Published: October 1st, 2012
Who I Kissed
By: Janet Gurtler
Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN-13: 9781402270543
Samantha is new at school and just recently joined the swim team. She’s been flirting with one of her teammates, Zee, who invites her to a party and just as quickly dumps her for another girl. Hurt, but pretending not to care, she turns to his best friend, Alex, and gives him a kiss. And he dies—right in her arms. Alex was allergic to peanuts, and Samantha had eaten a peanut butter sandwich right before the party. She didn’t know. Overnight, Samantha turns into the school pariah and a media sensation explodes. Consumed with guilt, abandoned by her friends, and in jeopardy of losing her swimming scholarship, she will have to find the inner-strength to forgive herself for the tragedy.
Review
Sam just moved to a new town and is starting to make friends, even if it is just with the kids on her swim team. One of her teammates, Zee, invites her to a party and because she likes him Sam decides to go. But when he spends the party hooking up with another girl, Sam decides to flirt with someone else. When they kiss, Alex has a seizure - and dies right in her arms. It turns out that he was allergic to peanuts and Sam ate a peanut butter sandwhich before the party. She had no clue about his allergies, but now everyone blames her for Alex's death. Sam retreats into herself, in agony over Alex's death thinking that she killed him. She quits swimming and talking to anyone at school, and lets herself be used by a boy she thinks likes her. Will Sam be able to find the strength to move on? Especially when it may never have been her fault at all. I spent the majority of the book feeling really bad for Sam. It wasn't her fault that she didn't know about Alex's allergy. She was just a girl who kissed a guy at a party. How many of us have done that without knowing that sort of thing about the person? Sam has a really supportive Dad and her Aunt is awesome. I liked the depth of her issues of not knowing what really happened with her Mom - the fact that it took this long for them to tell her that her Mom was bi-polar is sort of pathetic. I couldn't understand what she saw in Zee though. I thought he treated her like crap even before what happened with Alex, and then after that he was a total asshole to Sam. I could understand the grief of Alex's family and thought the author handled that really well. My major anger was that Sam went through all of this, when at the end of the book you find out that it wasn't really her fault (and two of the teens blaming her knew that all along). Overall a really thought-provoking read that keeps you guessing the entire time. I recommend it for fans of Sarah Dessen, Susane Colasanti, and Jennifer E. Smith.
VERDICT: 4/5 Stars
**No
money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in
stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**
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