I Kissed Shara Wheeler
Ratings140
Average rating3.8
The characters really shine in this. The side characters are vibrant and capture your heart. Chloe and Shara aren't perfect and they actively make mistakes throughout the book, but they learn and grow in a way that feels earned. The dynamics between Rory, Smith, and Chloe and their varying motivations for pursuing the letters were interesting to watch play out and unwind. I do wish the elements of faith were explored in more depth, but the bits we do get were nuanced and intriguing. Fun, quirky, queer romcom!!
I don't know why this is McQuiston's lowest rated book. I actually enjoyed this much more than One Last Stop. While I did like OLS, it felt bloated by McQuiston trying to do too much. This one is much more centered on the main character and her own flaws. It combines several romantic tropes, including in book characters reading or referencing books that inspired the book you're reading.
There were funny moments that made me laugh out loud; moments that made me want to hug characters; moments that made me hopeful.
I truly loved this book and hope more people find it.
I think that what maybe might be a barrier for people is that the main character is very flawed, very stupid in smart ways, and it's the same catch-22: people want complicated female characters but can't handle them.
Chloe is sometimes incredibly unlikable, but so are teenagers in general. She's selfish but gets called out for it and (most importantly) makes amends.
halfway through got into slight ???oh nooo don???t go there??? territory and then pulled it back in the last third. it???s sappy but it???s good. had a little cry even!
???The problem has always been this: When I look at you, I taste lime, and I see light on water.???
The more i read YA the more i realize there are very few YA books that actually do it for me, i cared more about Smith & Rory than anything else
I hate giving this book a 4 ⭐, I would loved for it to be a 5, but I do feel that compared to the other 2 books of Casey McQuiston this is less interesting and fun.
Let's put it this way, this felt more like the idea of a teen series than a book, and if it was that, I would have bidged the series in a night!
Don't get me wrong, I still listen to it in 2 days and wanted to get to the ending but I felt there were moments that it was dragging to long and nothing interesting was happening.
In the beginning it was fun and interesting but the second half not so much. I still love this writer and I anticipate her next books and ideas.
3.25 ★
oh man i don't have much to say, it was cute... really adored the smith and rory side story tho
This was sooo much better than RW&RB. Very cute mystery romance read. Gave me very much Paper Towns meets PLL without the murder.
Such a diverse range of characters in the middle of their coming of age moments. Loved seeing that growth as each individual character slowly discovers themselves.
sapphic academic rivals to lovers? a paper towns inspired plot? casey mcquiston wrote this book FOR ME
3 but a nice 3 :)) i enjoyed it and the characters were very articulate if that makes sense. as in they felt like people i know and i felt that i readily understood the messages and personalities the author was trying to portray through them, not that they spoke with any particular eloquence or clarity.
I wish this book had existed when I was a teenager.
There are so many stories that matter in this book. Some of them are revealed slowly, but all are so important. I think the empathy in this book is quite astounding too- it has a naunce that so many books just do not have, especially in YA.
If 13 Reasons Why and Gossip Girl had a less violent and much gayer baby. As with most YA main characters though, I found Chloe petulant and self-obsessed. Of course I wanted her to end up with Shara who was equally self-obsessed, but I would have cared more about this book as a whole if it was just about Smith and Rory. I liked the scavenger hunt aspect. Georgia deserved better throughout this whole book. I think this would make a great mini-series. It was just ok for me.
finished this yesterday but it was so underwhelming that i kinda forgot i read it tbh.
I went into this with a positive attitude because i wanted to like it. WLW books are my favourite type of relationships in books and can usually make any book a 3-5 star for me but this wasn't the case this time around :(((
Casey McQuinston isn't for me. I read RWRB and HATED it... actually despised it but i wanted to give the author another chance and here's that chance. I really wanted to like this and i'm upset i didnt :(
High school can be restricting, suffocating, torturous. But it can also lead to strong friendships, electric romance, and bitter rivalries with intensities stronger than anything else life can offer. I Kissed Shara Wheeler explores this in a fast paced, fun, emotional way.
this is about all cmq books & not just this one but for someone who claims to write diverse books about different queer identities, there definitely is a lack of ace and aro characters in their books. on the same note, NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE PAIRED UP. let people be single & happy jfc. especially when the couple is as toxic as chloe & shara
this book has everything: jocks who are questioning their gender identity, stoners who write poetry about quarterbacks, preppy girls who kiss theatre girls in the bathroom at a christian academy, an enby who loves mushrooms and is super into art, and of course, a lesbian enemies-to-lovers romance that is quite literally the most interesting romance i have ever read. and i hate enemies-to-lovers. everytime you think you know a character and why they act the way they do, mcquiston sheds light on a different faucet of them and shows you a new glipse on who they truly are. i laughed, i cried, and i felt oddly nostalgic about my own christian upbringing and closested high school experience. well done. 5/5. would read again.
Rating: 3.5 stars
The characters were likeable, realistic and I loved the broad diversity. The story was interesting enough to keep me interested, however it didn't blow me away. I also didn't like the main character, Chloe, that much (particularly because she was obsessing over one person soooo much that this was the only thing in her head pretty much all the time which then resulted into hurting the people surrounding her).
I loved the build up to the twist at the end of the story and wasn't disappointed. I want to hear more from the author.