The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: McQuiston, Casey. I Kissed Shara Wheeler. Wednesday Books. 2022. Kindle.

The novel is narrated by a third-person past narrator with a close focalization on Chloe Green, the main character. Chloe was born and raised in California, but she moved with her two moms to Alabama for high school when her grandmother got sick. An academic achiever, Chloe chooses to attend Willowgrove Christian Academy despite her mom’s warnings about how homophobic the school was when she attended 20 years ago.

Chloe spends her first for years of high school completely obsessed with beating her archrival and only competition—Shara Wheeler—for valedictorian. Shara is the most popular girl in school, the perfect daughter of the principal, and Chloe’s enemy. Chloe hates Shara because she thinks she is fake and secretly evil, and she resents that everyone thinks Shara is so wonderful. However, on the day before prom, Shara randomly kisses Chloe in the staff elevator. The next night, at prom, Chloe looks for her so they can talk, but Shara disappears before she can be crowned prom queen.

The next morning, Chloe goes to Shara’s house to find her, but her house is empty. Chloe finds a spare key and breaks inside to look in Shara’s room. To her surprise, Rory Heron appears in the window with the help of a ladder. He explains that Shara kissed him before prom and told him her window would be open. They search the room together and find a note addressed to Rory that has a password, a message for her boyfriend Smith, and another message for Chloe.

At school the next day, Chloe and Rory find Smith and tell him what happened. He reveals that the numbers in Shara’s password are the numbers in his locker combination, so they go to his locker and find another note from Shara telling them that she had to run away because she does not know how to tell the truth.

After school, Chloe goes to Taco Bell with her best friend, Georgia, and the cashier gives her a letter from Shara. Chloe ditches Georgia and goes to Rory’s house with Smith. Together, they manage to log into Shara’s secret email account. They find a message in the “draft” folder giving them another clue. Chloe gets annoyed and storms out, but the next day she intentionally gets herself sent to the principal’s office so she can ask him about Shara, but he tells her Shara is visiting family, which Chloe does not believe.

Chloe goes to the choir room for lunch and discovers another letter hidden inside the piano. This one has a clue that sends Chloe and Smith to a house party at his friend Dixon Wells’ house. They find another note, and then Chloe decides to stay and learn what Shara’s life as a popular girl was like. However, when Dixon makes a rude comment about her chest, she leaves. Smith follows her and apologizes, and then Chloe gives him a ride home. When Chloe gets home, she makes a Google doc and shares it with Shara in the hopes that she might communicate through the document.

At school on Monday, Chloe and Smith realize that the latest letter contained a clue pointing them back to Principal Wheeler’s office. Rory and Chloe decide to sneak in through the air ducts. They find a note from Shara hidden inside a picture of her on her father’s sailboat.

The next day, Chloe realizes that the last note contained a clue sending her to the theater where Shara had watched her perform Phantom of the Opera. Chloe finds the letter with Smith and Rory, and then they follow the clues to the football stadium to find another letter. In these letters, Shara admits to doing terrible things, like blackmailing her friend, Ace, and kissing Smith to make Rory jealous. Smith and Rory both begin to question their relationships with Shara after learning that she was not as perfect as they thought, but Chloe becomes more obsessed with this less-than-perfect version of Shara.

Chloe goes to the bookstore and finds another note from Shara. This one is just for Chloe, and it reveals that Shara is in love with Chloe. Chloe is shocked by this news, but she refuses to think of it as anything but funny.

Rory and Smith get closer to one another, and Rory admits he is questioning his sexuality, while Smith confides to Chloe that he is questioning his gender. Chloe continually ditches Georgia and forgets to do her half of their French essay, and then the girls get into a huge fight when Chloe reveals that she has been distant because of Shara Wheeler.

Chloe goes home and fixates on all Shara’s old notes and then realizes that one of her old notes has a hint pointing Chloe to Principal Wheeler’s sailboat. Chloe goes to the boat and finds Shara, who reveals that she got rejected from Harvard and decided to trick Chloe into being in love with her to distract her from winning valedictorian. Chloe does not believe this, so she seduces Shara, who leans in for a kiss, but then Chloe pushes her into the lake.

The next day, Shara starts an Instagram Live in which she admits to everyone that she is in love with a girl and that she intentionally got rejected from Harvard by bombing her interview. Shara comes back to school with short, pink hair. Chloe decides to try and make Shara fall in love with her, and she tells herself it is just for revenge.

Georgia gets caught kissing a girl in the bathroom, and Principal Wheeler threatens to call her parents, who do not know she is a lesbian. Shara tells Chloe, who rushes in and takes the blame for the kiss. Principal Wheeler bans her from graduation, so she and her friends decide to stage a protest graduation.

Shara discovers that her father has staged an admission scandal, so she prints out his emails to expose him. When Chloe realizes that Shara did this, she goes to Shara’s house and confesses she is in love with her. The girls escape through the window and drive to Chloe’s house, where they make out and have dinner with Chloe’s moms.

The students stage their protest graduation, and a news crew arrives. Smith tells them about Principal Wheeler’s admission scandal, and the reporters interview the principal. A month later, all the students burn their high school papers. Chloe prepares to go to NYU, while Shara is still undecided about her future, but the girls are in love and know they will be together no matter what.