wrote down some of my favorites
* The rep. Somehow nearly every character is gay, queer, or questioning sexuality and gender. You get a whole spectrum and that's wonderful.
* The friends. As I stated I didn't see this as a romantic comedy at all, but it is a sparkling addition to YA high school novels about the importance of friendship and how special those who come into our lives in high school can be.

For me, this was 2 stars. I'm not sorry, but that's my honest opinion. Others may love it. I hope they do, but please, don't go in expecting a Sapphic romance. This was not RW& RB or OLS. It's a high school set YA mystery.

this was such a treat to read! the story was well laid out and the mystery aspect caught my attention right away. i was drawn into the beginning of the book because of the mystery, but the middle became slightly sluggish at times. the ending was good, though and i found myself devouring the last third. i would recommend this book to those who like ya and have enjoyed titles like simon vs the homo sapiens agenda

Chloe Green’s high school nemesis has always been Shara Wheeler. Which makes it all the more confusing when Shara disappears in the weeks before graduation. Where could she have gone? Why aren’t her parents concerned?As Chloe tries to piece together the puzzle she has been left by Shara, she finds herself joining forces with Shara’s boyfriend and neighbor. Upon discovering small pink envelopes with clues, the trio embarks on an epic quest to unravel the truth about Shara and her mysterious disappearance.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler was my most anticipated book for 2022…and it exceeded my expectations in every way!! This is a book that everyone should read. It’s full of lovable characters, compelling plot, and laugh-out-loud hilarious writing. Casey McQuiston always has the most specific, detailed dialogue that somehow is incredibly universal and witty. I highlighted so many passages in this book, because there was so much that I could viscerally relate to. This is a book for the LGBTQ+ theatre kids, the kids who feel stuck in their small fishbowl towns, the kids who are certain that after high school life simply has to get better.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is full of so much love and LGBTQ+ joy. Chloe, Smith, and Rory form a tight and heartwarming friendship in Shara’s absence. Casey McQuiston writes such vivid and captivating characters; I know they will live on for readers long after the final page. All the characters, but especially Chloe, experiences significant character growth. The characters merrily stumble through the final months of their senior year of high school, along with profound moments of personal discovery and identity exploration.

I would highly recommend this for fans of found family, enemies-to-lovers, theatre kids, The Breakfast Club, and LGBTQ+ coming-of-age stories. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is beautiful, hilarious, and joyful. Unsurprisingly, this is likely my favorite book of 2022. You won’t want to miss this book! I Kissed Shara Wheeler is available on May 3, 2022. Thank you SO much to Casey McQuiston, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC (making my year) in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on the publication date and I will publish it on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

I must admit that I had trouble with this at the start, because the plot seemed too much like Paper Towns and the protagonist, Chloe Green, was hard to like. As I read on, I appreciated how the mystery unraveled in an even better manner than Paper Towns, and created so much more depth in each of its characters and their stories. The scenes leading up to graduation were wonderful, and I would love to see a sequel that continues the stories of Chloe and Shara and Rory and Smith.

If you liked Red, White and Royal Blue, then I suspect you’ll like this too! It’s a cross between a Karen McManus mystery and the Breakfast Club, set in the Deep South where being queer can literally get you expelled or worse. Chloe’s entire life is uprooted when she and her moms move to Alabama to take care of her dying grandmother. She’s forced to attend a private religious school where being queer is an expellable offense - great for someone who came out as bisexual to her two moms when she was 13, right? Chloe throws herself into her work, determined to bury the parts of her that make her who she is - if she can’t be wholly herself, she damn well can still be valedictorian. Her only competition is Shara Wheeler, the principal’s daughter and all around goody two shoes. Except one day, out of nowhere, Shara kisses her in the elevator. And then she disappears, leaving behind a series of clues for Chloe, Shara’s boyfriend Smith and her next door neighbor Rory to try to tease out where she is and why she’s disappeared.

Honestly, this book was so much more than I was expecting it to be. So much was happening - I kept checking how far along I was and asking myself what could possibly be coming next with so much still left to go. This book did not disappoint with its plot twists. It’s a great coming of age, coming into queerness, learning to love yourself as you are book. Highly recommend!

