I wasn’t sure how much I would like this book because it seemed a little close to paper towns, which I wasn’t really a fan of. I should’ve known never to doubt Casey McQuiston though because “I Kissed Shara Wheeler” was amazing!!! The mystery kept me wanting to read more, but what I really stayed for was the cast of characters. Casey knows how to write side characters that are just as interesting and developed as the main characters. I love how there are so many people in this book who are complex and flawed, but also still so easy to love. This book was superb and I’m so excited for its release.

I had a lot of (unwarranted) fears about Casey McQuiston's young adult debut. Would this book be as good as her others? Would their writing still work for teen protagonists, when I'd only heard the voices of confused twenty-somethings finding themselves? And, more personally, could a book inspired by one of my favorites from my childhood, Paper Towns, live up to the hype that instantly placed on the book for me?

I'm happy to report that my fears were entirely unfounded. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is everything you love about Casey McQuiston, but in a setting and story that will reassure teens and comfort the wounded teen in adults that's been longing to hear the messages Casey writes here. Knowing a little about Casey's background from articles over the years, I suspect this book is also deeply personal to them, and it shows. There is love and passion folded into the pages that evoke a bittersweet nostalgia in readers. This book is a reminder that your home is what you make it, that there is community hidden even in the most oppressive environment. It is a reminder that all is never what it seems on the surface, and it is a promise that there is so much more in the world after high school that young teens can't even begin to fathom.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a whirlwind story, and is heavily inspired by John Green's Paper Towns. Shara Wheeler disappears during prom, before ever being crowned prom queen. No one knows where she is, but her disappearance brings three students - Smith, Shara's boyfriend; Rory, Smith's ex-best friend, and Chloe Green, Shara's academic rival - together with one common denominator. The day before she left, she kissed all three of them. Quickly, the trio discover Shara (unlike Paper Town's Margo) has orchestrated her disappearance, leaving behind pink envelopes with calculated riddles for them to solve. As they work together and through their differences to find out where Shara went, they discover they had more in common than they dreamed despite the boxes their religious school demands they fit themselves into.

There was a lot I enjoyed about this book. Casey's writing is, as always, phenomenal. You can tell why their work continues to sit atop so many bestsellers lists. I was really relieved to find myself sucked into her specific, narrative tone and it carried me through at least half of the book when I wasn't sure if I fully loved what I was reading. For me, this book was a bit of a struggle. I'm a character reader, and while the plot is fun and interesting, I found it difficult to enjoy the story due to the way Chloe and Shara's characters reveal themselves to readers. They are both two girls with parts of themselves under lock and key, and it made it difficult for me to care about either of them fully until they begin to open up to each other - which is over halfway through the book.

But among the things I loved were the background cast of characters, who I found more interesting than Chloe or Shara (more on that below); the clue-filled journey, with wacky mysteries and our first look into the complexities of Shara Wheeler, and the overall character arc that works so well against the backdrop of senior year. Especially given the conservative, oppressive town and school settings, Casey does a really fantastic job quietly revealing the intricacies of kids boxed in by the roles they play. I most deeply adored Smith, and I would read an entire book about him even though I don't think he needs one. I loved seeing these friendships form through the barriers of their roles, despite the tenuous nature of them forming at the end of all they've ever known. It's a bittersweet nostalgia!

