*An Odyssey Award Honor Audiobook*

The feel-good novel of the year. --ALA Booklist (starred review)

Julie knows it's unusual that a professional wrestler runs a constant commentary on her life that only she can hear. But grief can be awfully funny sometimes. National Book Award nominee Bryan Bliss delivers a thought-provoking, one-of-a-kind novel about how to tread the line between moving on and holding on. Dispatches from Parts Unknown is for fans of David Arnold, Nina LaCour, and You've Reached Sam.

Ever since her dad died three years ago, Julie has been surviving more than thriving. And surviving is sneaking into her parents' closet when her mom is out, since it's the only place that still sometimes smells like her dad. It's roaming around the Mall of America. It's pulling out the box of her dad's VHS tapes, recordings of his favorite vintage professional wrestling matches.

And it's hearing the voice of the Masked Man in her head, running a commentary of her life.

It's embarrassing, really. Sure, he was her dad's favorite wrestler, but that doesn't mean she wants him in her head.

As Julie finally starts to come out of the haze of grief, maybe she'll finally figure out why that voice is there, and how to let it go.

National Book Award Longlist Title * Booklist Editors' Choice * CYBILS Young Adult Fiction Finalist * Nerdy Book Club Award for Best Young Adult Fiction * Paste Magazine Best Book * YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults

A compelling and raw story.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

[Bliss dares] his readers not only to see the depths of human complexity, but to care.--Booklist (starred review)

Luke and Toby have always had each other's backs. But then one choice--or maybe it is a series of choices--sets them down an irrevocable path. We'll Fly Away weaves together Luke and Toby's senior year of high school with letters Luke writes to Toby later--from death row.

Best friends since childhood, Luke and Toby have dreamed of one thing: getting out of their dead-end town. Soon they finally will, riding the tails of Luke's wrestling scholarship, never looking back. If they don't drift apart first. If Toby's abusive dad, or Luke's unreliable mom, or anything else their complicated lives throw at them doesn't get in the way.

Tense and emotional, this hard-hitting novel explores family abuse, sex, love, and friendship, and how far people will go to protect those they love. For fans of Jason Reynolds, Marieke Nijkamp, and NPR's Serial podcast.

Praise for We'll Fly Away:

Bryan Bliss has written an empathetic and stirring novel about what it means to fight for the outcasts, the forgotten, and even the hated, reminding us that we all have worth. That we are all valuable.--Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

A poignant story of loyalty, abuse, and poverty. . . . This compassionate and beautifully rendered novel packs an emotional punch.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A smart, rugged, all-too-true story of friendship under fire. Believable characters and page-turning tension.--Chris Crutcher, author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

This fast-paced read will have teens tearing through chapters to find out why Luke is in jail. . . . The conclusion will leave them devastated. This is [a] touching book about male friendship for fans of Jason Reynolds.--School Library Journal

The unshakable and unconditional bond between the young men is tested and proves true, a ray of light in the darkness of their stories.--VOYA

Help for teens struggling to reconcile complexity in the world and faith in God.

From the pandemic to polarized politics to school shootings, kids today face a reality that inevitably can lead to a wonder about why. Bad Things, Good People, and God offers help to teenagers as they think through one of the biggest and oldest questions of faith--why bad things happen. With stories from the Bible, a side-eye to some of the classic attempts at figuring all of this out, honest talk about sin and suffering, and hope for making sense of it all, this guide allows readers to explore, wonder, curse, lament, and ultimately find a sense of peace around the question of evil.

Bestselling YA novelist Bryan Bliss turns his hand to a challenging topic teenagers don't want a simple answer for-they want to know what's at stake, how it affects the world, and what difference they can make.

In his unflinching and resonant new novel, Bryan Bliss shows that there is no straight line through trauma, no easy recipe for healing. Instead, in three loosely connected stories of young people bound by an all-too familiar tragedy, he deftly illuminates the small moments of human connection and resolve that might just lead to a place of grace.--Gayle Forman, bestselling author of If I Stay and I Have Lost My Way

Fight. Flight. Freeze. What do you do when you can't move on, even though the rest of the world seems to have?

Powerful and tense, Thoughts & Prayers is an extraordinary novel that explores what it means to heal and to feel safe in a world that constantly chooses violence.

Claire, Eleanor, and Brezzen have little in common. Claire fled to Minnesota with her older brother, Eleanor is the face of a social movement, and Brezzen retreated into the fantasy world of Wizards & Warriors.

But a year ago, they were linked. They all hid under the same staircase and heard the shots that took the lives of some of their classmates and a teacher. Now, each one copes with the trauma as best as they can, even as the world around them keeps moving.

Told in three loosely connected but inextricably intertwined stories, National Book Award-longlisted author Bryan Bliss's Thoughts & Prayers follows three high school students in the aftermath of a school shooting. Thoughts & Prayers is a story about gun violence, but more importantly it is the story of what happens after the reporters leave and the news cycle moves on to the next tragedy. It is the story of three unforgettable teens who feel forgotten.

For readers of Jason Reynolds, Marieke Nijkamp, and Laurie Halse Anderson.

