According to the American Library Association, almost 1,600 books across the country have been banned or challenged in the past year. A lesser novel could have been bogged down by the giants its characters are forced to tackle, but the lighthearted book treats those difficulties with a realistic reverence, managing to thread a line between painting a better future for its queer characters and allowing them to recognize the gorgeous and spiritual present they're currently in.Īt a time where transgender and queer kids might feel decidedly under attack, McQuiston's new book isn't an escapist fantasy- it's a celebration.Īs much as McQuiston wrote the book for the kids that need it most, they're not naive about what a tall order it might be for those kids to access it. "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" takes care to luxuriate in the small and great joys of growing up. "For teens facing that now, I just want to tell them, not only is there nothing wrong with you, but the parts of you that feel like they make you vulnerable, or put you in danger, those are going to be the parts of you that are coolest and most celebrated and find you the best community when you are an adult," they added. But none of its true and it's all based in people internalizing so much misinformation and hiding so much fear behind self righteous b***shit," McQuiston said. These laws are set up to make feel so wrong that they need to be legislated out of existence. But the new landscape doesn't surprise them. When McQuiston started writing "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" in 2020, they said they couldn't have predicted exactly where the state of LGBTQ+ rights would be. Bans on gender-affirming healthcare are currently being discussed in legislative sessions across the U.S.
Bills that discourage discussing sexuality and gender have been passed and promoted in states like Florida, while transgender rights have become a new wedge issue for Republican-led legislatures. The book comes at a time when legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ children are at an all-time high, according to activist groups. "And the last thing I want to do is tell kids, 'You have to reject where you're from in order to fit into the queer community, you know? I wanted there to be room for all of those sides of it, because identity is so big and so complicated and I want there to be room for all of those layers." The cover of "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" "A lot of what's difficult about what you're told when you're growing up in that environment is that being queer, being trans is completely irreconcilable with being from the south or having any type of faith," they added.
It's so exhausting to see mainstream liberal media write red states off as a lost cause when there are so many people there who just need the opportunity to make their voices heard," McQuiston said. "It was important to me to write that, because I do think I have this kind of chip on my shoulder. It's a discovery McQuiston says they felt was important to add to the book, not just to dismantle stereotypes, but also to directly address kids who are still growing up in spaces like Chloe's. But as the book progresses, Chloe is forced to make major realizations about the people she grew up with, and reconcile her conception of who deserves "empathy, respect, or even the benefit of the doubt." But to figure out where she is, she has to team up with an unlikely crew - Shara's longtime quarterback boyfriend and the pining kid next door - to decode Shara's mystery before they all say goodbye to False Beach forever.Ĭhloe knows there's much more out there than her small town. On prom night, her rival Shara Wheeler kisses her and then promptly disappears.Īs Chloe begins discovering mysterious pink clues strewn all across town, she realizes that there may be more to Shara's disappearance than she originally thought.
She's roughly 100 days away from being named valedictorian, graduating and leaving the town she can't stand behind forever. Set in the fictional town of False Beach, Alabama, "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" tells the story of high school senior Chloe Green. So I hope that this book will do that for someone." Casey Mcquiston "And so I thought it'd be really, really exciting for me at that age, if I could have read something that both reflected and challenged the kind of experience that I was having growing up. "I know when I was growing up, I never saw a school like mine portrayed in media unless it was reinforcing the same narratives that were taught to me at school," McQuiston said. McQuiston, a Louisiana native, grew up Catholic in a Southern Baptist high school and told CBS News that part of the inspiration for their newest romance book was writing for the teenager they used to be.