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Sidekick Review: Blood in the Water (2025) by Tiffany Jackson
The Basics
Page Length: 272
Audiobook Length: ~4.5 hours
Grade Reading Level: 4+
Target Audience Age: 9-12+
Goodreads Score: 3.93 out of 5
Buy it HERE
Setting: Contemporary Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Genre: Middle Grade Mystery Thriller
Topics: Murder Mystery, Summer, Racism, Wealth, Privilege, Reputation, Family Secrets, Friendship, Teen Sleuths
Plot: When Kaylani’s dad is sent to prison for corporate embezzlement, her entire world is turned upside down. Suddenly, her friends don’t want anything to do with her, and her only connection to her father is a 15-minute phone call each day. Then, just when things couldn’t get worse, Kaylani’s parents decide to send her away for the summer to stay with the Watson family on Martha’s Vineyard. But Kaylani isn’t ready to give up on her dad. She knows he’s innocent, and she’s determined to spend the summer figuring out who really committed the crime.
When Kaylani arrives on Martha’s Vineyard, she isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. London, the Watsons’ 12-year-old granddaughter, isn’t exactly thrilled to have a girl from Brooklyn with a dad in prison staying with her family, while her older sister, Cassy, is far too caught up in her status as the island’s teen royalty to pay much attention to Kaylani. The whole family seems obsessed with protecting their wealth, reputation, and carefully polished image.
Then, on Kaylani’s first night on the island, a tragic accident leaves Cassy’s ex-boyfriend dead. When Cassy becomes a suspect in the murder investigation, London and Kaylani team up to prove her innocence. But as they begin uncovering clues, Kaylani starts to wonder if this seemingly perfect family has more secrets than they’re willing to admit.
You might like this book if you like:
Puzzles and mystery board games
Hanging out at the beach
Lawyer TV shows/movies or think you might like to go to law school
Books like: The Only Black Girls in Town, The Liars Society, From the Desk of Zoe Washington
Movies like: The Goonies, Holes (a book too), Nancy Drew (book series as well), Enola Holmes
Shows like: Secrets of Sulphur Springs, A Series of Unfortunate Events (also a book series), The InBESTigators, The Mysterious Benedict Society (another book series)
Other books written by this author: Ghost in the Night, Monday's Not Coming, Allegedly, Grown, The Weight of Blood, White Smoke, The Scammer, Let Me Hear a Rhyme, Storm: Dawn of a Goddess
Teaching Blood in the Water in Class
Content
Language: None
Sex/Romance: The breakup of teenage boy and girl causes a bit of a stir on the island. Another teenage boy says he is in love with a girl.
Violence/Scariness: There is a fist fight between two teenage boys. A teenager dies in an alleged shark attack that turns out to be a murder. Other mysterious deaths on the island are mentioned.
Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: None
Class Novel-ability:
Unfortunately, I don’t think this one is going to make the cut for a class novel, mainly because of the murder mystery aspect. Otherwise, it has all the makings of a great book club choice. And it’s definitely a fun read, too! It’s short, entertaining, and has a great narrator and voice. It’s the kind of book that will hook kids quickly and make them want to keep reading.
The Star Qualities
This book is short, sweet, and action-packed. To me, it feels like the PERFECT length and setup for a middle grade novel. There’s a great mystery, but the action moves quickly, and the story is a fast read. This is one I think reluctant readers could really get through—especially if they’re fans of thrillers or crime dramas.
I love the narrator’s voice. She’s funny, a little sarcastic, and extremely relatable. She’s a reliable and realistic protagonist who I think students will love. I especially love her dedication and loyalty to her dad. I also really like the arc surrounding her thoughts about some of the other characters. She starts out a little judgmental, but as she gets to know people better, her perspective changes. I think that’s what makes her feel so real. She’s not perfect, and she’s willing to change her mind.
This author has so many other standout books! She JUST released another middle grade mystery last month, and I’ve already added it to my TBR list. It’s called Ghost in the Night, and I can’t wait to give it a read. Her other books are a little more mature, but they are SO good. This is an author whose books could actually grow with your students as they get older.
Book Talk Read Aloud Section
If you have the physical book, read the prologue (page 1).
If you don't, read the same pages (location 17) in the Kindle reading sample here.