This book is supposedly a romance, but I refuse to shelve it as such—because, to me, it’s a love story to the people you grew up with, to the friendships that changed you, and this unwavering love you should uphold for yourself. In fact, I loved everything about this book with the exception of the love story. This one particular line in the story describes just how ridiculous it is: They are dating, right? They haven’t technically had the conversation, but trying to ruin someone’s life because you’re too attracted to them has to count.)

If you remember being a teenager who loved: Nico di Angelo’s story in The Heroes of Olympus, Paris Geller, Paper Towns (another book that I liked with the exception of the actual romance itself), that final scene in coming-of-age movies where all the friends dance like idiots at prom, the particularly giddy (and now nostalgic) feeling I had the night of my Safe Grad, and Eve and Villanelle’s relationship (a relationship I hate but parallels the couple I dislike in this book)… then, well, read this book. It’s Casey McQuiston’s best work.

Leí este libro antes de tiempo porque la editorial me envió una copia avanzada digital y, aunque estoy muy agradecida, esta historia fue un martirio para mí. En mi opinión, I Kissed Shara Wheeler es una versión queer de Paper Towns de John Green. Y, si me conocen, saben que ese libro tampoco me gustó nada.

Digo que I Kissed Shara Wheeler es una *versión* por no usar una palabra más fuerte, pero… madre mía. Básicamente, aquí nos encontramos la historia de Shara Wheeler, una chica ultra popular de un colegio muy conservador en el estado de Alabama, conocido por ser tremendamente cristiano. Un día, Shara decide desaparecer, pero no sin antes besar a tres personas: Smith, su novio; a su vecino y a Chloe, la única chica abiertamente bisexual del instituto. Su plan, al besarlos, fue que tuvieran algo en común para que, después, pudieran seguir juntos las pistas que ella les iría dejando para que la encontraran… o no. ¿Ya ven a qué me refiero con la similitud casi calcada al libro de John Green?

Honestamente, este fue un libro que se me hizo cuesta arriba, que no pude disfrutar en ningún momento porque todo era repetitivo, ya se había visto y ningún plot twist estuvo bien construido. Creo que, con leer unas cuantas páginas del inicio, cualquier persona podría adivinarlos.

Creo que lo único que puedo rescatar de esta historia es la cantidad de representación tanto de identidad sexual como de género y de razas. Los personajes son muy diversos y creo que, a pesar de que la historia no sea para nada novedosa, seguro que muchas personas se podrán ver reflejados en ellos.

En fin… no sé qué le pasó a Casey McQuiston con esta historia.

One of the things I love about Casey McQuiston books is the rich cast of characters she provides to give you so many people to connect with and root for. I actually liked a lot of the surrounding characters in this book, Chloe was very annoying at times. I know that this was a YA but there were multiple times I was very anxious or annoyed she just dropped everything in her life to go on this hunt. I foresaw several plot points before they happened but that didn't make them any less satisfying. The mystery and fast pace kept me intrigued when Chloe was a little too intense so I did enjoy racing through this book.
I definitely enjoyed seeing Chloe and Shara interact in person more than seeing it only through notes or Chloe's interpretation. But the people we met along the way made up for that. I was kinda sad this took place the last month of school because the information they learned along the way would have made for a very different and enriching senior year. But I really liked the message at the end and how it can make everyone think. Also this book had so much character growth which is so satisfying, and you sometimes don't get that in YA. Although I might rate this more of a 3.75 I know I'm not the age range target audience and this book will be a great starting point for some to start asking questions and pondering their identity.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book

It's no secret that I'm a huge Casey McQuiston stan, so I was absolutely thrilled to get an opportunity to review this before it drops in the spring. I love Casey's writing--I know that people want to pigeonhole their books into romance or new adult or something that can be seen as throwaway, but Casey's writing is too good to be overlooked.

What I love about Casey’s books is this sense that they can take a premise that is, to be frank, sometimes a little out there, and turn it into something that speaks, deeply, to this sense of queer found family, of queer networks and relationships, of the bonds that sustain us when other parts of the world may be against us. And that those bonds are stronger than outside forces that may seek to undermine them or tear them down. That community and care and love are what matter. That messy people can find their people. Casey has always excelled at telling these stories, and now is doing that in a YA space that will be fantastic to give to a new audience.