Willa Coffey is a quiet girl who doesn't expect much. She lives with her mom, step-dad Jack and her two step-sisters, Alyssa and Brooke. Jacks ex-wife Val makes sure that Alyssa and Brooke have everything that money can buy and Willa is usually left on the outskirts looking in. Her mom and Jack cannot afford those things for Willa. She doesn't express her discontent, but instead hides in the basement and cuts herself.
When she receives a phone call from her mom's best friend while she is home alone, her whole world is turned upside down. It seems her dad, her real dad, has killed his new wife and little girls and is on his way to her house. The police get involved and everyone freaks out about how Willa is the daughter of a killer.
Willa decides to put herself first for once and demands that she get to go to Pryor, a small town hundreds of miles away, to attend her sisters' funerals. Even though she has never met them and hasn't seen her dad since she was four, she feels she needs to find out where she came from.
There, she learns more about herself, her mom and what it means to be happy. When she returns to her home, her mom and Jack once again set her world atilt. Because of Brooke and Alyssa's special schools, they must move once again, right before Willa's senior year. She contemplates cutting deeper this time and removing herself from the situation for good.
Blood Wounds is a page-turning read that pauses you to think about what humans to do one another. How one thoughtless action can wound another deeply. The characters are brought to life by the author's creative writing and the turmoil that Willa goes through is still fresh in this reader's mind. Definitely thought-provoking.
