48 pages • 1 hour read
Casey McQuistonI Kissed Shara Wheeler
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Chloe visits the Anchor Bay Marina and finds Shara sitting at the front of a sailboat wearing a prom dress. Chloe and Shara go inside the boat, and Shara corrects Chloe when she calls the boat a yacht by saying, “It’s not a yacht […] It’s under thirty-five feet” (222). This causes Chloe to snap. Chloe calls Shara an “obnoxious narcissist” and says she doesn’t feel bad that Shara is in love with her (223). Shara denies it and explains that she only wanted to make Chloe obsessed with her to sabotage her chances of becoming valedictorian. When asked what Smith and Rory had to do with Shara’s plan, Shara states that she saw what they were like together in eighth grade and realized that they were in love. Chloe accuses Shara of fearing what others think about her, and Shara says that Chloe, too, fears what others think. Chloe and Shara kiss, and when Chloe finds that Shara has let go of the rail of the boat, she pushes Shara into the lake.
Chapter 17 Summary
Chloe believes she “won” in that she found Shara, knows Shara’s secrets, and has the upper hand. Chloe tells Smith that she found out why Shara had fled. Smith is relieved to hear that Shara knows about his feelings for Rory because he didn’t want to have to tell her. He reveals that the reason he asked Shara to homecoming was to be close to Rory (because he lives next door to her). Because Rory had been going through a rough patch, Smith wanted to date Shara to be close enough to Rory to look after him. Smith states that he had only intended to take Shara to homecoming but, because they got along, they stayed together. Smith also reveals that he knew where Shara was since Dixon’s party. In the note from Shara, the G in graduation was capitalized, hinting that she was on the Wheeler’s sailboat, called Graduation.
Shara goes live on Instagram and reveals to her Instagram followers that she lied to them about getting into Harvard. She reveals that she failed the interview on purpose because she didn’t want to be in an environment where her schoolmates were just as smart if not smarter than her. She also faked acceptance letters and bought welcome packets on eBay. She states that lying is easy for her because she has been lying her whole life. She reveals that she planned to achieve admiration for winning valedictorian after disappearing but realized that she had been lying to herself, too. Shara shares that she disappeared to get someone’s attention, referring to Chloe.
Chapter 18 Summary
Shara returns to school, and Chloe harbors resentment toward her because, as the principal’s daughter, she violates the dress code without consequences. Chloe decides that although she has fallen behind in school due to Shara’s distraction, she ultimately won. Shara has feelings for Chloe, and Chloe has resolved to be the one thing Shara cannot have.
Chapter 19 Summary
Chloe wears Shara’s crucifix necklace in front of her and tells her she had found it in the trash. Although Chloe hopes that Shara tells the truth about the crucifix belonging to her, she doesn’t. Later that evening, Shara shows up outside Chloe’s window and attempts to give her another note. Chloe jumps on Shara, and they engage in a physical fight. Chloe is upset not only that Shara didn’t own up to throwing away her necklace, but also that Shara didn’t kiss her in the library while she had the chance.
Chloe hears a rumor that a sophomore found two girls making out in the bathroom and reported them to Principal Wheeler and that Principal Wheeler intends to suspend the two girls. Shara tells Chloe that Georgia had been caught making out with Summer.
Chapter 20 Summary
Chloe runs to the administration office to tell Principal Wheeler that she was one of the people who had been kissing in the bathroom—not Georgia. She explained that some people confuse her and Georgia because they look alike. Principal Wheeler bans Chloe from attending the graduation ceremony and informs her that if she had made the grades for valedictorian, she would no longer be eligible to assume the title. Georgia and Chloe go to Taco Bell and Georgia reveals that she has had a crush on Summer since 10th grade when she had a geometry project with her and that she “was the girl who made [her] realize [she] liked girls” (277). Georgia and Summer reconnected when Summer asked her why Chloe started hanging out with Smith.
Smith is upset about Chloe’s mistreatment by Principal Wheeler and wants to do something about it. Chloe suggests they have a protest graduation at Summer’s dad’s car dealership, which is across from Willowgrove. Many students join the effort, including Brooklyn, the student body president. The students create signs demanding a change of rules at Willowgrove and that Principal Wheeler be fired. Brooklyn contacts every news team in central Alabama to cover the story.
Georgia asks Chloe why she is not dating Shara. When Chloe responds that she refuses to date her as a “power move,” Georgia tells her it’s a “stupid” idea and encourages Chloe to instead think about what she wants (289). When Chloe asks Rory to support her in confirming that Shara is not a good person, Rory defends Shara’s actions except for her threatening Ace, which he attributes to her being, he says, “weird about people knowing what she actually cares about” (291). Chloe still believes that Shara is a bad person because she has not joined them in organizing the protest graduation. Rory and Smith confess their love for each other.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
Chloe and Shara find themselves at a crossroads of love and ambition, alliance and defiance, similarity and difference. Despite their commonalities, they are pitted against each other. Chloe focuses on what divides them, such as Shara’s wealth and privilege, rather than what unites them. Chloe snapping after Shara says “It’s not a yacht […] It’s under thirty-five feet” underscores the conflict caused by the two young women’s difference in class (224). Chloe is inclined to judge others harshly for their privileges that they cannot control. In doing so, Chloe pays more attention to differences and spends time trying to differentiate herself rather than seeking out commonalities that unite people. This tendency parallels other issues, such as anti-gay bias, that permeate the small town. Rather than empathizing with others and recognizing the shared need for love, people with intolerance toward the LGBTQ+ community only see differences and fear them.
Although Chloe came out years before as bisexual, she still fears others’ judgment and masks her vulnerability behind her bold, no-nonsense demeanor. Shara and Chloe recognize this vulnerability and fear in each other. However, because Chloe is still set on “winning,” and is also convinced that Shara is a bad person, she pushes Shara into the lake as soon as Shara lets her guard down.
In the next chapters, Chloe learns that Shara is not the only person who has done bad things. Smith, too, is guilty of deception because he failed to tell Shara about his feelings for Rory. He also failed to tell Chloe where Shara was hiding out of selfishness: he wanted to put off breaking up with her and being honest about his feelings. When Shara goes live on Instagram, she reveals that she had been lying to achieve admiration. Her revelation suggests that underlying everyone’s lies is a need to be accepted.
Shara admits that her disappearance was a stunt to gain Chloe’s attention. Once Shara reveals the truth, she begins to express her sexuality via her clothes and hair. However, Chloe regards Shara’s violation of the school dress code as, rather, an expression of privilege, and resents that Shara wouldn’t incur any consequences. Chloe continues to judge Shara and resolves to “win” by toying with Shara’s heart. Shara’s failure to kiss Chloe in the library, and to own up to throwing away her crucifix necklace, make Chloe angry because she assumes Shara has chosen to remain in a “safe” place protected by appearances.
Other students and the community’s involvement in and support for the protest graduation reveals that even in a seemingly intolerant town, there are many allies as well as other queer people who have yet to come out. Although Shara informed Chloe about Georgia being in trouble, Chloe still believes her to be a bad person because she is not involved in planning the protest graduation. That Chloe masks her feelings for Shara behind her “power move” suggests that Chloe still seeks control to mask her vulnerability.
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