What if you kissed someone… and they died?
Who I Kissed, by Janet Gurtler
Sourcebooks Fire, ISBN: 978 1 402 27054 3
Sam really, really liked Zee – so when her crush kissed someone else right after having a moment with her, she may have sort of kissed another guy just to show she didn’t care – someone she didn’t even know, really. Which would have been not great but not a disaster, if he hadn’t immediately started having trouble breathing – and if she hadn’t eaten a peanut butter sandwich right before the party.
Immediately, everything in Sam’s life changes. She’s in shock and feels horribly guilty, she’s on the outs with people she knows (worst of all, Zee, the boy’s best friend), and she can’t allow herself to do the most important thing in her life: swim. Her healing is slow and fitful, including a therapist, a beloved aunt, and a little self-destructive behaviour (going mildly off the rails, nothing terribly alarming) as she tries to figure out how to make it mean something, so that even when the plot twists a little at the end, she has a new commitment to a good cause to keep her going.
Sam’s a good girl that has a tragic, awful thing happen, and she’s pretty relatable that way. The story moves along with her attempts to make things right and her stumbles along the way, and the writing is approachable. I think this definitely has more girl appeal, but is meatier than the cover would suggest, since it looks like pretty fluffy chicklit. All in all, a good read with a solid heart and something different and interesting going on in the plot.
Always looking for books my tween/teen girls will like – this one looks promising!