Book 8: I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

our return the McQuiston-verse.....

Apr 01, 2024

The book:

Last summer, I spent Fourth of July weekend in Eclectic, Alabama, on the banks of Lake Martin. It felt like a vision of Southern Americana, with boats, and beer, and University of Alabama flags flying above vacation homes. I have nothing but great things to say about my experience of Southern summer fun, but there were moments where I was reminded that I’m an outsider to this particular vision of Americana. When my friends and I got dressed to go to a bar, shucking our bathing suits in favor of real clothes, I was informed that I would be noticeably overdressed in my sundress and warned that people would stare. I asked if I should change, but no. My hosts said people would stare at me no matter what I was wearing – I have short hair and a nose ring. Toto, I don’t think we’re in California anymore.

with Leila and Ana, getting stared at in Alabama

I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston’s first young adult novel, is set on the banks of Lake Martin and explores young love and the feeling of being an outsider in Alabama. The book’s hook is delicious: popular girl Shara Wheeler kisses proud outcast Chloe Green before disappearing into the night, leaving behind a series of envelopes with clues to where she’s gone. To unravel Shara’s disappearance, Chloe partners with Shara’s boyfriend, Smith, and next-door neighbor, Rory–both of whom Shara also left with a kiss and an envelope. As they work together, the three classmates build friendship and understanding, despite their disparate social standings, and even as Chloe grows distant from her own friends.

As their search continues, Chloe remains devoted to solving Shara’s riddles, even as Smith and Rory lose hope that Shara wants to be found. Chloe is oblivious to her own feelings, to a degree that strains realism; she’s aware of her fanatical obsession with Shara, but she categorizes it as academic rivalry. To Chloe, finding Shara is winning, and any other outcome is admitting defeat. Shara’s motivations remain obscure for longer, and we are drawn into her mystery alongside Chloe. Each clue Shara leaves is teasing and evasive, promising to reveal something about herself, but revealing instead another layer of calculation. To keep this review spoiler-free, I won’t say more, but I will admit to being surprised by Shara’s reason for disappearing. It was a satisfying subversion of my expectations.

In the back half of the book, we lose the envelopes, and the pacing suffers a bit, but there’s more interesting character work to be done. Even as their relationship bends towards the romance promised by the title, Chloe and Shara’s relationship remains delightfully unhinged. Chloe’s friendship with Smith and Rory grows stronger and forms the basis for a larger found family that is both extremely sweet and utterly unrealistic (and contains a level of diversity that verges on tokenizing). Secondary characters pair up neatly into couples– a bit of a pet peeve of mine in rom-coms, as the background couples fall a bit flat.

Casey McQuiston’s particular brand of diversity

One of the aspects of Red, White & Royal Blue that I most enjoyed was McQuiston’s ability to connect characters’ journeys to larger societal and cultural issues. In Shara Wheeler, they do the same, with characters coming of age chafing against their community’s expectations. These expectations weigh on outcasts and paragons of popularity, alike. In McQuiston’s telling, we see that rebelling against the system and excelling within the system are two sides of the same coin. Defining yourself in opposition to society’s standards means you're still paying attention to society’s standards. Shara Wheeler is the epitome of excelling within the system, which makes her a fascinating character. Again, I don’t want to say too much, because there’s a real joy to the way information is unraveled over the course of the story, but I was so drawn in by Shara’s need to control her own narrative. She puts up a facade so complete she almost fools herself. She’s crazy!!! In a way that’s so fun to read about.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a fantastically readable coming-of-age love story that wants you to feel understood. Even with the pacing challenges in the ending, I couldn’t put it down. The clues give the first half of the story a relentless pace, and the characters underpinning the story are bursting with heart. McQuiston clearly cares deeply about their characters and their readers, and it makes their writing a delight to read.

By the way, if you’re interested in the full McQuiston-verse journey, my review of RWRB is here (TL;DR I loved the book and hated the movie). McQuiston’s second novel, One Last Stop, will not be getting a dedicated post because I read it ages ago and didn’t enjoy it enough to justify a reread. In short, the minor characters didn’t resonate with me, the main characters can only interact when they’re on the subway, which doesn’t feel like enough interaction for two people to fall in love1, and having sex on a New York subway seat is definitely unsanitary. I’ve also read McQuiston’s upcoming novel, The Pairing, and I may write a review once it’s out in the world. It’s very raunchy and very fun.

Reading experience: 8/10

The soundtrack:

God bless theater kids. Chloe and her friends sure do love musical theater. I am theater kid-adjacent, (like Chloe, I was once in the musical Godspell. Unlike Chloe, I am bad enough at singing, that I was one of only two people to not receive a solo) but I would not have had the patience to deal with classmates who sing Phantom of the Opera this often. Between Phantom and Pomp and Circumstance, this is not a playlist well-suited to casual listening. It works better as a soundtrack, where we have a scene out of a heist movie incongruously set to Dave Matthews Band and a party scene with a well-timed (and thematically relevant) Mr. Brightside.