Kellie Brooks thinks she knows herself, thinks she knows her best friends, and thinks she knows her family. But everything she thinks she knows begins to fall apart when her adopted sister Sara turns 18 and has the chance to meet her birth mother. And everything changes again when Kellie joins the school newspaper and realizes Adalaide, the girl she’d always thought was a dork, is actually not that dorky after all. And it changes further when her best friend Kaitlyn begins to drift away.

And Oliver, the brother of her sister’s boyfriend Dexter, only complicates Kellie’s life even further. After their awkward encounter last May, wherein he tried to get Kellie to have sex and she backed out, she thought his presence in her life was gone forever. But now it seems like he’s interested again.

Amy Spalding’s Ink Is Thicker Than Water is an excellent example of a true YA novel. It’s coming-of-age, but it’s coming-of-age through a perspective that’s quite minute and not world-shattering. What Kellie is going through and experiencing is entirely within the contours of her own life and her own experiences. She’s navigating a tricky situation in her family life, a change in what she thought were forever friendships, and an opportunity to pursue a romance with a boy who she thought would never again be a part of her life. Despite the fact none of the things that happen impact the greater world, they each play a huge part in impacting Kellie’s own world. And each of the things she encounters leads to her coming to better understand her role in her own life and in the lives of those around her — as well as her role in the greater world.

Family is the biggest aspect of this story, and Spalding isn’t afraid to look at a very complicated family dynamic that isn’t interesting because of its complexity and challenges, but rather, is interesting because it does work. Sara is Kellie’s older sister, but she’s adopted. Kellie’s mother and father were told the chances of them ever conceiving a child naturally were slim to none, and they chose to adopt Sara to start their family. It was no time before they conceived Kellie without a problem — though in no way are Sara and Kellie at odds with their places within the family. In fact, they’re as close as two sisters can be.

But the family gets more challenging, as Kellie and Sara’s parents are also divorced. Mom has remarried, and after a significant life reevaluation in the past, she also left her job as a paralegal and started working at The Family Ink — a tattoo shop — with her new husband. Mom and her new husband have a child together, a boy named Finn, who both girls adore and take turns taking care of. Kellie and Sara’s dad lives nearby, and though he doesn’t admit to being in a relationship with anyone else, he does have a girlfriend. Both girls spend time with dad, even though they live with mom. Despite being divorced, mom and dad get along, and both have their girls best interests at heart. So when Sara chooses to meet her biological mother, it’s not a surprise that both mom and dad support her decision to get to know her better, even if it does hurt them. But, of course, it’s a hurt that’s less about feeling abandoned and more a hurt of knowing their daughter’s growing up and learning how to make life choices and relationships for herself and her best interests.

Which is where this story really veers into something memorable. For Kellie, Sara’s decision to spend more time with her biological mother feels at times like a personal insult. Kellie’s not selfish, but she IS a teenager: Sara’s lack of time being spent with her feels like it’s done with the intent to make Kellie jealous and hurt, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with Kellie. It has to do entirely with Sara coming to learn how to be herself. This is something that Kellie eventually will figure out, as she, too, learns how to navigate these family relationships and the shifting that they can go through.

Kellie’s friendship and subsequent change in connection with Kaitlyn is really believable and it’s really honest. As Kellie begins to spend more time with the newspaper and honing her skills as a humor columnist (and yes, some of those columns are in the book to read), she’s spending more time with those who share those interests with her. Kaitlyn is doing precisely the same thing, though her interests aren’t in the newspaper or in writing. As a result, the girls begin drifting apart, even though it’s not in a nasty or mean way. Kellie takes it as an affront, though, as Kaitlyn spends more time with her new friends, and as readers, we see the loneliness this leaves her. She doesn’t want to hate Kaitlyn and she doesn’t want to be mad at her, but she can’t help feeling sad and lost as both Kaitlyn and herself throw themselves into new experiences and one of the consequences is their friendship changes. It doesn’t end. It just changes.

