I Kissed Shara Wheeler

At first glance, Shara embodies the gorgeous, popular girl archetype often present in coming-of-age novels. Even Chloe is drawn to Shara’s beauty but judges her harshly by claiming first that she is “boring,” and later, that she is a “bad person,” which aligns with how popular-girl archetypes are conveyed in the typical coming-of-age narrative. However, the novel reveals Shara to be a complex character. She, too, is queer and in love with Chloe. She struggles to satisfy others’ expectations of her to be pretty, wholesome, successful, perfect, and heterosexual while also being true to her authentic self.

Shara is the catalyst for the plot. Not only does she kiss Chloe and Rory while she has a boyfriend, but she leaves cryptic notes in meaningful places and disappears. Shara hides and brings her plan to action to ensure that she no longer has to hide. After lying her entire life and hiding behind her conformity to others’ expectations, Shara seeks to embrace her queerness while also helping others (Rory, Smith, Ace, and Summer) do the same.

Rory is described as a thin, edgy type with dark curly hair and light brown skin. He is, the narrator says, part of the “stoners-skaters-and-slackers rung of the social ladder” and is Shara’s next-door neighbor (5). Rory, who has also been randomly kissed by Shara, admits to Chloe that he has had a romantic fixation on Shara.

While joining Chloe on her quest to collect the clues Shara left and ultimately find where she is, Rory reconnects with his old friend Smith, with whom he had a falling out. While Rory rekindles his relationship with Smith, he learns more about himself. He realizes that he, too, is queer and that Shara has merely been an object onto which he projected his misdirected affections. Although Rory’s mother and stepfather are wealthy, Rory subverts the stereotype of the privileged rich kid through his sensitive and poetic nature and his efforts to combat social injustice.

Smith is Shara’s boyfriend and a high school football star. Yet, he subverts the stereotype of the high school jock often represented in young adult fiction. The narrator says, “He doesn’t walk from room to room as much as he flows through them” (76), highlighting the fluidity of his movement and foreshadowing that his gender and sexuality may also be fluid. He demonstrates compassion by standing up for Chloe against his jock acquaintance Dixon.

Through the novel, Smith undergoes a transformation in identity. Originally named William, he has chosen to be called Smith. Originally the boyfriend of Shara, Smith comes to terms with the complexity of his gender and sexuality and begins to explore other modes of gender expression, such as wearing eyeliner and glitter. He speaks to Chloe’s nonbinary friend Ash about the experience of being nonbinary, and by the end of the novel he is in the process of redefining his own sexual and gender identity.