Bliss

by Lauren Myracle

Book Overview

Lauren Myracle brings her keen understanding of teen dynamics to a hypnotic horror story of twisted friendship. When Bliss's hippie parents leave the commune and dump her at the home of her aloof grandmother in a tony Atlanta neighborhood, it's like being set down on an alien planet. The only guide na ve Bliss has to her new environment is what she's seen on The Andy Griffith Show. But Mayberry is poor preparation for Crestview Academy, an elite school...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810940728
• ISBN13: 9780810940727
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Bliss

Bliss is a new kind of book, something quite unlike anything else Lauren Myracle has written, lacking greatly in the fluffy-bunnies department. She pulls it off spectacularly, with great narration, fresh and complicated new characters, and plenty of those lovely plot twists we love so very much! Though I didn't realize at first, this book is set in the past, but the girls seem so modern in their speech and actions, everything blends in wonderfully. I loved how this was your typical YA story...plus plenty of supernatural elements, plus social commentary. The blurring of genre lines was done seamlessly and perfectly. While I had some issues with the ending and I really think the better ending would have been the less tragic one, I can see why Myracle did decide to write it as she did. I highly recommend this book--many people somehow think "supernatural? Pshh, must be a lame Twilight rip-off!" but I'm telling you, this bone-chilling novel has things much much scarier than a family of vegetarian vampires, and it's a truly original book well worth your time. Rating: 5/5

Bliss

Great book from beginning to end. Could not put it down. I definitely recommend it to all avid readers!

A great and spooky book!

This has to be one of my favorite books from 2008. It gets you interesting really fast, and keeps you wanting to read until the end. And this is quite a thing for me to say -- I hate anything spooky or scary. I FREAK OUT on Halloween just seeing a freaking Scream coustume. The beginning really gets you into the story and will have you captivated by it. Once the story gets to the climax, you will keep reading and reading and you won't want to stop. There are many plot turns that I didn't see coming. I thought it was one thing and it turned out to be the wayyy opposite of what I believed. The only thing that wasn't very good about this book was the ending. Now, sometimes, I like - even love - books that leave the ending up to you to decide, to imagine what happens. But the ending to Bliss wasn't one of the open endings that I like. It was too open of an ending. So, besides the ending, Bliss is a book that I highly recommend you to read. It is a great mix of friendship, magic, and horror - all with a lot of suspense. Plus, you will learn a lot about the 1960s without it seeming like Myracle is throwing a bunch of facts in your face.

A contagiously creepy tale of high school horror

High school freshman Bliss Inthemorningdew is completely unprepared for her new life. Having been raised by her hippie parents on a commune, she has no concept of fashion, boys or dances. Open-hearted Bliss is also completely oblivious (and immune) to the cliques, social intrigues and ostracism that characterize high school social life. So when Bliss (whose parents have fled to Canada to escape the Vietnam draft) relocates to Atlanta, Georgia, to live with her proper Southern grandmother and attend the prestigious Crestview Academy, she innocently --- and, as it turns out, to her peril --- tries to befriend queen bees and outcasts alike. Above all, Bliss doesn't understand the racial prejudices and outright hatred that pervade her school. Her best friend on the commune, after all, was a black woman, Flying V. So she has a difficult time comprehending her new classmates' intolerant comments about segregation or why class princess Sarah Lynn Lancaster has to hide her romantic relationship with the school's only black student. Bliss tries to befriend Sarah Lynn, but she also befriends awkward, socially inept Sandy, who seems to hold a vendetta against Sarah Lynn and an unhealthy obsession with a student's suicide that happened decades before. Bliss herself, who according to Flying V has "second sight," is troubled by threatening voices in her head and, soon, by Sandy's increasingly smothering, possessive behavior toward Bliss. Flying V warned Bliss that her life would be intertwined with two "bloodthirsty" girls at her new school. Is it possible that one of kind, friendly Bliss's new classmates could be a deadly foe rather than a friend? Fans of horror novels will certainly see echoes of Stephen King's CARRIE in BLISS. The intersection of the occult with high school social dramas is handled suspensefully, with Bliss's narration intertwined with creepy journal entries from her tormentor. But Lauren Myracle grounds this standard horror-story fare by placing it firmly in the context of its times, with references to "The Andy Griffith Show," the Charles Manson murders and racial intolerance, highlighting the startling contradictions between Bliss's innocence and the violence and horror that lurks beneath the surface. Bliss's disarming narration, a story that plays out in short chapters, and a gradually growing sense of dread combine for a contagiously creepy tale of high school horror. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Page Turner for Teens, with some history and gore thrown in

The setting of this book is Atlanta, Georgia 1969. Bliss Inthemorningdew (her parents are hippies) is living with her grandmother while her parents are in Canada to protest the Nixon administration. She has never been enrolled in school, and has been living the hippie lifestyle with her parents in communes and even on a university campus. As Bliss enters a prep school for the first time, she discovers many new things. The school used to be run by nuns, and a girl threw herself from the third story of one of the school's buildings. She finds out quickly that she can hear the girl's bloody voice, as Bliss is very atune to the spiritual world. She also makes new friends, and learns that Sara Lynn is the most popular girl at school. There is also only one black student enrolled at the school, in order to avoid forced segregation, but most students, teachers, and parents are still pretty set against this inclusion and against African Americans as a whole. All of the typical high school clique stuff still applies as it does today, and Bliss befriends one of the school's token freaks, Sandy. Soon Sandy is showing her obsession for the girl who killed herself so many years before, and she tries to use Bliss as an offering to channel the dead girl's spirit. Full of suspense and the supernatural, sure to appeal to teens who love this kind of stuff, even though there are many historical references from the sixties (like segregation, Nixon era, war, the Charles Manson murders, and popular TV shows like Andy Griffith).