Blood Wounds - Hardcover

Pfeffer, Susan Beth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0547496389 ISBN 13: 9780547496382

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2011

Synopsis

â Willaâ s frankly portrayed grief, confusion, and uncertainties will have a strong impact on readers.â â Publishers Weekly, starred review

Sixteen-year-old Willa is fortunate to have a happy blended family. But a frantic phone call from Pryor, Texas, shatters the calm. Willaâ s birth father has murdered his second wife and daughters . . . and the police think heâ s on his way east to hunt down Willa and her mother. As this disturbing tragedy inevitably exposes family secrets to Willa and her community, she struggles with her own destructive secret

About this title

Review

Blood can both wound and heal . . .

Willa is lucky: She has a loving blended family that gets along. Not all families are so fortunate. But when a bloody crime takes place hundreds of miles away, it has an explosive effect on Willa’s peaceful life. The estranged father she hardly remembers has murdered his new wife and children, and is headed east toward Willa and her mother. Under police protection, Willa discovers that her mother has harbored secrets that are threatening to boil over. Has everything Willa believed about herself been a lie? But as Willa sets out to untangle the mysteries of her past, she also keeps her own secret—one that has the potential to tear apart all she holds dear.

On the Origins of the Title Blood Wounds
By Susan Beth Pfeffer

Dear Amazon Reader,

On occasion I’m asked how I come up with titles for my books. Sometimes the publisher names the book, and sometimes I suggest a name we all agree to.

Blood Wounds is entirely my title. I knew almost from the beginning I wanted the word "Blood" in the title. "Blood" is one of my favorite words (another of my favorite words is "gaunt," but I’ve yet to figure out how to use it in anything besides the occasional statement of fact that gaunt I ain’t). "Blood" sounds like blood, thick and crimson and pulsing and everything else blood is and does. Also it means family, and the novel is about family. So "Blood" it would be.

Then I needed something to follow that "Blood." I liked the way it sounded with "Wounds," so I promptly raced to Amazon and typed "Blood Wounds" in its ever-useful search box, and found no books with that title.

Well, we all know that there are no books with that title because "blood wounds" doesn’t mean anything. Bullet wounds, knife wounds, sure. Wounds get caused by things going into your body. Blood is best left in your body from the get-go.

My way around the problem that the title Blood Wounds doesn’t mean anything is to say, "Think of 'wounds' as a verb. Then think of 'blood' as meaning family. See? A family can hurt you. 'Blood wounds!'"

I’ve convinced one and one-half friends and my publishing house that my title has meaning. I hope I’ve convinced you, too!

As always,
Susan Beth Pfeffer

Book Description

Hardcover edition:$16.99 CL/$19.99 CAN978-0-547-49638-2

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0547496389
• ISBN 13: 9780547496382
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256