I am typically on the fence about YA books. This one was great for me! Chloe, Rory, Smith, and of course the titular Shara were such fun characters and I really enjoyed the book.
Have you read Paper Towns by John Green? This is a very similar premise (the book is aware of this, Chloe makes a comment about Shara making herself the main character in a John Green novel) so if you liked that you would probably like this as well.
There is a ton of queer rep in this book. Loved seeing queer teens banding together in a conservative Christian Georgia town. I’m usually a hard no to books that involve religion but it was fine in this for me.
I Kissed Shara Wheeler is out 5/3! Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance copy of the audiobook! 🌸

This will be posted on Instagram @katebrownreads as well!

*SLIGHT SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!*

I liked this book. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a YA by Casey McQuiston, but I thought it was really good.

So, the book starts with Shara Wheeler kissing 3 different people and then disappears, which leads them on a hunt to find her. She’s left clues and they have to decipher them. This was clever, it mostly kept me interested.

The reason I gave this 4 stars is because it felt like there was too much happening throughout the book. Like, the following the clues bit comes to a resolution, and then there is almost an entirely new plot line 3/4 of the way into the book.

I also didn’t like the MC, Chloe. She was kind of annoying and know-it-all-y (that was kind of the point, but still), and I just didn’t really care about her. Now, give me a book with Rory and Smith as the MCs and I would be all over that. Honestly, I would read about pretty much any of the other side characters, I just didn’t like Chloe or Shara. It feels kind of weird to say, but it felt like the side characters had more personality and depth than both Chloe and Shara. Like, their whole personalities were basically ‘we’re super smart and über academically competitive’ and that was it.

Something I really liked was that all of these kids are attending a super religious school in a rural Georgia town. Yet, despite it being extremely Christian and conservative, there were A TON of queer kids at the school! None of them were out (except for one), for fairly obvious reasons, but they were still there. In the face of all the terrible anti-LGBTQ legislation in the US right now, I loved that this book is kind of throwing that in their faces, like, see, even if you don’t talk about it or acknowledge it in any way, kids are still going to be queer!

I was nostalgic for high school and I didn’t even like high school.

Shara Wheeler disappeared midway through prom and no one knows where she went. Before leaving, Shara kissed Chloe, and Chloe has no idea why, but she intends to find out and expose Shara for who she really is: a horrible and fake person. In I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston, Chloe Green and some unlikely accomplices follow a trail of notes with clues Shara has left for them in order to uncover where she’s gone.

This book had elements of Mean Girls and High School Musical, but with a wild easter egg hunt that includes wild parties, breaking into the principal’s office, and crawling through air ducts. I was all about it. I loved being in the dark as much as Chloe as she hunted for Shara. I loved how much McQuiston used the song Mr. Brightside. This story was so entertaining and kept me captivated the entire time.

I really enjoyed this YA novel! It reminded me of a more upbeat cross between Paper Towns and 13 Reasons Why. Like Casey McQuiston's other novels. I kissed Shara Wheeler had incredibly dynamic characters, which made it an enjoyable book!

As always, the narration from Natalie Naudus is immaculate and the audio was so clean -- no awkward pauses, or breaths, or weird swallowing noises you often hear from other narrators. For the book itself, the pacing was a little slow, but that's probably my preference for fast-paced books, rather than a short falling of this book. It was a really fun story with wonderful characters. Another win from Casey McQuiston and Natalie Naudus!

Thank you to Libro.FM and netgalley for my review copy of this audiobook!

I enjoyed this story, though I think I prefer McQuistons adult works to this YA. I thought the characters were all lovable, though I like the depth and quirkiness of the side characters in RWRB and OLS better. In my opinion, Casey's best quality as a writer is their ability to write amazing characters, which I would say wasn't as strong in this book as other previous, though I did absolutely LOVE Chloe. This book held McQuistons trademark wit that almost always landed; though a few references felt a bit out of touch, others felt to brazenly authentic that felt very unique to this novel.

As for the audiobook, I thought the narrators voice was a bit too mature for the YA characters, which felt a bit bizarre. I'm a huge fan of this narrator in her other works, but I think her voice just wasn't completely right for this audiobook as her voice is a bit deeper than average. Still, I really enjoyed her voice acting, and it was a very high quality audio!