Book Review: Dispatches from Parts Unknown by Bryan Bliss

Publisher’s description

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.

Amanda’s thoughts

We all do weird things to handle grief. There are are allegedly five stages of grief, but we all know there are way more and that those stages differ for all of us. For instance, take Juliana. One of Julie’s stages of grief is “voice of a professional wrestler in her head.” That is not a stage I have ever experienced—it’s maybe not a stage anyone has ever experienced—but that doesn’t make it less valid. The voice of The Masked Man is her constant companion. Her less ephemeral tag team companion is best bud Max, a fellow wrestling aficionado, and provider of her favorite thing, Orange Julius.

Just as senior year starts to wrap up, things begin to change for Julie. Suddenly it’s not just the voice and Max anymore. When she’s voluntold to be on the prom committee, she is surprised to quickly become friends with Bri. Then there’s Leg and God, two skateboarding friends familiar to readers of Thoughts & Prayers by Bliss. They also join the prom committee, determined to make the theme of prom be Top Gun. They’re funny and weird and Julie is surprised again, this time by her interest in both Leg and in going to prom.

But it’s not all new friends and weird prom fun. Along the way, Julie has to grapple with big questions, like, should wrestling not be her entire personality? Is she having an existential crisis? And are her feelings on kayfabe, or the willing suspension of disbelief, changing? Is it good or bad to believe that maybe nothing is permanent? She thinks of the ongoing grief she feels from losing her father as a virus that won’t go away, referring to it as “Long-Dad.” The great thing that happens here is that Bliss manages to give Julie these great new people and more happiness than she’s felt in a while but still lets her feel so much grief and loss and confusion. People don’t fix people (a pet peeve of mine in so many books about grief or loss or mental health) and sometimes time doesn’t even fix people—it might just be that there’s no “fixing” people at all. We bend and break over and over and over again in life, and it’s not about getting over things or moving past them, but learning to live with them and move through them that’s important. Will Julie always need The Masked Man? Probably not. Is he providing an important service to her life right now? He sure is. Wild as it sounds, he is.

Full of humor, memorable characters (so glad to see a quick glimpse of Dr. Palmer!), great dialogue, and more wrestling than maybe any other book I’ve read before, this empathetic and meaningful look at grief makes it clear that there’s no wrong wrong to do it, even if that means living with the voice of a professional wrestler in your head.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780062962270
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 05/07/2024
Age Range: 13 – 17 Years

Filed under: Book Reviews