Book Review: I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuistion

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuistion

Summary from GoodReads: 

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 a puritanical administration at 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.

This book made me reflect on my high school experience, a lot. About what it's like for queer kids to be in an environment where being themselves would be detrimental to their entire world, but NOT being themselves is hurting them just as much.

When I was in high school 2004-2008, "gay" was an insult. 

The three letter word that starts with "F" was thrown about as well. 

"No homo" was another phrase often uttered. 

One of my best friends who I had known since I was 5 years old had to put on a fake persona throughout his school years. He came out to me in college over the phone. "I think you've heard something about me" he said. I had another friend from another school come out to me in college over lunch. They couldn't do this in the small conservative towns we were from, they had to wait to be their true selves. 

A girl in the grade below me stirred up controversy when she told people she was bisexual. 

"That's not a real thing." 

"She's doing it for attention"

 "What a liar"

Her name was Sally and like so many others that couldn't get out of our town, she fell into drugs and overdosed before she was thirty. Same story with a girl named Maggie, who couldn't tell the truth about being into girls in high school. Both gone in their mid-twenties.

I recently dug through Facebook and found another classmate a year younger than me that went through addiction, beat it and came out as transgender and transitioned. He is doing fine from the looks of it. I'm glad he made it. 

One of my good friends who sadly told me I was going to Hell for thinking that same sex marriage was OK now is the proud and supportive parent of a transgender little girl. He is her fiecerest advocate. 

In Shara Wheeler I saw the story of these kids I went to school with reflected on the page. We had so little understanding and compassion for people who didn't fit that town's expectations that we ultimately and unknowingly shepherded them to some scary ends.

I hope this book helps those kids who don't see a way out. I hope it makes them realize there are people beyond their small schools, beyond their churches and beyond their adults expectations that will love and accept them until others can. 

I would of loved if this book was from different POV's as I never got a complete picture of who Shara was. It would of also been amusing to see things from the perspective of Casey's fantastic side characters. Georgia, Ace, Ash, Rory and Smith were all fantastic and interesting. 

In all, this was a fun YA book that I think will resonate with a lot of teens. Highlights include, a heist involving the principals office, hangouts featuring Taco Bell, and general teenage fun rebellion. 

3.5 stars