March 2010

Author/s: Julia Clarke
Publisher: Oxford University Press UK
Reviewed by: Esta Burger, Age: 15 years
ISBN 13: 9780192754165

Emily is the perfect daughter. She does excellent at school, the teachers like her; she is healthy and civilized and doesn’t rebel against her parents. Her only problem is that she is good at telling beautiful lies about her social life to her friend, Augusta. But that stops as soon as she joins The Kissing Club. Her parents are so impressed with her, because the club made her vow that she would leave sex until after marriage. They even buy her a ruby ring.

Then she gets pregnant.

Suddenly her entire world change. Her parents are devastated and disappointed in themselves. This, after they believed her! They are in denial and think that Emily is just putting on weight because she eats too much. Then Emily’s granny ends up in hospital for being too drunk. Her mother is in shatters and Emily doesn’t know what to do. Her two best friends are sympathetic, but Emily is alone. When the reality of a baby comes down on her, she is depressed and doesn’t quite know what to make of it. She gets emotional all the time; after all, she is just fourteen years old. Corey, the brother of the baby’s father, befriends her and she starts to like him, even to love him. It feels good to know it she is really loved this time.

Augusta is in turmoil because her lover whom is also a member of the club reveals his sex-past. Emily deals with that too and together they cry, knowing that they really are too young to handle such things. But Emily does take responsibility and keeps the baby. Corey promises to be there for her and so does Sienna, Florence, Augusta, her parents and her granny. Brett, the father of the baby, says they could live together and raise the baby. But Emily knows that if she wasn’t pregnant, he wouldn’t look twice in her direction. So together with her family and friends, she raises Atlanta.

I loved this story. It’s very well-written, but also very sad. It’s a real teenage story and things like that actually happen in the lives of normal teenagers. It shows the importance of acting young when you are young, and not to strive to do adult things when you are not ready for it yet. It shows how it could destroy your life and relationships, but also builds new relationships and trust. I had empathy with the main character throughout the whole book. Personally I learnt a lot from the book. I would recommend it to any teenager, but especially to girls.

Link to online catalogue
The Kissing Club