I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston: Book Review

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston is a highly entertaining and hilarious coming of age novel that emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself and going after what you want with all your heart.

Chloe Green is so close she can literally taste her stunning victory. Her life has been pretty interesting ever since her moms moved her from California to Alabama for high school. She’s spent four long years dealing with mean schoolmates, endless small town gossip and the narrow-minded and moralistic administration that governs Willowgrove Christian Academy. All of that doesn’t matter because she only cares about one thing—winning valedictorian. There’s only one person who is standing in her way: the queen of everything, also known as Shara Wheeler, the principal’s daughter.

But there’s just one problem, Shara kisses Chloe and then she pulls a disappearing act a month before graduation.

Chloe is annoyed and confused and she wants answers sooner rather than later so she embarks on a relentless hunt for clues. But Chloe finds out that she wasn’t the only one Shara kissed and now she feels bewitched, bothered and bewildered. There’s Smith—Shara’s boyfriend who is also Willowgrove’s golden boy, and Rory—Shara’s rebellious neighbor who’s been making love faces at her for years. Chloe, Smith and Rory don’t move in the same social circles and they have nothing in common except for the fact that Shara kissed them and the enigmatic notes she left behind for them to solve. It will pay off in the end, if Chloe can bring Shara back before graduation so that she could beat Shara and fulfil her dreams of being the valedictorian.

Smith, Rory and Chloe have formed an unexpected alliance. They have been chasing clues, solving puzzles and discovering jaw-dropping secrets through parties, ‘Mission Impossible’ break-ins and they’ve learned a lot of interesting things about each other from the beautiful notes Shara left for them. Chloe begins to realize that there might be more to this small town and she feels as though she has been too quick to dismiss all the good experiences she has had over the past four years. Who knows what else she might have overlooked… maybe there’s a whole new universe hidden inside of Shara Wheeler.

Pros And My Favourite Parts

Casey McQuiston has blown my mind again! I’m speechless and sleepless because I’ve spent all my free time tagging along with Chloe, Smith and Rory while they were feverishly searching for clues in order to find Shara. I never thought that I would love this book as much as I loved One Last Stop but I was proven wrong when I got past the first page and I realized that I didn’t want to put my kindle down and be a responsible adult and go to bed or go to work. This story is everything that my queer, nerdy heart has ever desired and I felt so connected to these unforgettable, authentic and easy-to-love characters. After devouring this literary delight, I can’t wait to see what this wonderful author does next!

Cons And Heads Up

There were moderate descriptions of bullying, religious trauma, racism, misogyny and homophobia.

The Conclusion

I Kissed Shara Wheeler will go down in herstory as one of the best books I’ve read for 2022 because it’s an engrossing academic rivals-to-lovers romance that focuses on friendship, religion, queer identity and the long, messy road to self-discovery. If you’ve been searching for a snarky, charming and witty coming of age novel, then look no further because this is the perfect story for you!

Excerpt from I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

“Me and Ace drove around every square mile of False Beach looking for her yesterday,” Smith says. “We checked everywhere she likes to go to see if maybe she was at the Cinemark on Houghton or Sonic or the park with all the magnolia trees by the Dick’s Sporting Goods, and she wasn’t at any of them. I was out there for hours. So, yeah. I care.”

The look on Rory’s face is a blinking cursor at the top of a blank Word document, so Chloe takes the opening.

“Then you need us,” she tells Smith. “Obviously this is… some kind of puzzle Shara set up for us, and we all have a piece of it. Once we solve it, we’ll know where she is.”

Smith finally breaks his glare at Rory to look at her.

“Where’s your piece?”

“I’m working on it,” Chloe grouses. “But there’s no point in finding it if we can’t all agree we’re in this together.”

Smith’s attention snaps back to Rory. “You’re cool with that?”

“Look, I don’t want to give a shit about this, but I do,” Rory says, having finally recovered. “If Shara keeps mentioning the three of us, it probably means we’re all supposed to be here, so, like, whatever. I’ll do it.”

“So will I,” Chloe says. “Which means if you want to know where your girlfriend is, you gotta get over the fact that she kissed us. Like, quickly.”

All around them, the rest of Willowgrove is filtering into first hour, and every single one of them takes a second to stare as they pass. Chloe Green, the one who scored a 35 on the ACT. Smith Parker, the saint who led Willowgrove to the state champ title two years in a row. And Rory Heron, best known for flooding the bio lab on purpose. The three of them occupying the same spot is ripping a hole in the Willowgrove space-time continuum.

Smith is visibly doing some mental calculations. It’s obvious he and Rory would rather do just about anything than spend another second in each other’s company, which means Chloe’s life is about to be a nonstop tornado of egos, but she can deal with it as long as they get her to a fair victory. Like Willowgrove, it’s a necessary evil.

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