Review: I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

 

Shara Wheeler is perfect: she’s popular, academic, and the principal of Willowgrove Christian Academy’s daughter. She’s also a natural threat to Chloe Green winning valedictorian and getting out of her small, judgemental town in Alabama for good. Then Shara kisses Chloe a month before graduation and disappears, leaving Chloe confused and reluctantly curious for answers.

Following a set of cryptic, well-designed clues Shara left behind, Chloe teams up for a scavenger hunt with the two main players from Shara’s life — her long-term boyfriend, and the boy-next-door. With the race to graduation on, Chloe is thrown into a world that was right outside her front door the whole time, where she learns that people shouldn’t be judged by who she thinks they are.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a necessary and timely queer YA rom-com that presents a fresh take on the ‘mean girl’ trope. McQuiston expertly weaves in an enemies-to-lovers plot and a loveable, well-drawn cast of teens. The book breathlessly shows this cast taking the next steps into adulthood, affirming or discovering their queerness across the full spectrum of the LGBTQ+ umbrella against the backdrop of an unaccepting small town, while also showing that people do not have to behave perfectly to be loved. There are some beautiful, affirming coming out scenes. The premise is deceptively complex, but neatly paced, and everything ties up satisfyingly by the end.  

Courtney Smyth