A review by dorothysbookshelf
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

3.5

‘i kissed shara wheeler’ had a fascinating premise, riffing off the tropes of many ya books such as ‘paper towns’ — however the execution was a bit messy and confusing, jumping from one event to the next until my head was throughly tired. despite this, i found that CMQ managed to achieve their goal of writing an entertaining and ‘over-the-top high school rom-com’

the narrative voice felt like an attempt at third person limited, as the narrative comments appear to be from chloe’s perspective, yet this is executed with a limited degree of success. it seems as if we are getting direct insight into chloe’s mind through the narrative voice, a direct form of contact with chloe herself. however, i couldn’t resonate with chloe on an emotional level as the use of third person at the same time as this direct form of contact feels clunky and poorly maintained. i have a feeling this book would have been a lot more enjoyable to read it it was in the first person perspective - which isn’t something i say often, as i generally prefer third person variants to first.

besides this structural fault, chloe was just an unlikeable protagonist with an unlikeable love interest, like in many cheesy over-the-top rom-coms.

chloe and shara spend the entire book emotionally manipulating those around them, playing with their hearts with the active intention to destroy each other’s lives, hurting others in the process. i didn’t enjoy that their romance was founded on an academic rivalry which went further than any feud, despite how they state that they never truly hated each other — because they sure as hell acted like they did for the majority of the book. but i can understand the appeal for this form of enemies-to-lovers, as it thankfully doesn’t fall into the bully-romance category (a trope i hate).

overall, this was an enjoyable romance and i would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of suspending their disbelief and enjoy finding the fun amongst chaos