Blood Brothers

November 1, 2007
Gr 10 Up-Clay, a 17-year-old medical technician, loves working at the hospital, mopping blood off the floors and helping patients. Then he finds his normally straight-laced friend Joey intoxicated and violent, and Joey is injured when Clay fights him off. This mysterious episode leaves Joey clinging to life in the intensive-care unit. Clay's mechanical, deliberate actions on the job used to help his messed-up life make sense and actually save lives. Now nothing makes sense: his sensible, valedictorian friend needs a respirator to breathe. He must put the pieces of Joey's night together to try to both save his friend and clear himself of blame. Although Clay seems uncertain about who gave Joey PCP, most teens will identify the culprit early on. Fans of hospital TV dramas will immediately jump into this frantic story that is spattered with bodily fluids and drugs. Harazin's painfully precise writing dissects the hospital's stingingly sterile, evenhanded distribution of life and death, as well as Clay's disjointed life, which is stunted by small rations of parental care and money. It is Joey's tenuous grip on life, and Clay's deep bond with him, that will keep readers' hearts racing."Shelley Huntington, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.