Reading Level: Young Adult

Clay Gardener and Joey Chauncey have been best friends since they were seven years old.  Their fathers were army buddies in Vietnam, and when Clay's widowed dad, down on his luck, arrived on the Chaunceys' doorstep on Christmas Eve with two kids, the Chaunceys helped them out. 

Ten years later, Clay and Joey are still best friends, ready to graduate from high school, but some things have never changed.  Joey's got it all ­­—popularity, wealth, a supportive family, and acceptance to Georgetown University, while Clay—who lives with an uncommunicative father who barely ekes out their living—works long hours at the local hospital as a medical tech and can only dream of going to college and becoming a doctor.  No matter the gap in their social stations, the two are loyal to each other and for years have trained and planned a cross-country biking trip for the summer after graduation.

One night, after a grueling shift in the ER, Clay arrives at the shed in the Chaunceys' yard where he and Joey hang out and gets the shock of his life.  Joey, crazed, naked, and psychotic, attacks him and Clay has to subdue him and call 911.  Joey has overdosed and, within hours, is in a coma.  Thus begins S.A. Harazin's harrowing look at casual drug use and how lives can be destroyed in an instant.

Harazin's background in medicine gives her writing authenticity and gives the reader a glimpse into the real goings-on in a hospital. She shows the way things are, not only for those who work there, but for those who are being cared for, from the ICU to the morgue.  The author pulls few punches. Seen through Clay's eyes, the reality of what medicine can do—and what it can't—is alternately hopeful and as bleak as the stainless steel gurneys being hosed down after a trauma case.

Blood Brothers is a powerful story, told remarkably well. As we come to know Clay, we feel his emotions as he experiences the shock and denial of what Joey is going through, expressed through the love and loyalty he consistently portrays.  Clay is Joey's blood brother, literally, and he will find out what happened to his friend, no matter what. In doing so, he knows he can save him and perhaps himself. 

— Kay Morris