As always, I am simply blown away by the sheer mastery Casey McQuiston has of their craft. It doesn’t matter what they write about whether it’s a time traveling subway bound lesbian from the 80’s or a seismic shift of a novel about two of the most influential boys in the world finding love and acceptance in each other (the things I wouldn’t do for Alex and Henry in Red, White, & Royal Blue, FSOTUS and HRH, respectively); there’s always an underlying current of relatability.
I know I normally rate these things, but I just cannot. There isn’t a scale large enough to appropriately measure the love I have for this book. So, I’ll just get into it then.
Think Paper Towns meets Pretty Little Liars meets Sweet Home Alabama. It’s an unlikely first love story inside of a mystery inside of a romantic comedy about queer kids in the Bible Belt.
Shara Wheeler is the omnipotent prom queen, the Willowgrove Academy principal’s daughter and altogether worshipped by everyone in the town of False Beach, Alabama. And then, the night of senior prom she just disappears, and no one knows what happened. That’s not good enough for Chloe Green. Chloe is the uptight academic, our protagonist, and the only person actually OUT at Willowgrove; and Shara is her self-proclaimed arch-nemesis. She swears she’s the only one in the whole town who can see Shara as she is – Satan Incarnate.
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The only thing is Shara kissed Chloe two days before she vanished, and I mean who would Chloe be if she didn’t try to get to the bottom of things? (She loves a challenge, okay?) Perfect Shara Wheeler doesn’t just go around kissing her only competition for valedictorian. Chloe can’t win fair and square if Shara doesn’t even show up to class, and she NEEDS to win. Naturally, she dedicates herself to finding Shara before it’s too late.
Enter Rory Heron, the typical hot-but-angsty troublemaker. Turns out Shara kissed him on prom night, hours before she went missing. It’s this revelation that leads Rory and Chloe to Shara’s boyfriend, the secretly sensitive quarterback, because he deserves to know the truth, right?
That’s when the notes start popping up. Each addressed to one or all of them and each with clues about where the next one can be found. This unlikely trio must work together if they have any hope of figuring out just what in the world Shara is up to.
It’s a rollercoaster of delicious banter, outrageous behavior, truly appalling southern Christians, and investigative work that even Sherlock himself would find impressive.
Drop EVERYTHING. Stop what you’re doing. None of it is as important or fulfilling as this book.
