Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - I Kissed Shara Wheeler

Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

93 reviews

fanboyriot's review against another edition

lighthearted 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

5.0

I seriously loved so many of the characters in this book. Chloe, Smith, Rory and at the end even Shara—which was surprising—were all my absolute favorites.

At first I wasn’t sure I’d like this story, kinda just seeing most of the characters as their stereotype, however, much like Chloe, I learned they were so much more. It was really nice to see so much queer rep with a small town setting (and in a typically queerphobic state as well).

I really enjoyed so many things about this book, Smith and his love for flowers, Chloe’s moms just being so adorable and wholesome the entire time, religious characters not shown in a totally toxic way, seeing the queen bee, popular girl, who everyone loved, not be as perfect as everyone thought, wanting to learn more about the side characters because they were that nice to read about, the humor was immaculate, and the ending was perfect; happy but leaving it open enough for the reader to have their own interpretation of some of the characters future. Not to mention the formatting and overall aesthetic of this book being absolutely stunning.

Good queer rep
Rivals to Lovers
Good Friendships
Wholesome Characters
Angst with a Happy Ending

Content Warnings

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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ashylibrarian's review

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emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

So…I think I have an unpopular opinion on this one…I didn’t absolutely love and adore it.

I definitely did not dislike this book. There are some really amazing things that happen, but I think it was overhyped for me and just did not exceed my expectations.

One of the things that I think was really well done throughout the entire novel was the characters and their development. McQuiston does a really great job of giving each character a purpose and developing traits exactly where they needed to be developed. This is something that gave me strong feelings toward Shara and Chloe.

I have to be honest in saying that I don’t think I ever truly liked either of their characters. Again, this is not saying that they were written poorly by any means, I just didn’t love them. It is more in a sense of their actions and approach to the entire situation felt over-the-top and I don’t think I would particularly enjoy hanging out with them in real life. This could be ignorance on my end of not growing up in a small, very religious town, and maybe their actions were perfectly reasonable and expected.

I enjoyed the characters of Ash, Benji, Smith, and Rory

and was kind of stoked at the end when Smith and Rory finally admitted their feelings for one another.

All of the secondary characters added such a nice mixture to the story and created texture throughout the tension that was ever-growing between Chloe and Shara.

I do have to say that I was a bit confused at some points with the clues because I felt like I had missed a piece of them when the character(s) would read them.

The one that really got me was the clue where Chloe finds she needs to open the piano to get the next note. She read the note, took the action, and then said that she was going to use the key that Shara had left her. I went back to the page where Chloe read the note the first time and did not see any mention of the key…There were a few times I needed to do this and just kept feeling like I was missing small details.

The ending…wow the ending. I may not have loved all the clues and “mysteries” happening throughout, however, the ending was spectacular. The shining moment for Shara was when she spread the emails from her father around school and exposed the damage he had been inflicting on the community for years. And the coordination of the rebellion graduation was the icing on the cake. The entrance of Chloe’s mothers and Mr. Truman made me smile and give a little fist pump of excitement. It was a great way to end the novel by allowing each of the characters, Chloe and Shara, Rory and Smith, Ash and Benji, Brooklyn and the other supportive, emotionally exhausted students to push back against the oppression one last time. I wish I could have been there to give them all hugs and words of appreciation and encouragement for standing up to the religious-influenced rules plaguing their town.

I am looking forward to reading more by Casey McQuiston, I am definitely keeping this book on my recommendation list for interested readers, I just don’t think I’ll be chomping at the bit to read it again any time soon.

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missrosymaplemoth's review

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3.25

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mallory10100's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

WOW i loved this book so much

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miaaaahh's review against another edition

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4.25

I am so surprised how much I loved this book. Casey McQuiston never misses! I love the characters (especially Smith and Rory) and I was just so engrossed in their relationships. If I could criticise one thing, it would be the fact that (as referenced in the book) it read a lot like a John Green novel (specifically Paper towns ie, the worst John Green novel). I would have loved a more in depth focus on some of the side characters. But this was a solid book and I'm so glad Casey is blessing us with amazing queer stories.

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sarahsbookss's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-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

5.0

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hendrixpants's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.75

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emmaciarciello's review

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adventurous challenging funny inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

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e_179's review

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-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

i really enjoyed reading this book! i sped through this book in four days after being a reading slump for the last two months of the school year(that’s actually not over yet i still have two more exams tmrw that i should have been studying for but whatever). anyway, i really loved this book! i love reading the stories of each character in their journey to finding their identity. it was just a funny, different(in a good way), relatable, realistic(for the most part), cute, sweet, lovable book! i highly recommend!!

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