Lost in a Good Book

Published: 3 May 2022 (print)/14 October 2024 (audio)
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Digital Audio
Pages: 356/9 hrs and 24 mins
Narrator: Natalie Naudus
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
★   ★ – 2 Stars

Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her mums 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 neighbour 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.

After seeing this book for months I finally caved and read it. At least now I know what it’s about and can stop thinking about it. The downside is I now know it wasn’t that good. This is a story I think may have worked well in a movie but in a book it sounds stupid played out.

Once you tolerate the Annoyingly American High School shoved in your face, the story is ok. I kept going for the mystery and the scavenger hunt but you suffer some annoying plot and dialogue decisions in the process. I wasn’t even a fan of the narrator, her voices are grating but the narration voice outside dialogue is good.

It is like a worse version of Paper Towns, and at least McQuinston acknowledges the similarities. But the fact that Paper Towns was pointedly not about tracking someone down, Margot was not someone who needed saving, just goes to prove this is a terrible way to bring it to a new audience because that misses the point of Paper Towns entirely.

I enjoyed the familiar scepticism that “cool” people only talk to you when they are lining you up for a trick or to humiliate you. I also enjoyed the real time evolution of the rumour mill and how even those who witness something with their own eyes start to believe what they hear about an event and try and spread it around. There was some self-awareness as other characters shoot that down. It was a new approach and I liked the pushback.

There is no satisfactory conclusion to this and it should have ended a lot sooner. Even with the “revolution” it felt tacked on at the end, even the few comeuppances weren’t that satisfying. If you wanted a grand reveal have it all happen and then throw in an epilogue, but the fact we have to endure the messed up life of a character, not even the main character, who helps her undo all her BS and her manipulation because she’s a lost fawn, was unnecessary. I’d rather sit through a wrap up epilogue that tells us this instead of having Chloe do all the work to save Shara, even if she does at least point out her crappy behaviour and manipulative tendencies in lieu of an actual conversation.

Yes, there is the whole suppressed high school, Alabama town thing going on which is supposed to be a justification, but it doesn’t make for an enjoyable read. Shara is not a character worth investing in, her manipulation despite how misguided it was isn’t worth the effort afterwards. Chloe goes through a whole thing tracking her down and it’s a lot of effort for no satisfactory ending.

The scavenger hunt part was intriguing, but when that fell apart the book wasn’t as enjoyable. The writing wasn’t pulling its weight and I don’t know whether it was the narrator or not, but the dialogue and story weren’t good. The first half was good then promptly drops off a cliff into the sea by the end. Four hours too long which at a nine hour book is just plainly a bad second half.

I am now unsure whether McQuinston is an author for me. It happens unfortunately and it’s happened before. I stop reading One Last Stop, and while I assumed Red, White, and Royal Blue was not great was because it was so about US politics, but it might just be this isn’t my kind of writer. But hopefully this queer, Sapphic romance is right up someone’s alley and maybe even the fact that Chloe does call Shara out on her nonsense is a small saving grace for the story. No one entirely gets away unaccountable despite their sob story.

You can purchase I Kissed Shara Wheeler via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery |  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible