Cecelia "CeCe" Price went from a promising college bound student to an accused murderer. Forced into a treatment facility, CeCe doesn't want to talk about her brother, Cyrus, and how his addiction to pain medication destroyed her family. CeCe only wanted a way out and selling her brother's pain medication seemed like an easy answer. She never expected Cyrus would die or that she would be accused of his murder. Meanwhile, CeCe's attorney and therapists struggle to reach CeCe as her court date looms ahead.

THICKER THAN WATER seamlessly weaves back and forth from CeCe's present day incarceration in a treatment facility to the events that led to her current circumstances. Kelly Fiore does a marvelous job of engaging the reader into CeCe's mindset as we see the damaging effects of drugs, even prescription drugs, on all those around an individual. However, it is the authenticity of the therapists and their treatment modalities that impressed me the most in THICKER THAN WATER.

I was initially a little leery of THICKER THAN WATER, because I wasn't sure I could empathize with a fictional teenager who murdered her brother. Kelly Fiore took that stereotype and turned it upside down, showing us the person behind the label. We watch as CeCe sees her dreams shattered with no family support at all. I ached for CeCe even as I hoped against hope her chemistry teacher would be able to reach her and change her downward course.

The Author's Note is particularly poignant, as it highlights why THICKER THAN WATER strikes such a strong chord with the reader. Kelly Fiore provides the reader with a glimpse into her own story as well as providing helpful resources for any reader who may be experiencing something similar. I cried during CeCe's story, but I cried even more during the Author's Note as her story is real. THICKER THAN WATER is a book that both teenagers and their parents should read to better grasp just how painful and damaging an addiction can be, even to those not directly using the drugs. If you read just one book about drug addiction and the damage it inflicts, then read THICKER THAN WATER.