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Cecelia Price killed her brother. At least, that’s what the police and the district attorney are saying. And although Cecelia is now locked up and forced into treatment, she knows the real story is much more complicated.
Cyrus wasn’t always the drug-addled monster he’d become. He was a successful athlete, but when an injury forced him off the soccer field and onto pain medication, his life became a blur of anger, addiction, and violence. All CeCe could do was stand by and watch, until she realised one effective way to take away her brother’s drugs while earning the money she needed for college: selling the pills.
Soon, CeCe becomes part drug dealer, part honor student. But even when all she wants is to make things right, she learns that sometimes the best intentions lead to the worst possible outcome.
Thicker than Water is an unforgettable dark, harrowing look into the disturbing truth of drug addiction and the desperate love of a sister watching her brother deteriorate before her eyes.
Rating: 4/5
This is a book about a series of bad decisions. Bad decisions that end up in a downwards spiral towards tragedy. But it was a well-written read nevertheless, taking a look at family relationships, drug addiction and teen rehabilitation.
What Cece does is wrong, no doubt about it, but there’s certainly a pervasive sense of unfairness that she is the one that takes all the blame, while the rich kids who bought from her, and the doctor who prescribed the pills, emerge scot-free. It’s also an interesting judgement of society where tertiary education is an unattainable privilege for many, and not a right easily accessed.
Regret forces us to relive the moments we hate the most – the moments that drove us into spiralling downfalls, the moments where we stopped living and started surviving.
The book also showcases how addiction can so completely transform someone you know into someone unrecognisable. And quite apart from the drug aspect, we get insight into rather screwed up family dynamics – a talented elder child around whom the family is centered, a mother who dies of illness, a step-mother who is only distantly involved, a father who refuses to see anything wrong, and the tensions and problems that money shortages bring.
I did have a few qualms, namely the fact that the court case focuses on the fact of her brother’s death, more than the issue of her selling and dealing – which seems strange, considering the fact that she was directly responsible for the latter, but not the former. And again, the fact that CeCe is the one taking the blame, despite everyone who facilitated the transactions – well, I guess that’s the (American) justice system for you?
Sad, hard-hitting but not sentimental, Thicker Than Water is a dark contemporary about one family’s utter disintegration.
Read more of Hannah’s reviews on her blog.
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