Teenreads.com -- BLISS by Lauren Myracle

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

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