From the New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop and Red, White & Royal Blue comes a romantic comedy about chasing down what you want, only to find what you need...
Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing 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 …
From the New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop and Red, White & Royal Blue comes a romantic comedy about chasing down what you want, only to find what you need...
Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing 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 and 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 stationery, 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.
It's a petty high school rivalry/love story, so, don't expect anything else. Buuut. I like it a lot.
I don't usually appreciate those marketing comparisons of different authors. But I kept thinking two of them:
- "this is like John Green (and maybe David Levithan) but without all the stuff that makes me roll my eyes"
- "this is like Courtney Summers, but without all the terrible bad things happening"
It's fairly lighthearted, it has a lot of queers, and I like how the big plot/character issues are at the same time shown as deeply important and totally everyday.
Oh there are so many things I loved in this one. First of all, this huge fucking scavenger hunt - Shara organized her disappearance so well, she must truly be a genius. All to distract her nemesis, Chloe, who's certainly not obsessed with Shara, but still can't stop trying to find her.
On and on they try to win the upper hand on who wins valedictorian and who makes whom obsessed with them, it's kind of kinky, but also just mean. They're assholes and they're angels. They're bitches and they're hell fucking amazing. They deserve each other.
But this is not just about Chloe and Shara. On this journey, you discover so many side characters, where you first think "probably a douchebag", but then this football quarterback turns out gay and non-binary, another one just loves kissing absolutely everybody but never thought about having a queer identity. Heck, they're all …
Oh there are so many things I loved in this one. First of all, this huge fucking scavenger hunt - Shara organized her disappearance so well, she must truly be a genius. All to distract her nemesis, Chloe, who's certainly not obsessed with Shara, but still can't stop trying to find her.
On and on they try to win the upper hand on who wins valedictorian and who makes whom obsessed with them, it's kind of kinky, but also just mean. They're assholes and they're angels. They're bitches and they're hell fucking amazing. They deserve each other.
But this is not just about Chloe and Shara. On this journey, you discover so many side characters, where you first think "probably a douchebag", but then this football quarterback turns out gay and non-binary, another one just loves kissing absolutely everybody but never thought about having a queer identity. Heck, they're all THE coolest.
Most of the things in this book, you really don't expect. But when they happen, you laugh "of fucking course!", because it's both funny and also exactly what the story needed. Literally half the book is quote-worthy. Definitely all of it is read-worthy. Top five Chloe moment.
I listened to the audiobook and herein lies my dilemma. I absolutely loved the art of narrating provided by Natalie Naudus. I think I might even have found a new favourite narrator.
Based on the audiobook version I would have rated it four and a half stars, but at the end of the day I'm clearly not the target group and overall - although I felt well entertained - it's not my cup of tea.
I grew up in the Midwest, not the South, but boy did Chloe's experience as an academically high-achieving theatre kid at a Christian high school in a smallish town resonate with me on every conceivable level.
This is, on its surface, a story about high school girl who goes missing and another high school girl who goes looking for her. In its heart, though, it's a book about belonging. It's about finding your people, even when those people are the people you least expect to be able to claim as yours. It's about being yourself, even when the world around you would strongly prefer you be someone else. It's about gender and queerness and longing and flowers and bookstores and kisses and prom dresses and maybes. It's such a beautiful, quirky exploration of the best and worst parts of high school, written by someone who clearly understands the subject matter …
I grew up in the Midwest, not the South, but boy did Chloe's experience as an academically high-achieving theatre kid at a Christian high school in a smallish town resonate with me on every conceivable level.
This is, on its surface, a story about high school girl who goes missing and another high school girl who goes looking for her. In its heart, though, it's a book about belonging. It's about finding your people, even when those people are the people you least expect to be able to claim as yours. It's about being yourself, even when the world around you would strongly prefer you be someone else. It's about gender and queerness and longing and flowers and bookstores and kisses and prom dresses and maybes. It's such a beautiful, quirky exploration of the best and worst parts of high school, written by someone who clearly understands the subject matter on a deeply personal level.
If I'd had this book in high school, maybe I could have known myself sooner.
