The Girl Who Cried Poetry

I’ve had the most interesting month so far and it’s only fair to end it with a “bang.” With a bang, I mean reading one of the most amazing books to ever happen to life and I’m so proud and glad to actually bring it here, review it and show it to you guys.

If you remember, in this blog post I wrote about Casey McQuiston, I did write a lot of wonderful things about them and I also highly recommended their books for you to read. If you did take that advice, you’d realise one thing: This review is basically going to be me worshipping them, because they are that good.

Book Lovers, I present to you my review of I Kissed Shara Wheeler.

Synopsis

Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny.

But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.

On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair-and-square.

Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe—probably not, but maybe—more to Shara, too.

Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston’s I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.

When I first started this book, I didn’t have the will to finish it. See, I don’t know why this is always my first reaction to the most amazing books, because it’s funny.

I did persevere though. I told myself, “Girlie pop, you can’t be serious about putting I Kissed Shara Wheeler in DNF. It’s Casey McQuiston fgs. Fix up!”

I did Fix Up and my dears, from start to finish, I was hooked. I had a range of emotions from reading this book. I was pissed. I was tired. I was enamoured by the characters. I was intrigued. I kept on putting two and two together and trying to solve the clues as well. The plot twists were doing their work and I just laid there, on my bed, reading events unfolding in my head and at the end of the last page, I shouted WTF.

Right, right.

Let me give a little summary instead of rambling off. We have our main character Chloe who is bisexual (bless Casey’s bisexual heart) and has two amazing moms and has a friend group of queer people — I am utterly jealous — at school in Willgrove Christian Academy, which so happens to be a thorn in the students’ flesh.

Did I add that she’s obsessed with Shara Wheeler?

The Shara Wheeler in question did a disappearing trick after kissing Chloe and another guy named Rory, even after having her own boyfriend and boom, she starts leaving clues in pink letters for them to find and solve the mystery of her disappearance.

After getting to the point where Shara’s motives were found, I thought it was a horrible wild goose chase that let Chloe become obsessed with her and forget her schoolwork and ruin relationships with friends.

But really, it’s just preceding the real thing.

Darlings, teas were being spilled all over the floor and my mouth just went wide open so many times. I was also proud of the rebellion they were forming, because, Yes! Rebel! Let your young hearts go wild!

It was very heartwarming to say the least and the ships formed were amazing. Chloe and Shara? Check. Georgia and Jas? Check. Smith and Rory? See, I saw that ship come from a mile away and I thought I was just projecting, but it was real and oh my, my gaydar might have a fault in real life, but in books? Don’t play.

This book was amazing as every Casey McQuiston’s book I’ve read and it’s literally the book of the month! I loved how it portrayed queer relationships, both platonic and romantic and showing that in a way, the world does really have a grey side. Not everything is white or black.

Another person who I know has read the book is Mercy. No, not me, it’s a darling of mine. After I recommended the book to her, she read it in under 48 hours, which is quite impressive because it took me three days to finish it.

When I asked her what she thought about the book, she said:

Well, I’d say it’s the queerest book ever. My favourite part of the book is the little society Chloe created. A group of nonconforming kids in the midst of the most Christian and conventional city ever, daring to be different and live as their authentic selves. That’s my favourite part of the book. Kids putting aside their differences to find the common good amongst themselves and choosing to nurture it, together.

She ain’t lie, that’s one thing for sure.

My favourite quotes in the book are:

While she does like boys, she generally finds the traits of a compelling villain—arrogance, malice, an angsty backstory—tedious in a man. Like, what do hot guys with long dark hair even have to be that upset about? Get a clarifying shampoo and suck it up, Kylo Ren. So your rich parents sent you to magic camp and you didn’t make any friends. Big deal.

The loudest Christians I’ve ever met were the worst ones.

Shara isn’t a monster inside of a beautiful girl, or a beautiful girl inside of a monster. She’s both, one inside of the other inside of the other.”

Sometimes a pedestal is a very comfortable place to be, because at least up there nothing can hurt you.

Most of the things we’re feeling right now are things we’re feeling for the first time. We’re learning what it means to feel them. What we can mean to one another. Of course that matters. And this, here, right now—even if nothing changes, even if all we can do today is prove that we exist, and that we’re not alone—I think it matters a whole fucking lot.

Shara slips the necklace under the neckline of her dress and straightens her shoulders, and Chloe realizes this is Shara when nobody’s looking. Born so smart and so curious and so fucking proud that not even Jesus could convince her she was wrong. Saved by God first and her God complex second. Going through hell and painting pink nail polish over it.

Alright, that’s all of it!

Conclusively, I need to say that it’s amazing that an author can just bring alive a high school queer novel and make it one of the best things you’ve ever read. Adventurous, insightful and intriguing in its way, I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a book you should definitely read, as well as any book Casey McQuiston has ever written.

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