Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Blood Wounds.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Blood Wounds.  Harcourt Brace/Houghton Mifflin(Macmillan), 2011.  248p.

$16.99.            ISBN 978-0-547-49638-2       hs        Conflict           VG-BN 

This realistic novel packs an emotional wallop.  The main character, Willa, is a junior in high school who lives with her mother, step-dad, and step-sisters in what everyone agrees is a very happy, well-adjusted blended family.  However, for some reason, Willa does feel stressed out, and she secretly cuts herself as a way of coping with her feelings.  When her birth father, who is in Texas, flips out and commits a series of brutal murders that effect her entire family, Willa begins to see that things are not as rosy as she has been led to believe, and that she needs to start taking her own needs more seriously.
This is a page turner, and is for mature readers only.  There are scenes of blood and gore, along with mild profanity.          But the characterizations and the complex relationships that Pfeffer creates are very true-to-life, and lovers of realistic fiction will not be able to put this one down.         Carol Kennedy