Casey McQuiston is the author of New York Times bestselling romantic comedies Red, White, & Royal Blue and One Last Stop. As a Louisianian living in New York City, Casey enjoys telling long, loud stories and deep-frying things in a kitchen that's honestly too small for all that. Often in that tiny kitchen is an always-hungry poodle called Pepper. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is Casey's first young adult novel. You can find more of my reviews of Casey's works here.
Chloe Green is so close to winning. She's spent the four years since her moms moved her from Southern California to Alabama for high school dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The goal that's kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal's perfect progeny. But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she's not the only one Shara kissed. There's also Smith, Shara's longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara's bad-boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara's trail of clues to find her. It'll be worth it if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair and square. Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationary, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe—probably not, but maybe—more to Shara, too. Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston's I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.
What's not to love about this book? It is just an absolutely wonderful YA story about teenagers in high school figuring out who they are and the place they want for themselves in the world. All the best YA is, but McQuiston puts her own refreshing twist on it. Chloe's narration is sharp and funny, full of heart. The main characters—Shara, Rory and Smith—are all insanely complex in the most perfect ways, demonstrating just how hard it is to exist as a teenager, especially in a religious and southern town. And even everything on the outskirts—Chloe's other friends and Smith's other friends and Shara's other friends and Rory's other friends, and just the other kids in high school to begin with—are all given a small spotlight, to show the myriad of people that exist in high school and help make high school the weird, awful, fascinating, fun thing that it is.
Speaking of, I really enjoyed the emphasis of Chloe's arc where she's learning how to be herself in the physical place that she's in. More than anything, this is what I related to the most. Chloe moved to Alabama for high school from California, and to say that she had a trying time adjusting might be an understatement. Kids who move away from all they've ever known in between middle school and high school all have my undying love and support, because it's such a weird time to make such a big transition. Chloe and I fell prey to the same types of oversight and prejudices, which is why this element of her arc was so important to me. Watching her finish out her high school time in such a powerful way made me so glad McQuiston incorporated this arc for her character. It makes Chloe more three-dimensional, more real to me.
I've seen I Kissed Shara Wheeler described as a sort of Paper Towns but where the characters are likable and the narration is refreshing, and I'd just have to agree. Paper Towns was my favorite John Green novel, but McQuiston takes this concept to a whole new level. To start, Shara really seems like such a bad person! Chloe's narration and bias really rubs off on our interpretation of Shara, which works effectively for readers to understand all the growth Chloe has to make in order to reach her rom-com ending. It also continues to demonstrate how complex teenagers are, and how important the representation of that complexity is in YA literature. More than anything—more than having likable characters, more than sprucing up a concept we recognize—McQuiston's dedication to the voice of the novel, to the complexity of the teenage experience, is what what makes this their most powerful novel yet.
Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention how perfect of an aesthetic this book has. I've always loved how colorful Casey's books are, and how much detail goes into her characters—to the point where we know signature nail colors or shoe brands they would wear. I feel like I would know exactly which friends to recommend this novel to, all because of the cover and presentation of the novel, all because of the specific details I can remember. I find that strength is in the details with novels, and because that's the case, then I Kissed Shara Wheeler remains off the chart.
Casey McQuiston is definitely going to keep writing, and I'm definitely going to keep picking up every book they publish. Until then, you can find more of my reviews of Casey's works here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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