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!

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.

Not long before graduation, prom queen Shara Wheeler kisses her academic rival Chloe and then vanishes. Chloe is determined to find answers, and, along with Shara's neighbour and boyfriend, follows a trail of clues left by Shara to find out where she has gone.

This book is very intriguing. Right from the beginning, I wanted to know where Shara has gone and watching Chloe and her crew solve the clues was very satisfying. However, at times, I would lose patience with the characters, and towards the end, the mystery was starting to wear a bit thin. While this was at times exhausting, it made the situation feel more real and really captured the fact that people are complex beings who do not always make the best choices.

Throughout the book, I wanted so much better for Chloe, Shara and their peers, and all I wanted was to see their school change to become a safe and inclusive space. It was wonderful to see the characters grow despite their restricting school environment, and this is where the book really shone. Seeing the side characters go on a journey of self-discovery while growing into themselves was the highlight of the novel, and I times I was more invested in this development than the overall plot.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is a messy, enthralling story with characters that are both frustrating and endearing.

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

This is a fantastic sapphic YA Thriller/Mystery! Author Casey McQuiston kept me guessing through quite a bit of this novel. There are some truly heart-warming moments and a wonderful LGBTQIAP+ cast. Don't miss this one!

Chloe is such a unique character and I had a blast following her and her journey to Shari! Cuteness, kisses, humor and YA love longing make this one an adorable addition to your reads for the year.
This book is for those who want a funny and meaningful journey to finding yourself and love.

Casey McQuiston is a fantastic writer. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is smart, witty, and hilarious. I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book. It hooked me immediately with the academic rivals-to-lovers, the amazing cast of well-developed, diverse characters, and the mystery of a missing classmate.

While I felt like the religious school aspect of the book wasn’t as obvious an issue as I’d anticipated, McQuiston did a great job of subtly weaving the biases that can sometimes be formed in those environments into the characters. Like Rory and Smith, both believing that they were interested in Shara, the girl between them, and not realizing that really, they were only interested in each other. Or how Georgia struggled to overcome her fear of coming out because she was worried about her parents’ perception of her. I also loved the whole cast of characters. McQuiston did an amazing job of representing a so many queer identities, and each one was well-developed and loveable. I loved that so many characters broke traditional high school boundaries – Smith, Rory, and Ace were honestly my favorite characters. Chloe and Shara were both kind of unlikable and totally caught up on each other to the point of ignoring everyone else around, but I loved their fierce competitiveness. I still wanted to yell at them a few times, though.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The middle dragged a little bit, but the dialogue and characters kept me turning pages. The mystery was fun, I like how indignant Chloe got every time Shara anticipated what she would do. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves sarcastic, competitive, academic rivals to lovers and an entertaining high school mystery.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing the digital e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I went into IKSW without any idea of the plot, just having enjoyed McQuiston's books in the past. In many ways, this is emblematic of their writing - funny, sincere without being saccharine, a little damaged, chaotic. In other ways, it was not quite what I was expecting (not in a bad way!) This felt less like a rom-com to me than their previous books, and more like a comedy-leaning Gone Girl-style puzzle. Did it work? Yes, mostly. I had some problems with a couple of the reveals, and Shara Wheeler never felt like a real person to me (even when she was supposed to!)

I appreciated the way McQuiston handled growing up with fundamentalist Christian beliefs all around. I also appreciated how they handled many types of queerness, and the gradual exploration of many of the characters felt real and honest. Most rewardingly, McQuiston allowed their characters to explore without it ever feeling like a heavy handed "coming out" YA book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to recommending it.

This was absolutely delightful from start to finish. The characters were realistically drawn and flawed in interesting ways, and Chloe's narrative voice was funny and compelling. The diversity included felt natural and like something my gen Z students would easily relate to. I also appreciated the more nuanced discussions of small-town life and religion than one usually finds in YA literature. I look forward to having this book on my classroom library shelf.

Chloe Green is going to be valedictorian as long as Sarah Wheeler doesn’t end up with the higher grades anyway. A month before graduation, Sarah kisses her, and then Sarah just disappears. Chloe soon figures out that she wasn’t the only one Sarah kissed before she disappeared, but she’s determined to find out what is really going on.

As the book summary notes, they do attend a Christian school, and that’s something that I glossed over when reading the summary, but shouldn’t have. It’s a fairly large factor in the story, so I think that’s worth noting. Overall, interesting.

This book started out slowly, but I raced through the second half. I don’t always like YA but I love Casey McQuiston’s writing so I knew I had to read this book. McQuiston has again succeeded in crafting a fully-developed cast of supporting (queer) characters and memorable dialogue. This is my favorite YA book I have read in a while.

Thank you for the eARC NetGalley

Casey McQuiston has masterfully executed their introduction to young adult romance. After blowing me away with their first two books, it was no surprise how much I adored this book, completely meeting my expectations. It's wonderful to read about these three students who, presumably, have nothing in common other than kissing the prom queen run away, form unexpected connections with each other while. And through these new friendships, they also discover more about themselves and slowly learn to accept and embrace the parts of themselves that they have kept buried their entire lives.

This one wasn't for me. It wasn't necessarily bad, I just felt like considering the fact that it was dealing with some very heavy topics, it was all very surface and kind of fluffy.

This book was not what I was expecting at all, but that's not a bad thing!
What I expected: teenage angst, southern baptist religious trauma, sapphic fluff

What I got: a heist novel with a side of sweet tea?