Change, if it hasn’t been obvious, is a key theme in Ink Is Thicker Than Water, and it might be argued that it’s through her relationship with Oliver that Kellie figures out change doesn’t need to be scary. Back in May, Oliver and Kellie were having a good time together and almost had sex — but she didn’t want it to happen and it didn’t. She wasn’t ready. Since then, Kellie worried that she and Oliver never had another shot, so when he pursued her again, she didn’t believe it. She didn’t believe someone could want to get to know her after she’d let them down before. But the truth was, Oliver appreciated that aspect of her.

From the outside, their relationship look great: Oliver loves to be in touch with Kellie, he wants to make things “Facebook official” quickly, and he’s always willing to be around for her, even if sex is something she’s not ready to enter the equation (and he’s incredibly respectful of this). The thing is, Oliver is a little bit . . . clingy. Desperate, even. And as much as Kellie loves the attention and loves the ability to reach him any time she wants to and needs to, she’s also a little wary of how much he wants to ensure their solidarity as a couple. Of course, there’s a reason for his actions, and Kellie will discover what it is when she’s out with his brother Dexter. But more than discover what it is causing Oliver to act as he does with her, Kellie will realize that she’s not too different from him, but in her relationship with her sister. It’s this ah ha moment when Kellie not only appreciates Oliver even more, but it’s in this moment when Kellie comes to understand that people can and do change and that change doesn’t have to be scary.

Change can be a good thing.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this story for me has to do with Kellie’s relationship with sex and virginity. As noted, she almost had sex with Oliver upon meeting him for the first time months ago, but she backed out, saying she wasn’t ready for it. So when he returns to her later, she’s worried that that choice will forever be the reason he would not be the reason he’d want to be in a relationship with her. If she hurt him once, the potential to do it again and again exists. But Oliver doesn’t believe that. When their relationship develops, sex remains in the back of Kellie’s mind regularly: she’s not ready for it. But rather than keep that voice at bay, she’s open and honest about it with not just herself, but with Oliver as well. At times it comes out awkwardly, but it’s that awkwardness that’s honest and real. It’s a tricky topic, and Spalding handles it in a way that’s funny and incredibly authentic. Kellie does eventually decide she’s ready, and in the process, she takes steps to protect herself and Oliver in a very non-preachy, non-message-y manner. Once the two of them do engage in sex, Kellie’s reactions and desires are true to her coming to understand herself, coming to understand relationships and what and how physicality plays in, and more than that, Kellie discovers that she as a person has autonomy. She can do what it is she wants to do in whatever manner she wants to do it, as long as no one gets hurt in the process. Even though she thinks sex is the scary part, she learns after sex that the really scary part is owning that freedom and the responsibility that comes with it.

Ink Is Thicker Than Water is equal parts funny as it is heartening. Kellie’s voice is strong and memorable, and it is authentically teenage. There’s no doubt this is a 16-year-old character who is discovering how tough and how exciting it is to be a 16-year-old. Things are perfectly imperfect, and it’s up to her to make the decisions of what to pursue and what needs to be let go.

While the ending feels a little neatly wrapped up, it fits the story and it fits the characters. I enjoyed how Spalding worked the tattoo shop into the storyline, and I felt like she did a great job making the mother’s storyline work for Kellie — we know mom learned too late what it was like to pursue her passion, and now she gets to be not just an example, but she gets to be one of Kellie (and Sara’s!) biggest advocates. It’s refreshing to see such a dynamic, supportive family in YA fiction and moreso to see it within the context of change and challenge. This isn’t a textbook family and it never could be. But because they love and support one another through thick and thin, they make things work. Likewise, Spalding’s knack for capturing friendship and relationships is noteworthy.

Readers who loved The Reece Malcolm List will find as much — if not more — to enjoy in Ink Is Thicker Than Water. Without doubt, this is the kind of book that will resonate with readers who dig contemporary realistic fiction, particularly in the vein of Sara Zarr and Siobhan Vivian. Kellie is easily one of my favorite protagonists this year because she’s imperfect and real in her imperfections. Her less-desirable qualities aren’t insurmountable, but they’re also not masked or made pretty. They’re just a part of who she is, and as she works towards an understanding of who she is, she doesn’t reject those things. She accepts them.

Ink Is Thicker Than Water will be available next Tuesday, December 3 from Entangled. Review copy received from the author.