Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - He besado a Shara Wheeler

This book was just a lot, but not in the bad way. It was a roller coaster full of teen emotions. They book definitely seemed to keep you guessing at every turn on how it was going to end. At first I thought the book was gonna be like Paper Towns but the girl who left the notes actually wanted to be found. I didn’t expect it to touch on almost every character who was mentioned life and struggles. I definitely didn’t expect to end the book to end with such a strong message about queer expression and survival.

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hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-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

3.5

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gann's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

4.0

a sweet, queer, coming-of-age romance that every queer person deserves to read while growing up. very fun, definitely a young adult book

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bookwormbi's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

Honestly, I don't know if I've been fair to a Casey McQuiston book since RWRB. Like, this was cute! I enjoyed myself while reading it! But I was waiting to feel like I felt while reading RWRB and that just never hit for me. I personally wasn't super invested in Chloe and Shara's relationship (or honestly Shara in general.) I didn't feel like I got to know Shara well enough to be invested in her as more than just a plot point.

Honestly, this book had way, way, WAY too many characters, and it really pulled focus from the main 4. Chloe did not need three best friends, two of whom had ZERO impact on the main plot. Like honestly maybe 50% of the characters in this book could have been cut with no impact to the story that was actually told. This book could have been Chloe, Shara, Rory, Smith, Georgia, Chloe's moms as extremely minor characters, and Principal Wheeler as the antagonist and the story would have been a LOT tighter. I would have loved for Georgia to have more depth in the story, and I would have loved to have been able to tell Chloe's moms apart before the very very end.

Also, Casey McQuiston has a POV problem. In both OLS and this book, you get very very interesting stories about poc filtered through these random white people who are, let's be honest, much less interesting (I liked Chloe better than I liked August but she still never felt like the main event to me.) In this book the more interesting story was

the absolutely BEAUTIFUL love story between Smith and Rory, two Black queer estranged childhood best friends who have been in love with each other half their lives. Granted, Rory could have used just a little bit more time to fully round out his character, but I was still fully invested in what was going to happen for them. What I did not expect was for the resolution of that subplot to occur through Chloe unintentionally SPYING on Smith and Rory confessing their feelings to each other. I felt weird READING her witnessing this important moment for them when neither of them knew she was there, and I cannot imagine what POSSESSED McQuiston to write it like that.

I want McQuiston to grow as an artist and find a foothold in the publishing industry besides their one phenom book. I really, really do. There are such good ideas in this book--with a little reworking and reframing, this could have easily been a 5 star for me. I really appreciated the way McQuiston juxtaposed the protagonist's background with the setting of the novel and I loved how that was resolved. To be perfectly honest, as someone from California, this book gave me a new appreciation for queer Southerners, and I hope that queer Southern teens feel represented by this book. However, while I enjoyed this book, it just isn't something I could get excited about.

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