In his unflinching and resonant new novel, Bryan Bliss shows that there is no straight line through trauma, no easy recipe for healing. Instead, in three loosely connected stories of young people bound by an all-too familiar tragedy, he deftly illuminates the small moments of human connection and resolve that might just lead to a place of grace.--Gayle Forman, bestselling author of If I Stay and I Have Lost My Way

Fight. Flight. Freeze. What do you do when you can't move on, even though the rest of the world seems to have?

Powerful and tense, Thoughts & Prayers is an extraordinary novel that explores what it means to heal and to feel safe in a world that constantly chooses violence.

Claire, Eleanor, and Brezzen have little in common. Claire fled to Minnesota with her older brother, Eleanor is the face of a social movement, and Brezzen retreated into the fantasy world of Wizards & Warriors.

But a year ago, they were linked. They all hid under the same staircase and heard the shots that took the lives of some of their classmates and a teacher. Now, each one copes with the trauma as best as they can, even as the world around them keeps moving.

Told in three loosely connected but inextricably intertwined stories, National Book Award-longlisted author Bryan Bliss's Thoughts & Prayers follows three high school students in the aftermath of a school shooting. Thoughts & Prayers is a story about gun violence, but more importantly it is the story of what happens after the reporters leave and the news cycle moves on to the next tragedy. It is the story of three unforgettable teens who feel forgotten.

For readers of Jason Reynolds, Marieke Nijkamp, and Laurie Halse Anderson.

Abigail's parents believed the world was going to end. And--of course--it didn't. But they've lost everything anyway. And she must decide: does she still believe in them? Or is it time to believe in herself? Fans of Sara Zarr, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell will connect with this moving debut.

Abigail's parents never should have made that first donation to that end-of-times preacher. Or the next, or the next. They shouldn't have sold their house. Or packed Abigail and her twin brother, Aaron, into their old van to drive across the country to San Francisco, to be there for the end of the world. Because now they're living in their van. And Aaron is full of anger, disappearing to who-knows-where every night. Their family is falling apart. All Abigail wants is to hold them together, to get them back to the place where things were right.

But maybe it's too big a task for one teenage girl. Bryan Bliss's thoughtful debut novel is about losing everything--and about what you will do for the people you love.

In a single night--graduation night--Thomas has to decide: do what everyone has always expected of him, or forge an entirely new path? Bryan Bliss's absorbing examination of one boy struggling with expectations and realities will appeal to readers of Sara Zarr and Chris Crutcher.

Thomas is supposed to leave for the Army in the morning. His father was Army. His brother, Jake, is Army--is a hero, even, with the medals to prove it. Everyone expects Thomas to follow in that fine tradition. But Jake came back from overseas a completely different person, and that has shaken Thomas's certainty about his own future. And so when his long-estranged friend Mallory suggests one last night of adventure, Thomas takes her up on the distraction. Over the course of this single night, Thomas will lose, find, resolve, doubt, drive, explore, and leap off a bridge. He'll also face the truth of his brother's post-traumatic stress disorder and of his own courage. In Bryan Bliss's deft hands, graduation night becomes a night to find yourself, to find each other, to find a path, and to know that you always have a place--and people--to come back to.

National Book Award Longlist Title * Booklist Editors' Choice * CYBILS Young Adult Fiction Finalist * Nerdy Book Club Award for Best Young Adult Fiction * Paste Magazine Best Book *YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults

A compelling and raw story.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

[Bliss dares] his readers not only to see the depths of human complexity, but to care.--Booklist (starred review)

Luke and Toby have always had each other's backs. But then one choice--or maybe it is a series of choices--sets them down an irrevocable path. We'll Fly Away weaves together Luke and Toby's senior year of high school with letters Luke writes to Toby later--from death row.

Best friends since childhood, Luke and Toby have dreamed of one thing: getting out of their dead-end town. Soon they finally will, riding the tails of Luke's wrestling scholarship, never looking back. If they don't drift apart first. If Toby's abusive dad, or Luke's unreliable mom, or anything else their complicated lives throw at them doesn't get in the way.

Tense and emotional, this hard-hitting novel explores family abuse, sex, love, and friendship, and how far people will go to protect those they love. For fans of Jason Reynolds, Marieke Nijkamp, and NPR's Serial podcast.

Praise for We'll Fly Away:

Bryan Bliss has written an empathetic and stirring novel about what it means to fight for the outcasts, the forgotten, and even the hated, reminding us that we all have worth. That we are all valuable.--Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

A poignant story of loyalty, abuse, and poverty. . . . This compassionate and beautifully rendered novel packs an emotional punch.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A smart, rugged, all-too-true story of friendship under fire. Believable characters and page-turning tension.--Chris Crutcher, author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

This fast-paced read will have teens tearing through chapters to find out why Luke is in jail. . . . The conclusion will leave them devastated. This is [a] touching book about male friendship for fans of Jason Reynolds.--School Library Journal

The unshakable and unconditional bond between the young men is tested and proves true, a ray of light in the darkness of their stories.--VOYA