Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore Blog Tour

We’re so excited to be a part of the tour for Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore! We had the chance to ask Kelly what her top five quotes in this book were and why and we’re going to share that with you, but first we want to tell you a little bit about the book!

Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore
(Website, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by HarperCollins on January 5th 2016
Genres: Adolescence, Drugs, Alcohol, Substance Abuse, Family, General, Social Issues, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Format: eARC

Perfect for fans of Ellen Hopkins—a heartbreaking tale of family tragedy and drug addiction where sometimes the best intentions lead to the worst possible outcomes.Cecelia Price killed her brother. At least, that's what the police and the district attorney are saying. Although CeCe is now locked up and forced into treatment, she knows the story is much more complicated. Cyrus wasn't always a drug-addled monster. He used to be a successful athlete, but when an injury forced Cyrus 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 realized an effective way to take away her brother's drugs while earning the money she needed for college: selling the pills. Only she never expected what happened next.

Thank you so much for having me! THICKER THAN WATER is a book close to my heart but, I have to say, it’s also the book I’m most proud of in terms of writing. I spent a lot of time on this book and it has some of my favorite lines I’ve ever written. Here are some below:

“As I gripped the edge of a nearby trash can, I felt something ooze between my fingers. I think it was what was left of my heart.”

In the very beginning, as CeCe gets arrested, she’s feels a kind of desperation unlike any other she’s known. This symbolism of her heart oozing between her fingers is something that spoke to me – it was one of the first sentences of the book that I wrote. When things slip through our fingers, they feel irrevocably lost. That’s how CeCe’s heart has to feel as she is reconciling her role in this entire story.

“I stare at Jennifer’s back, at the place where a discreet seam runs down the center of her navy suit jacket. If bodies were divided in half, I wonder what would hold us together. I look down at my hands.”

Math is a constant and important refrain in CeCe’s life. It remains constant and a touchstone, even while she’s rejecting the therapy and help she’s being offered.

“He peered at it; a wisp of steam rose from one end. Then, leaning across the table, he looked at me, pursed his lips, and blew. The steam disappeared. Inside my chest, something cold and hollow started to melt.”

When CeCe falls in love with Lucas, she feels things she’s never imagined –a sense of loss of control, but in a good way. She wants to feel these strong, uncontrollable feelings, but they scare her, too.

“Death isn’t just about loss. It’s about math—and, more specifically, about subtraction. But life is all about math, too. Subtracting this house from my family. Multiplying the expenses I’d thought I had. And dividing my father and brother and mother from me.”

As I mentioned before, math is a touchstone for CeCe, in good times and in bad. She uses it to help make educated decisions about her life and, in some cases, to rationalize when she’s making a choice that isn’t the right one at all.

“That’s something I’d always admired about my brother, my role model. He could forget being hurt in favor of being happy.”

Much of this book is a story focused on the negatives of addiction – but it’s also a love story. It’s about the love of a sister for her brother and how deeply one can mourn the death of a person when their entire being has transitioned into something you don’t recognize.

About Kelly Fiore

Kelly Fiore-Stultz has a BA in English from Salisbury University and an MFA in Poetry from West Virginia University. She received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2005 and 2009. Kelly’s poetry has appeared in Small Spiral Notebook, Samzidada, Mid Atlantic Review, Connotation Press, and the Grolier Annual Review. Her first young adult novel, Taste Test, was released in August 2013 from Bloomsbury USA, and her second, Just Like the Movies, again from Bloomsbury, was releasted in 2014. Forthcoming novels include Thicker Than Water from HarperTeen in 2015.

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3 winners will receive a finished copy of THICKER THAN WATER. US Only.

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Tour Schedule:

Week One:

12/28/2015- Ohana Reads– Interview
12/29/2015- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review
12/30/2015- FICTION FARE– Guest Post
12/31/2015- In Wonderland– Review
1/1/2016- PLEASE FEED THE BOOKWORM– Interview