Synopsis: A profoundly moving, uplifting novel about those who are left at home during wartime and a teenage girl bravely facing the future.
When Alice learns that he father is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Matt Bliss is leaving just as his daughter blossoms into a full-blown teenager. She will learn to drive, shop for a dress for her first dance, and fall in love all while trying to be strong for her mother and take care of her younger sister. Alice wears her dad's shirt every day, even though the scent of him is fading and his phone calls are never long enough. Life continues without him, but nothing can prepare Alice for the day two uniformed officers arrive at their door with news.
Alice Bliss is a gorgeous, transforming novel about the support of a small town looking after its own in times of loss; the love between an absent father and his daughter; the complicated love between Alice and her mother, Angie; and first love between Alice and the boy next door. It's a universal story and yet it touches on something very personal: these characters' struggles amid uncertain times echo our own, lending Alice Bliss an immediacy and poignancy that are both relevant and real.
Type: Fiction
Quick Take: While I was reading this book my first thought was that I wondered if it's a young adult novel. I guess I was expecting something different. I can't say I loved this one but I did get a glimpse into what life could be like from a child's point of view when her father is deployed.
I know a few mother's juggling life while their husbands are deployed and this may have been a factor in how I read the story. I would have liked it if the story was told from the mother's perspective. I think I would have connected more.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Source: Review Copy