A review by ashylibrarian
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

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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