Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - I Kissed Shara Wheeler

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

24 reviews

chrisljm's review against another edition

funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Casey McQuiston writes people and communities in a way that is so special to me. The relationships and dialogue are so realistic and funny. I also love how they forge unlikely friendships, like the way Chloe’s friends and Smith are definitely not friends, yet they still took the time to be a part in helping Smith make important life realizations because that’s how a community is and it was so touching for me to read that. In life there are little things and there are big things, and McQuiston knows how to make the little things just as important as the big things.

I think this is an especially good book for young adults who think they may be queer. But, I also think this is good for people to gain a different perspective into the bible belt because it’s so easy to disregard red states for being like That and to think that everyone living there are unanimous in thinking like That. But this book provides a look into how there are people and communities living within these tough places doing and dealing with it in a way they can while also calling it home.

The last thing I want to say is that something I love across all McQuiston’s books is that they impart this joy and feel goodness, leaving you hopeful for better even if you might’ve reacted otherwise in reality and I think it’s a good reminder for the times when you think that everything is hopeless.

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book started out so strong. However, it wound up letting me down in the long run.

The beginning reminded me a lot of Paper Towns, aka my favorite book from my high school years and still my top pick by John Green. In fact, there's even a moment during the story where they say something along the lines of, "this isn't a John Green novel," and it made me burst out laughing because that's precisely what it felt like.

However, as time went on, the story shifted away from mystery and intrigue to a very typical high school contemporary. It had drama, hormones, and angst and while all of that is fine and dandy, it didn't feel unique at all. I completely lost interest in the second half of the book and truthfully, remember very little of how it even ended.

I wanted so much more from this one but it wound up being a bummer.

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Cute, fun, mysterious. A great summer read filled with queer joy to bolster your spirits.

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msimmons13's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I absolutely loved the concept of queer joy set in Alabama. But when

shara comes back < spoiler> it’s a bit disjointed and unbelievable that her parents just wouldn’t care. Other than that loved and I would read a stand alone about Smith and Rory in a heartbeat 😭

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amandalorianxo's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I went into this fully aware that this is Casey's first young adult novel but I honestly did not see any difference between this one and their previous two novels, minus possibly better handling of their poc characters as well as less spice/sexual situations. I also realize I most likely was not the intended audience for this book and that's ok. I do think me being over the age of 25 had more of a critical lens walking into this. Chloe and Shara were not characters that I particularly found myself enjoying or wanting to read about the more I continued with this book. The writing itself was bad, it was the execution that had me raising my eyebrows. Am I going to like every character every written? No, of course not. But I also think both of them were unapologetically selfish, and manipulative to the point where everything and everyone around them just didn't matter until they received their prize. It was.... odd. For example, If Shara actually had any inkling that Smith

liked Rory or Rory liked Smith, why kiss Smith? Why not just talk to him/ befriend him and treat him like a human being instead of toying/messing with both boys emotionally?

I feel if Shara had been a bipoc girl and done this, reviewers would be fawning over her as much as I seen them do. Also, how are the parents in this novel absent throughout these last couple of months? That just didn't seem realistic to me, small town, big city...you gotta give adults a little more credit than that no? Idk If I found myself more inclined to devour the parts where Rory, Summer. Smith, Georgia, Ace and other side characters were mentioned more so than Shara or Chloe. I also feel as if Shara and Chloe only got away with certain things because they were of the majority (meaning white in terms of race) and if either of them were girls of color, a lot of this wouldn't happen aka

smear campaign against Shara's dad? Oh he has a great lawyer so he will get away with it. What?

I thought this would be third times the charm but I think McQuiston just isn't the author for me.

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emily_journals's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I absolutely LOVED Casey McQuiston's past 2 books... and this one did not have the same standard as those two unfortunately. This book wasn't bad, but it definitely was not as good as Red, White, and Royal Blue or One Last Stop. Red, White, and Royal Blue didn't have the most incredible supporting cast, but the two main characters were so likeable and there was so much wit and humor in the book that it made up for the standard supporting cast. One Last Stop went a step further and took a lot of the whit and humor that shined in Red, White, and Royal Blue, and added an absolutely STUNNING supporting cast. This book... didn't have either of those things. Both of the main characters were.... awful? They weren't poorly written or characterized, but they both were genuinely not good people, and I could not find myself rooting for them. They're both mean to each other in the worst ways, and they are both equally as awful to their friends (Shara especially is really mean spirited and manipulative to everyone in her life). Additionally, I absolutely could not feel any chemistry between them. In addition, the supporting cast had the potential to be really incredible, but just ended up being somewhat uninspired aside from a few stand out characters. The plot was the main driving force of this book, which is not true of Red, White, and Royal Blue or One Last Stop (I would say both of those books are very much character driven books with a plot added on as a nice ribbon to tie everything together). The exception to this is Smith and Rory; they both had really good character arcs and were really shining characters (and almost all of the wit came from one of them). The mystery of WHERE IS SHARA WHEELER? also felt really unnecessary and superfluous. I think this story would have been just fine without the little scavenger hunt that takes up more than half the book (which is fully of inconsistencies and confusion). If McQuiston was really set on having this weird mystery, I think they should have done a lot more work on it, because it ended up being quite clunky and boring to read. I think this story would have faired much better if the clues and mystery and Shara just up and vanishing was replaced with something a little more believable and compelling. I get that the whole point of the letters was to get Chloe to talk to these people that she had subconsciously categorized as high school stereotypes with no substance, but I think the method to having Chloe discover this could have been handled a lot better to make the story more compelling.

Overall, this book was fine, but I found myself extremely disappointed with it because of how much I've loved McQuiston's previous works. This book was perfectly average, with (mostly) vanilla characters, and a dull plot, which is not a way I would describe either of McQuiston's previous works. I think that this book had a lot of important themes for younger readers, but I don't think it stands close to McQuiston's other works, and might recommend people to skip this one if they're reading it solely because they enjoyed those two books.

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bookishfaye's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I have very mixed feelings???

🍂 positives:
- yassification of John Green novels like Looking For Alaska/Paper Towns meets Rachel Berry x Quinn Fabrey Glee fanfic
- the plot was entertaining, the writing style kept me intrigued & the character dynamics & tropes were fun
- academic rival tropes are just so elite
- I do love that pretty much every character was queer

🍂negatives:
- this book just felt reaaally basic & average however, like it was enjoyable, but very much gave written by a white queer person.
- like not live laugh love Karen per say, but more like live laugh love McKinlin (gen x/millennial vibes)
- I just expected more from Casey & their writing with how much hype their books have, & honestly feel very like “that’s it…?”
- the pop culture references were sometimes entertaining, but usually quite the eye roll

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missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

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3.25

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sarahna's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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isabel_c's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So fucking cute oml. I loved this book so much. It was so cute and I binged the last 3/4 of it in 5 hours. I reccomend this for any teen or young adult who is questioning their queerness and wants to read something that could represents a real life experience they’ve had. In all I loved this and love Casey McQuiston’s writing. READ THIS BOOK

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