I will say that I didn't feel able to really process this book until I reached the end. The message comes through loud and clear, but only in the last quarter of the novel. It takes time to really see what this journey unlocks for our characters, and especially our main characters. To be frank, Chloe and Shara are why I am giving this book four stars. I don't fully love Chloe or Shara's characters. By societal standards, I'm not supposed to love them. Casey does a good job of enforcing that while these characters have traits often negatively viewed in female characters, they're still just two kids doing their best. Chloe and Shara are both driven and lost, repressing their identities under the weight of their conservative town, and both deeply afraid. This causes both to lash out (in different ways) and makes them angry and sharp. They are self-proclaimed "monster" girls, and they're hard to relate to at times. I like reading about "difficult" female characters; I always do! But I felt that Chloe and Shara both lost the aspects of their character I deeply enjoyed when they switched from rivals to lovers. It doesn't help that we get access into their perspectives so late in the novel. By the time I begin to understand them, I'm already attached to side characters and the ideas we get about both Chloe and Shara earlier on. Honestly, I found their friends - Smith and Rory, for sure, but also Georgia and Summer and Ace and Ash - more captivating than Shara and Chloe. I am loving that Casey is sinking more energy into side characters I remember, but this is the first time I've felt that they were better than the protagonists, so I'm feeling very conflicted.

I also just... don't fully believe the relationship storyline for Chloe and Shara. There's a moment where you think Shara isn't lying about not feeling things for Chloe, that she really just wanted to fuck with her academic standing, and that moment made her the most interesting she'd been for the entire book. And when that is revealed to be a lie, I was... disappointed? I can't quite articulate why. I think it made it too easy, and it made it unrealistic for me at that moment. For example, later in the novel, when Chloe is still looking for reasons to hate Shara (and ignoring her feelings), all of Shara's friends point out the only problem they had with her was that she wouldn't open up. Not that she was terrible, or calculated, or evil. That moment weakened the entire point of the plot for me. By uncomplicating Shara Wheeler, the intrigue dropped tenfold.

It just doesn't make sense that this relationship ended romantically. They were obsessed with each other, but that doesn't always translate to a healthy romance or make them good partners (spoiler alert: I don't think, long-term, they have a chance in hell of working out). I would have enjoyed seeing their relationship play out into an unsteady truce, some kind of understanding where they went their separate ways but maybe would have found each other later in life, if romance was still the goal. I really like the idea of them learning from each other rather than becoming a couple. Ironically, an ambiguous ending would have been more logical for these two characters who are both trying to figure themselves and their lives out. Ultimately, ChloeandShara were less interesting than Chloe and Shara, which is pretty much the only reason this was a four-star read for me.

That being said, I understand that this novel is for teens and Casey wanted to give hope to young readers. I'm finding it a bit difficult to review the first YA title from an author who's written some of my favorite adult books, especially books that really give a platform to twenty-somethings figuring themselves and shit out. This story overlaps in tone and theme a lot with those older stories, which I really enjoy, but which also lends itself to comparison to her other titles much easier as a result.

I do really appreciate, as always, that these are not just messy teens but teens who are given on-page room to grow and open up! It's becoming more and more common, but it's still new enough that I get overjoyed seeing "real" teens in these pages who are exploring and questioning and learning more about themselves, especially like these teens on the cusp of going out into the big wide world outside of high school. I also appreciate that Casey continues to write a multitude of side characters who are diverse and reflect many different identities, with so much depth in them to be loved as much as I loved them by the end of this novel.

While I do have some mixed feelings for this story personally, overall I am deeply impressed by Casey's young adult debut. Once again, readers will find themselves largely rewarded by characters who are complicated and messy and interesting, and they will see themselves in their journeys. While I couldn't personally relate to the religious trauma explored in this book, I can still see that Casey handles it like a pro, and I know this book is going to hit home for so many readers who need this book. And I'm very grateful that it will be in the hands of those readers next year, helping heal the teens inside adults who needed these words, and emboldening today's teens who only need to be reminded that there is an entire world waiting for them outside of the places that oppress them and their identities.

Takes the high school rival's "why are you so obsessed with me" to its logical queer conclusion by way of obscenely complicated puzzles and lots of denial and excuses from all. Mix in coming of age, finding yourself and your people in a town that doesn't want you, and friendships that might be tested, but come out stronger for it, and you've got this perfect cataclysm of a book.

3.5 stars - it would probably be higher if my expectations weren't so high, but still, it's got quite a bit of what made Casey McQuiston's first two novels great, this time in a true YA story. As I've come to expect, it's got a well developed protagonist and love interest, and side characters that while not quite as well developed, fill out the story's universe well. The mystery element is intriguing and fun, though it wraps up a little too early in the book to be completely satisfying.

