Razorbill, February 16, 2006
ISBN: 1595140239
Available: New
Seventeen year old Kia feels powerless. Her mother is dying of cancer and she is living with her father who is uninvolved with her life and often absent. Her friends have problems of their own and can’t provide the support she needs, and she is cutting herself to release the pain. Introduced to a world of goth night clubs that cater to the “vampire” community, she meets and falls for a mysterious DJ named Damon. Kia pursues Damon through the vampire scene, believing that he may be an actual vampire with the potential to save her mother. Readers of Thicker than Water may recognize familiar themes: the isolated protagonist of Annette Curtis Klause’s Silver Kiss also hopes for a vampiric cure for her dying mother, and Pete Hautman’s Sweetblood also introduces a self-destructive teen who develops a relationship with a person who may or may not be a vampire. However, the book is much more graphic than either of these and very emotionally intense, Jablonski throws so much pain and isolation in Kia’s path that the reader almost gets a sense that the author was in a contest to create a character who was even more disturbed and isolated than protagonists in other titles in this genre. This intensity makes the end of the story feel a little too pat. Yet, her writing is powerful enough to keep the reader up well past the witching hour. Contains: self-mutilation, underage drinking, mentions of Wicca, mild kissing.