"I Kissed Shara Wheeler" by Casey McQuiston

This book checks more boxes for why I would not like it than for why I would, and that has more to do with personal taste than it does with quality of material. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a romance cast in the clichés of Young Adult fiction (emphasis on young…think high school, so not really adult) with an extra shot of mystery because…well, why not, and a thick layer of unbelievability on top. These are all reasons I would not read the book. But I read the book because a former friend gave it to me and I am determined to read through everything I have been hanging onto so I can give myself permission to give it away.

Here is what I will say about this novel: it wasn’t written for me. So do I have the right to hate on it? McQuiston’s audience is niche and there’s a reason her work is beloved by that audience. They want the corny lines and the stereotypes and say-it-ain’t-so kind of drama. For me, this book reminds me of my own history of drama in high school, how I couldn’t keep a best friend to save my life, and how looking back those relationships never really were what I thought they were to begin with. I guess in a way this book strikes a chord, but not one I want to hear replayed.

The kids in this book find a way to maintain their friendships while they actively change in a matter of weeks. The kids in this book feel intensely and fight each other hard but come back together one way or another. It’s amazing how by the end of the book there are more connections made than lost. I can’t really say that’s a plus for the book, even though it’s so positive, and that is because it is not believable or realistic. That wasn’t my high school experience. I don’t know if it was anyone else’s. And given that this book was gifted by a former friend, you can see how this trend continues into my present. Maybe I’m just bitter and still healing.

Is there a single element that might make it worth recommending? I genuinely cannot recommend anyone read it in good conscience. The writing style is annoying, the characters are annoying, the tropes are annoying, the excessive description is annoying, the main character energy is annoying, the weird use of words is annoying. I am shocked it took me only eight days to read it because it felt like three weeks. Again, I must remind you: I am not her audience.

The only remotely positive thing I might be able to contrive is that I can understand the insane, sudden magnetism you can have with a person after meeting them for just a moment. I can understand conversation flowing easily and spirits finding kindred in one another. In this book, that magnetism is wrapped in enemies-to-lovers (a trope I cannot stand). The only salvageable line from the book describes that feeling of discovering someone and instantly knowing they are important as,

The wary, reverent interest of stumbling upon a poem in an English textbook that breaks your heart open in the middle of class. -Casey McQuiston