I think many readers will love the romance here, but I found the chemistry to be lacking. It leans so far into enemies-to-lovers (which worked really well in RWRB) that when the couple finally gets together, they still seem ill-suited.

As far as sapphic YA goes, I would consider this fantastic if it were written by any author. But coming from McQuiston, I expected just a little more.

i kissed shara wheeler follows chloe green, a bisexual senior who has attended willowgrove christian academy after moving from california four years ago. she teams up with two unlikely forces to figure out where shara went after she disappeared from prom.

this book is so much more than that, though. i saw so much of myself in chloe and she has so much character development, it’s impossible not to be rooting for her. the chemistry and chaos between all of the friends made this story incredible.

mcquiston’s side characters always include the most lovable misfits. the side stories of finding and accepting yourself, dealing with emotional baggage from the past, and dealing with southern small-town homophobia made this book so hard to put down.

this book had queer characters at almost every stage of self discovery which was so beyond important. the rep was amazing and this novel definitely lived up to my most anticipated read of 2022.

This was great. I wasn't so sure how academic rivals to lovers would go down with that premise, but it really did work. This book felt very fresh, and I had a great time reading it.

I wish I had this book when I was in high school. Casey McQuiston writes in such a way you feel like the characters are speaking right in front of you. You relate to all of them, feel all of their feelings, and root for them in all ways. This book grabs you immediately and holds on to you so tight even when you’re not reading the book, you’re thinking about the book at all moments of the day. I think what I love most about this book is that there’s representation of different coming out experiences that made me think if I had this book earlier in my life, I would’ve realized who I was a lot sooner.

The best friends you make are the ones who surprise you the most. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about, love, friendship, discovery, and scavenger hunts. The best combination out there.

Another fantastic entry from Casey McQuiston! While it skews more YA, it doesn't read YA, if that makes sense. The characters feel very real, and all of the side/supporting characters are fleshed out and have full sense of selves separate from the main character. Another great thing about this book is how it evolves and tackles so much more than the summary suggests - when I thought it was close to being over, it kept going and made me love it even more. If you've read McQuiston's other books, don't be scared off of this one by the YA marketing - it's so worth it!

This is the queer high school romp I wish existed when I was a teen. McQuiston creates a high school world in Alabama that is part caper, part academic-rival-to-love-interest story, and part an exploration of identity in adolescence. The protagonist is flawed but lovable, competitive to the point of alienating her friends, but open to the growth she experiences throughout the book. The supporting characters are well crafted and endowed with their own individuality, journeys, and conflicts, and they serve to bolden the tapestry of this town.

The world in this book is just aspirational enough that it's an escape. It's a little less harsh than real life, and with some of those edges sanded down it makes these characters' journeys feel turbulent-without-being-cruel in a way that is captivating without being saccharine.

Overall, McQuiston has done it again! Anyone who likes a high school story, rich queer characters/love, coming-of-age stories, and character development will enjoy this sweet and absorbing book.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC for this book!

Once again Casey McQuiston knocks it out of the park. I read this in one sitting because I could not put it down, it was so much fun. A wonderful queer YA story that's filled with humor, heartache, and characters that are relatable - all the core qualities of McQuiston's writing. As an ex-religious kid who didn't come out until adulthood this really hit me in the feels and made me reflect on just how important it is to be true to who you are. I cannot wait for young adult readers to get their hands on this, it's a really important story that I think teens need.

I received this as a e-galley from NetGalley.

This was Casey McQuiston's first YA book and I liked it a lot! The premise was interesting and the teenagers actually talked and acted like teenagers ha.

