Thicker Than Water

by Brigid Kemmerer

[e_rodz_leb]

3.5 Stars
Thicker Than Water was surprising to say the least! For whatever reason – maybe the cover? – I thought it was a NA story, but no, it’s YA. Also, it has a plot twist that I did not see coming at all. I can’t give anything away, but be aware that it’s coming for you. BAM!

On to the main characters. Thomas is an 18-year-old artist that lived in Baltimore with his mom, until she fell in love with a cop – Stan – and moved to the middle of nowhere to marry him. Tom is a bit resentful, but goes along since his mom is so happy. Until she’s found dead on her own bed. This is the center of the story since the whole town is sure that he killed his own mother. Only two people don’t think he’s guilty, Stan and Charlotte. Tom is heartbroken, alone in the world, everyone thing’s he’s guilty, he’s lost, and angry.

Charlotte is 17, pretty, diabetic and has three brothers that are cops. Oh, and her dad is a cop too. They are an overprotective bunch. They warn her to stay away from Tom, the prime suspect of his mom’s murder. She’s a good girl and has been raised to tend to the men, be feminine, polite, and let others take care of her. As you can imagine, she doesn’t like it much. I like that Charlotte didn’t want to fit in the mold that was prepared for her, that she knew she was confident and smart and knew how to take care of herself.

Honestly, I’m not sure what to think about Charlotte. I mean, everyone keeps telling her to stay away from Tom, but she seeks him over and over and over. She puts herself in impossible situations willingly and it drove me bananas. However, this might just be me projecting my inner mom :) There is romance in this book, but it’s kind of slow and a bit messed up. That’s all I’m saying.

The setting of Thicker Than Water is a small town in Maryland’s Eastern Shore and I always love that Kemmerer chooses Maryland as the setting for her novels since it’s all so very familiar to me. The plot of the story is complicated and twisty. At first it reads like a contemporary story – a mystery of the who-did-it type – then it turns into a paranormal murder mystery. As I said, I didn’t see that coming at all. I think that the author hid the clues very well because I was discovering all the clues together with Charlotte and Thomas.

Another thing that I liked about Thicker Than Water is that the parents, siblings and adults are present and prominent in the story. That’s refreshing to see in YA these days.

The ending was somewhat open and that’s one of my pet peeves. I’m not sure if this is a standalone or the first in a series. I hope is the latter because the ending was not satisfying at all.

Overall, Thicker Than Water was a surprising, intriguing and mysterious read, and I’m sorry that I have to be so vague about a few things, but you have to experience the twist for yourself.