Casey McQuiston

After a troubled childhood with an obsessive mother, August finds it difficult to connect with people. Things begin to change when she moves to Brooklyn to attend college and is pushed out of her comfort zone by her eccentric housemates, Myla, Niko and Wes. She also finds herself enraptured by a beautiful punk woman she meets on the Q train, Jane. However, finding love and happiness is challenged by three strange things about Jane: 1. she can't seem to leave the train, 2. she can't remember show more her past, and 3. she hasn't aged at all from a picture taken of her in 1976.

This book is great fun as it uses a unique time slip story mixed with a queer romance and a story of New York's gentrification. It's particular interesting to read the contrasts of Jane's experiences in the early LGBTQ+ liberation movements of the 1970s compared to the more accepting contemporary times. There are a lot of subplots in this novel that get things a bit confused, and perhaps there's just a bit too much "deep conversation," but all is forgiven because I love the characters. McQuiston does a great job of bringing to life a community of fun, creative, and really horny young adults in the city. show less

"Straight people, he thinks, probably don't spend this much time convincing themselves that they're straight."

I read this last year and never got around to rating it—so, here we go.

Listen, I get it. This book is tropey. It’s a little reminiscent of an alternate universe fix-it fic on AO3. But that’s what makes it so damn good.

I flew threw this book. Only to immediately go back and re-read my favorite parts. I’ve seen people say it was distinctly unfunny but I was laughing the whole show more way through. Maybe my humor just sucks, I don’t know.

This story was incredibly and surprisingly tender. I truly felt that both Alex and Henry were very relatable for their own reasons. And I found their love story to be so rewarding and deserved at the end. show less

I KISSED SHARA WHEELER is author Casey McQueston's debut young adult (YA) novel, though she's already published two successful adult fiction books. And it's a book that had me liking it, then not liking it, and liking it again as the story progressed. But as you can see, I ultimately awarded four stars.

Sometimes when I read YA books, I don't understand why they get that designation. They seem to be ideal for adults too. Not so with this book - definitely YA all the way!

It's a story about show more senior year angst at a private Christian high school in a small town in Alabama --with teenagers (nearing graduation) struggling to figure out who they are, how to act with their friends, what to share to their parents, and how much to reveal with peers. It's also about hiding parts of oneself, telling lies, spreading gossip. And it's about both the popular kids and the outcasts and all the judgments they make and the secrets they keep. It made me SO GLAD I'm beyond that place in life.

Central to the story are two VERY different girls:
• Shara Wheeler is the principal's daughter and hometown sweetheart. She's beautiful, dating the school football star, was just accepted early decision at Harvard, volunteers to help others less fortunate, gets perfect grades, expects to be class valedictorian, and is beloved by all. She's perfect!
• There's also Chloe Green, an outsider, though equally smart and with equivalent grades. She's a rebel --an unhappy transplant from California, with two lesbian moms, and the only student officially OUT as bisexual. She is simply counting the days until she can leave Alabama for New York University.
Keep in mind the setting is a strict Christian southern high school.

Through a series of surprising and unexpected events, Chloe finds herself working alongside students outside her small group of friends and discovering new truths about them and about herself. And that's all I'll share about the plot.

The writing has McQuiston's distinctively clever, sassy, sometimes snarky, voice. Which seemed to really fit teenagers. At times I was bothered by how mean these students are to each other. How selfish and dishonest. I even thought they were bad role models to provide to young adults. But there was no need to worry. I just needed to trust McQuiston, who so skillfully explores ALL the aspects of being a teenager and ties up the book in a completely satisfactory way. show less

This book was ALL OVER my social media, so finally I gave in and bought myself a copy. And I was so happy that I did, because when I finally picked it up it was EXACTLY the warm fuzzy blanket that I needed for my early-pandemic exhausted brain.

Don't get me wrong, I know this book has its criticisms and reading it, I could see where they were coming from. But at the same time, I was close enough to this book's target audience and I appreciated all the things this book was trying to do and I show more just really needed to shut that critical part of my brain off for a bit and snuggle into the dream of an America not governed by a narcissistic garbage fire, not experiencing a pandemic and recession, in an America where we can elect women, be cool with queerness in the first family, respect Latinx politicians, etc., etc.

I just loved it. It was the right book in the right moment for me. show less