"Reading Like a Writer" Mentor Texts
This passage has SO much craft packed into it. First, it’s written entirely in italics because it’s a flash-forward. Using foreshadowing this way is incredibly dramatic and immediately hooks the reader. But there’s so much more happening here, too: incredible sensory details, desperate repetition, figurative language, internal dialogue, sentence fragments, and varying sentence lengths. All of these moves work together to create a frantic, panicked rhythm that makes the scene incredibly effective. The writing doesn’t just tell us that the narrator is panicking—we can actually feel it through the way the scene is written.
I really like this one because of the style it’s written in. The narrator directly addresses the audience, which feels unique and fun. She also uses a comparison to something familiar to describe a new scene. I think students would have a lot of fun playing with this in their own writing—writing with "you" and using a pop-culture reference or allusion to make what they’re describing feel more familiar to the audience.
I like this passage because it really characterizes the narrator. We get to see how her brain works in real time. She notices patterns, she’s observant, and she’s cautious—and the author uses the structure of the writing to show us all of that rather than simply telling us. The author uses lists, numbers, internal thoughts, sentence fragments, and paragraph breaks to mirror the way the narrator is processing her surroundings. It's a contrast between the setting and her cautious mindset.
Sentences for Combining and Imitation
Sentence sets for combining:
"Once on board, we jumped out of the car, went up to the top deck, and took our seats at the front of the ship, known as the bow." (Blood in the Water, p. 15)
Once on board, we jumped out of the car.
We went up to the deck.
We took our seats at the front of the ship.
The front of the ship is known as the bow.
"My stomach is twisting, my head spinning, and my skin is sticky with sweat as the boat bounces off the waves." (p. 16)
My stomach is twisting.
My head is spinning.
My skin is sticky with sweat.
The boat bounces off the waves.
"The houses around us look like cottages, sitting on bright green lawns, surrounded by flowers, hedges, and trees." (p. 25)
The houses around us look like cottages.
They are sitting on bright green lawns.
They are surrounded by flowers.
They are surrounded by hedges.
They are surrounded by trees.
"The ice cream shops, restaurants, and tourist stores are all buzzing, but the arcade is clearly the big draw here: Dozens of kids flock toward its flashing lights and dinging sounds like mosquitoes to fresh blood." (p. 58)
The ice cream shops are buzzing.
The restaurants are buzzing.
The tourists stores are buzzing.
But the arcade is clearly the big draw here.
Dozens of kids flock towards it.
They flock towards its flashing lights and dinging sounds.
They flock like mosquitoes to fresh blood.
Sentences for Imitation:
This book has SO many fun sentence structures and styles for students to borrow. The author does a great job of creating a strong narrator’s voice, and a lot of that comes from her structural choices. Colons, lists, rhetorical questions, repetition, parentheses, internal dialogue, capitalization, ellipses, hashtags—you name it! All of these simple moves give the writing so much personality. And the best part? They’re moves students can easily try in their own writing.
"Whenever things were bad with Dad’s trial, Mom would hit me with the off-topic third-degree: Did you clean your brush? Did you turn in that extra homework assignment? Did you–" (p. 10)
"Now I’ve seen cute boys before at school or on my block. (I mean, I ain’t blind.) But Chadwick is a whole other level of cute. He’s a “belongs on a TV show, model, stop traffic” type of cute. Tall, with caramel skin, hazel eyes, and a thick mop of curly jet-black hair." (p. 28)
"From this angle, I can see just how big and spacious the pool is. I don’t want, as my grandma would say, to act like I ain’t never been nowhere before but I’ve never EVER stepped foot in a house like this!" (p. 40)
"I thought I dreamt it all: the boat, the island, the party . . . But I turn over and look across the room. London’s bed is empty." (p. 83)
"I can’t let all the drama on the island distract me from my goal, #operationFREEDAD." (p. 112)
"But by the next week, Chadwick felt like a distant memory. People were back at the beach, back in the water, back at the bridge . . . jumping off into the lagoon." (p. 118)
"Mrs. Watson made London lend me (to London’s horror) one of her outfits–a black dress with tiny yellow and white flowers." (p. 119)
Used this book in your classroom? Tell us how in the comments!
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