Mix The Andy Griffith Show with Pleasantville, throw in some gothic horror a la the Gemma Doyle trilogy, stir with the events of the late 1960s (think hippies, communes, Vietnam, some serious racism, and Charles Manson), add a dash of the X-Files and a whole lot of Carrie, and what have you got? Bliss by Lauren Myracle!When fresh-off-the-commune Bliss In the Morning Dew (yep, that's really her name) is dumped by her draft dodging hippie parents (they're headed to Canada) on her prim and proper Southern grandmother in Atlanta, Bliss finds that she actually likes soap, deoderant, wearing make-up, and TV. She's also excited to be starting school (real school, for the first time ever) at the prestigious preppy Crestview. But when she walks onto campus for the first time and she hears the voice whispering to her of blood, bones, and tombs, Bliss isn't so sure that she can be a normal girl after all.
Even as she starts to fit in to life at Crestview, her friendship with outsider Sandy begins to get more than a little weird, and then there's the question of just what exactly is going on between strange Sandy and pretty, popular, perfect Sarah Lynn Lancaster, the girl who seems to have it all. The blood voice in Bliss's head is getting louder, and when Sandy tells Bliss the story of Liliana, the girl who jumped to her death from the 3rd floor of Hamilton Hall long ago, Bliss realizes that she may be all that stands for good against an ancient struggle for power and blood at Crestview...
You may want to save this one for next Halloween, or, if you're like me, the daylight hours, because Bliss will seriously creep you out. And, for all you horror fans, a side note: the title art was done with Hersey's syrup, inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock's innovative use of Hershey's blood in Psycho. Awesome!
Megan
(now reading Paper Towns by John Green and loving it!)
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