This was such a fun read. I love that about all Casey McQuiston books. They incorporate fun pop culture references is so naturally and the character interactions seem so real and genuine that I believe they are my friends the whole time. This was basically a queer Paper Towns, a reference even made in the story. I loved that story as a teenager and I still love it now. Shara Wheeler herself is probably my least favorite character in the story but everyone was so interesting that's barely an insult. I definitely recommend this story.

IKSW has everything I’ve come to love and hope for from a Casey McQuiston novel. Poignant, cutting, hilarious, overall perfect. Chloe is basically the 17-year-old version of Alex from RWRB, Shara is complex as hell, and I cannot stress how much I absolutely love the dynamic of Chloe and Rory and Smith. Characters, plot, and the balance of touching and humorous all on point.

There is something about high school in a small town that is the perfect storm of high stakes, fueling competition, absurdity, and tight bonds of both friendship and hatred for all who go through it. "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" manages to perfectly capture that, pulling readers into a story full of mysteries, kisses, unlikely alliances, and the ticking clock of graduation above its seniors' heads, all set against the backdrop of a Christian high school in Alabama. It asks its characters to look more complexly at each other, to interrogate the world around them, and to demand better of both themselves and the environment they live in. Chloe makes for a fantastic main character, pulling us alongside her through every twist and turn of the story, messing up and learning from it, and getting the reader as invested in Shara Wheeler as she is. The other characters she shares this story with are equally as interesting, and McQuiston puts in a lot of care to give them nuance and shape in this world. As always, the book is full of queer representation as well, including the majority of the main characters (Chloe herself is bi and also has two moms) and gives each of them space to define their own identities. Ultimately, this is a story about teenagers trying their best to break out of the molds they've been cast into by both others and themselves, and the beautiful chaos that can create. I think YA readers will find a lot to enjoy in this one, and I definitely recommend it.

One of the best YA contemporaries that I've read in a while!

Casey McQuiston's signature wit, humor, and lovable characters translate flawlessly into YA storytelling. This book was funny and heartfelt and an absolute page turner. I loved it!

The plot's concept is pretty similar to John Green's Paper Towns, but the characters and themes are so different that it never feels like it's trying to be anything other than itself. Where Paper Towns focuses less on personal identity and more on the importance of imagining other people complexly, I Kissed Shara Wheeler delves into identity, how places shape us, how hard it is to be authentic and recognize authenticity when stuck in a place that demands uniformity. Chloe has great development, and I love how we get to see her learn that her confidence comes across as spiky toward others who are just doing their best. She learns that her walls keep her safe, but they also stop her from seeing others clearly; she wants people to know what she's dealing with, but she doesn't want to tell them, and she doesn't want to make herself vulnerable enough to see how others feel.

The cast of characters, as expected, is utterly delightful. McQuiston is uniquely good at crafting great supporting characters, and that's on full display here. Everyone gets a chance to be funny, to be layered, to have a secret. Smith and Ace are my personal favorite side characters, they're so wonderfully himbo-esque.

A lot of YA contemporaries struggle with dialogue and slang and how the youths talk, but McQuiston nails it every time. These characters are funny and witty and occasionally stupid, all in ways that feel authentic.

As a queer person who also grew up in the south and went to a Christian school, so many of the details in how Chloe is treated really hit home. It felt honest, even in the most frustrating moment. And I also appreciated how McQuiston made Chloe face the idea that not all faith looks like that! It can be easy to paint with broad strokes when the bad guys are religious, but it's important to remember that us vs them mentality isn't accurate or fair.