I Kissed Shara Wheeler very much feels like John Green's Paper Towns. Chloe did not feel like a protagonist, so much as a bystander. Shara is the manic pixie dream girl, here. If this novel had been told from her perspective, it would have shone. The way that Shara took her own reputation down? Poetic.

I loved the ragtag group of friends and how each minor character had growth. Side note: I kept getting Ash and Ace mixed up because their names are so similar and short.

McQuiston excels at tiny, sensorial details. However, one big detail that slipped past, perhaps on purpose, is that a private Christian school in Alabama would not have the funding to stage The Phantom of the Opera, legally. That is a multimillion dollar copyright, so I assume Willowgrove staged it illegally. Sinful. Principle Wheeler already has a federal crime on his hands, why not throw in an international copyright crime, too?

I loved this book so so much. As always with McQuiston's books, the characters absolutely jumped off the page, and I felt like I knew each of them so well by the end. The mystery aspect was perfectly paced, with answers given and new questions introduced at just the right points to be satisfying and to keep me hooked. And the moments of self-realization that multiple characters experienced were so poignant that I had to put the book down and just sit in those feelings for a bit before continuing to read. McQuiston has again absolutely knocked it out of the park with this book.

I love Casey McQuiston's work and I Kissed Shara Wheeler is not the exception.
Having said that, this book was just truly outstanding and at a whole different league. The way in which McQuiston developed the plot incorporating current, and sensitive but important issues that many of our youth are currently experiencing was not only incredibly tasteful but she somewhat was even able to make it funny and lighthearted while keeping the readers engaged at the same time.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is not only book our YA crowd will enjoy, but one that they might just need.

i need to begin this review by talking about casey mcquiston's two previous books.

i see red white & royal blue as an homage to queer figures in history, and how history can change.

i see one last stop as an homage to queer communities. friends fighting for those around you, and crafting a family in the truest way you can.

and i kissed shara wheeler? it's finding the queerness in yourself, and forging a home with those around you. but quietly, as safely as you can. it's about being young and queer and afraid. but it's also about young queer joy. about realizing you're not alone, realizing it's that it's okay to question even if you think you know who you are, and finding that space where you can just be whoever that is.

chloe green knows the last four years of high school at willowgrove christian academy will all be worth it when she gets named valedictorian. the only one standing in her way is shara wheeler: the perfect, popular, prom queen. but when shara disappears after prom, chloe finds herself following clues left behind with shara's boyfriend, smith, and shara's neighbor, rory. all of whom kissed shara wheeler before she disappeared.

it’s queer ya in the way that only casey mcquiston could have written queer ya, with every bit of love and care for the queer community that their previous books do.

i've spent the back half of this year thinking about my relationship with queer contemporary ya. i claim it's my favorite sub-genre, but i find that a lot of my favorite books now tend to be adult books. maybe this is because ya is just so easy to digest, it becomes a little too palatable. i don't think anything i read is forgettable, but lately some of the ya books i read don't stick the same way.

i kissed shara wheeler is. everything i love about queer ya. it reminded me that this sub-genre is more than just easy reads. that there's ya that can really /hit/. but it can do this and still be fun, still make you laugh, still be easy to read.

i kissed shara wheeler does take place in a christian high school in alabama, and that setting is integral to the story that is told. the characters are all effected by this, in how they come out and how they don't, both to the world and to themselves. there is religious trauma and homophobia in this book, which casey addresses in the book's author's note.

i've talked about my own experience as a young queer person–figuring it out in high school, but waiting until college to be out. i went to a private catholic school for most of my life, was raised in a religious family. i didn't live in the south, but so much of this book felt familiar. it struck me in a way that i didn't expect.

it also just made me feel so nostalgic. for being backstage of a high school musical, for meeting up with your friends before school starts, even for striving for the perfect grades in each of my classes. i don't often think about high school with fondness, but this book reminded me that there are happy memories there too.

i felt so much love for being young and queer in this book that it moved me to tears multiple times as i read. to read about these teens, i wanted to hold them. from the other side, i wanted to tell them that there is a place for them. they just have to find it. they might have already.

above it all, i know this book is going to be so important for young readers. for the queer teens in the south, to see themselves and know that they can have a happy ending too.

This book was a bit painful to get into, to be honest, but I’m glad I listened to my friend’s advice and pushed through its terribly slow first half. Once I got to the second half, the story had a much better pace. I was also sufficiently attached to the characters by that point to care about what happened to them. I just wished they got introduced better in the beginning, and that the story didn’t start so abruptly.

I’m also glad that my friend set me straight at the halfway mark and told me that this wasn’t a romance, but more of a coming-of-age story. Once I stopped waiting for something that wouldn’t come until the last 5 chapters, I started to enjoy the story a lot more for what it was. I just wish it had been sold to me differently. For some reason, I was convinced that this was a YA romance, but then again, that may be entirely my brain’s fault and no one else’s.

My favorite thing about this book was definitely the side characters, especially Smith. His self-discovering journey was so sweet and relatable, and if anyone threatened to cause him any harm, I would protect him with my life. I wish the same could be said of Chloe and Shara, arguably the two main characters, but honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about them. Chloe was extremely mean, self-centered and unlikeable, and Shara lacked a personality until the very end - which, I get it, is the whole point of her character arc, but still, it made it quite difficult to care about her.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but sadly not a memorable one.