by Casey McQuiston is a bittersweet romance novel that starts with a mystery. It’s the day after prom at Willowgrove Christian Academy in Alabama and the perfect principal’s daughter Shara Wheeler has vanished without a trace. Chloe, her edgy, an openly bisexual rival for valedictorian, wants to figure out why not least because she believes that she alone can see beyond Shara’s façade. In fact, Chloe knows that Shara Wheeler is hiding that she likes girls, and the fact that Shara kissed Chloe just before her disappearance might be the key to the mystery. In her hunt for the maddening clues that Shara left behind, Chloe is forced to team up with Shara’s jock boyfriend, Smith, and Rory, the literal boy next door with a crush on Shara. Set against the backdrop of Willowgrove’s suffocating evangelical atmosphere, I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a thrilling mystery that also explores queerness and teen identity. (Young Adults)