Overall, a delightful step into YA. Funny and heartfelt and had me grinning the whole time.

i have spent days straight internally screaming about this book.
thank you wednesday books for sending me an e-arc!

there is so much to love about this novel that it's difficult to find a place to start.

i kissed shara wheeler delivered every aspect that you’d expect from a casey mcquiston novel:
- a chaotic bisexual protagonist
- a whole cast of charming queer characters with great chemistry
- a fast-paced plot that you can completely lose yourself in
- multiple i-have-to-put-my-book-down-to-process moments

this novel follows chloe green, an intense and unruly force of a teenage girl that you can’t help but root for as she attempts to claw her way to valedictorian before the end of her senior year. she joins forces with an unlikely group to search for shara wheeler, their small town’s golden girl and chloe’s number one competition, who mysteriously vanishes after prom.

unlike the friends in casey’s previous novels, chloe, smith, and rory are not a tight-knit group. they have history, resentment, and emotional baggage among them that makes their common mission an entertaining journey. i highly enjoyed the amount of banter and insults and was fully invested in their chaos.

i think mcquiston does well at illustrating the underlying beauty and charm of a small southern town, without asking readers to forgive any of its hatred or homophobia. it becomes a journey of acceptance for chloe that furthers her character development. and as someone who is also from california, and would often rather pretend that the south doesn’t exist, this aspect really resonated with me. the vivid description in many scenes was so well-written. it created a unique small-town energy that actually made me want to be in alabama for the first time in my life.

with tons of amazing rep, this novel highlights the life and joy queer communities can form, despite being in a tiny, conservative town. it displayed queer characters at every point in their process of self-discovery in such an impactful and genuine way. i think this novel will mean the world to a lot of young queer people.

i kissed shara wheeler is delightful, amusing, and heartfelt. it’s a novel that i will not easily forget. i absolutely loved this book and really would not change a thing about it.

Casey McQuiston did it again with I Kissed Shara Wheeler. I don't know how they managed to write a novel even better than the last (bc OLS was 😍😍) but I'm here for it. It's timeless and funny and smart and just overall feel good. The thing I love about McQuiston is their ability to not only create deep, complex protagonists but also well-founded secondary characters who you end up loving almost as much. The entire time I read, it felt like I was transported back to an early 2000's rom-com....but with a queer twist. I can't wait for others to get their hands on this book and to see what McQuiston does next.

I wasn't really sure what to make of this book but in the end I did enjoy it. I kind of felt dumb because I didn't understand almost any of the clues but that's a personal problem. I really loved all of the LGBTQIA+ representation in the book and I think if I had this much in a ya book when I was younger it would have helped a lot. To be honest the main relationship wasn't even my favorite. Casey McQuiston has a way of making me love the side relationships in their books so much. All that to say Rory and Smith, I love you.

My one major critique is that two of the characters names are too similar and I got them confused the entire book. It should be easy considering they don't go by the same pronouns but I just though it was an editing error that no one had caught. Please change either ace or ash's name.

I recieved an arc through netgalley.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a special story with a gentle nod to every queer person's inner child. Reading this book sent me flying back to being a teenager and feeling entirely out of place in my own skin. It's full of the kind of connections that make me emotional to read about - supportive and diverse families, friends from every background, and enemies facing their own insecurities along the way.

This book provided me with the soft love for beautiful friendships that I always seek in a story. All I ever want is to see queer kids making mistakes, learning from them, growing through them, and building lasting connections along the way that will make futures full of self-love and unconditional support possible. Chloe and Shara are complicated girls - they're faced with the worst aspects of themselves while trying to come to terms with the fact that people still love them and root for them regardless.

If you're looking for characters that will nurture every doubt and insecurity that being a queer kid instills in you, this book is the answer. It's one that I will hold dear for years to come!

Thank you so much, Wednesday Books, for allowing me to read I kissed Shara Wheeler early!

I loved RWRB, but I still haven’t read One Last Stop because I’m afraid it won't meet my expectations. And then I found I kissed Shara Wheeler on NetGalley. I requested it in a split second and got approved! My heart was thudding in my throat when I picked up my Kindle and started reading. Did I really dare to read another Casey McQuiston? A young adult by Casey McQuiston? Yes, I did and finished it in just a few sittings. I love Casey’s writing and her lively cast of characters. I loved the mystery element in this story, and I know many (queer) teens will love this wonderful and diverse novel. RWRB still has that special place in my heart, but I kissed Shara Wheeler is a close second. And I might read One Last Stop someday!