Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - I Kissed Shara Wheeler

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

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purplatypus's review against another edition

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funny hopeful 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

4.0

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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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kbairbooks's review

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challenging funny mysterious fast-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

3.75

This was cute and mysterious. As always Casey’s characters are incredibly fleshed out and they just feel so real and delightful and I loved the learning about yourself aspects but the book did feel young to me. I’m past the age where I want to read about high schoolers anymore but I want to read anything Casey puts out for the rest of forever. I enjoyed the mystery (especially since it wasn’t horror based) and the Christian aspects were interesting from my ex-Christian POV.

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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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