The Kissing Game: Short Stories

by Aidan Chambers

Overview

In this provocative collection of short stories, Aidan Chambers explores moments of truth, when a character or an event suddenly reveals an often surprising meaning: a girl loses her humanity when she takes a summer job as a theme-park character; a boy tries to save a girl from a fiery death, only to discover the same event happened one hundred years before. And the titular story, in which an innocent game takes a fatal turn, will haunt the reader for a long time.
These thought-provoking stories lend themselves beautifully to discussion, and once again Chambers treats us to his fiercely intelligent, finely crafted prose and incisive understanding of the wonderings of young people on the verge of adulthood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419705311
Publisher:	Amulet Paperbacks
Publication date:	02/05/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Aidan Chambers has received international acclaim and won every major young-adult prize for his novels for teens and young adults. He lives in Gloucester, England, with his wife, Nancy. To learn more, visit him online at aidanchambers.co.uk.

Editorial Reviews

In 16 short stories—three previously published, one written when the author was a teenager—Chambers (the Dance Sequence) takes an almost microscopically close view of teenagers' thoughts and interactions, with characters grappling with issues of faith, authority, relationships, and identity. Several stories are extremely short—in an afterword, Chambers places them in the "flash fiction" genre. "They are like a flash of light, a spark, which allows one quick view of a whole scene or person or event," he writes, noting they "are suited to writing and reading on the small screens of computers, iPhones, and eReaders." The briefest stories consist solely of dialogue, yet those written in prose can also have the feel of a script. Chambers often employs 11th-hour twists: the titular story veers into horror, "The Tower" into the paranormal. Vladimir Nabokov's description of the Russian word "toskà," included in a story of the same name, perhaps best captures the spirit of the collection, which is permeated with "a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning." Chambers leaves readers with much to contemplate. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 9 Up—These 16 stories focus mostly on dangerous or awkward difficulties that can underpin a burgeoning relationship. Half of the selections are "flash fiction"—a punch to readers, delivered in less than 1000 words. (The author points out these are ideal for reading on small screens such as e-readers and smart phones.) Five are short plays that could be useful exercises for theater classes. Witty dialogue and ordinary situations gone awry abound. Impetus for reading through the collection as a whole comes from recognizing the pattern; there will be a twist, and readers may have to look again for the true "ah-hah!" As individual tales, three stand out: "Cindy's Day Out" gives a modern, self-aware Cinderella her due; "The Kissing Game" lets its isolated characters ride a current of all-too-real emotional pain to a horror-story climax; and "Sanctuary" draws readers into the sordid world of immigrant sex slavery. A few stories are very funny in a dry, British way; but most are simply intended to make readers think—about trust, religion, moral duty, and most of all about the give-and-take between people that we call "relationships." The selections are perfectly readable by middle schoolers, but more meaningful discussion and deeper understanding will only come from teens with more life experience, and there's real potential for possible use in high school English classes.—Rhona Campbell, formerly at Washington, DC Public Library

School Library Journal