Julie’s dad died three years ago, and ever since, she’s mostly been going through the motions. She’s still grieving but figures everyone thinks she should be past it by now. But she can’t help going into her dad’s closet and sitting and trying to smell him. She can’t help the constant hole in her heart. And she hasn’t gotten rid of the constant commentary of the Masked Man in her head. The professional wrestler who was her dad’s favorite has long been retired from the ring, but he talks to her constantly.

Nearing the end of her senior year, Julie is facing the proverbial whole life ahead of her. But she’s just wondering how to live a normal life without the grief running things. Can she move forward? And if she does, what does that mean?

When a teacher gives her a push to do something different by putting her on the prom-planning committee, Julie makes some new friends. In particular, she gains a new best friend, Briar, who seems pretty different from her. But they click and end up hanging out a lot. This is a second friend in addition to Max, her longtime best friend, the son of her parents’ best friends. All of a sudden, her life actually does start to change, and it leads her to some new experiences and things to ponder.

And eventually, she may even be able to let go of that voice in her head.

Dispatches from Parts Unknown is absolutely delightful, especially for a book that’s almost exclusively about grief. It took me a while to get to: it was downloaded on my Kindle and when I finished another book on a flight, I went to it. I’m so glad I did. I had no idea what I was getting into after requesting it a year ago from Netgalley, and when I opened to the first page and saw a glossary of pro wrestling terms, I thought twice about it, honestly. But the author’s note at the beginning encouraged me to read on.

Julie’s voice is so real and relatable, as a teenage girl who’s not maybe a typical teen girl. She loves pro wrestling and Orange Julius. She keeps to herself and otherwise talks to her mom and her best friend. The voice of the pro wrestler is pretty entertaining, and Julie’s reactions to his commentary can be entertaining as well. I got such a kick out of Julie’s whole experience with prom and first dates and kisses. And how she feels about her mom’s boyfriend, a wheatgrass-drinking, yoga-retreat fanatic, who’s friendly and nice but kind of vacuous, is always on point. Her relationship with her mom is sweet and tender, as they’re navigating this huge loss together.

You may be surprised that a book all about grief — and healing — could be so poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, and, yes, FULL of pro wrestling references (and HEART! IYKYK). But it is. And I recommend it. You will be charmed.

It was a little silly but over all it was a good book on grief. I know nothing about wrestling so the glossary of terms at the beginning helped a lot.

Julie is just surviving life. And it seems to help that her late dad's favorite wrestler is commentating along through what's happening in her life. As she goes through along what life has to offer, she may just understand why a wrestler is in her head.

This book was beautful and more! I cannot explain thoroughly how this book was so gentle and kind to someone who's grieving. I liked how it was taken lightly that I feel there were not a lot of triggering things in the book. The book was funny, and kind. It navigated feelings in a way that it was open to interpretation.

It does help that there was a glossary of wrestling entertainment terms in the beginning of the book. Given, I did watch World Wrestling Entertainment when I was still a kid, but all the terms just went over my head. And I truly loved the parallels of the fakeness of wrestling and the realness of life in this book. And the fact that the author shared his interest with a mix of dread on how readers will take it is somethwing so genius. It gives readers who are interested in it that they are seen, and there are readers that have no interest in it, that they might see wrestling entertainment in a different light.

Anyway, the characters are so lovely too. Julie is our main character, but you have to love the other characters because you get to see the subtle changes in Julie because of them. And the lovely thing about this is that, it's not only Julie that you see grow but the other characters are growing too. I swear, I cannot help but to see how lovely they are but not in a way that it was too overly sweet.

As much as wrestling is an in-your-face type of entertainment, this book has been so subtle, and honestly, so healing for me too. I mean, the cover is even so subtle too! So yeah, maybe you can say that I'm bias, but this is the first time I read anything from this author, but truly I just liked it so much. Also, this book made me look at Top Gun in a different light too.

If anything, there are times that confusion do set in because of the wrestling terms and the world of wrestling. But they do fall into place as the book settles in.

As mentioned, this book is amazing for me. I feel like this is one of those books that will not be forgettable because of the uniqueness of it. I also learned that this author has been around and this book made me interested in reading other books of his,

Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this!

(3.5 stars) an enjoyable little YA that deals with grief and is also funny. I would definitely recommend this one, and you don’t have to be a fan of wrestling to enjoy it. I feel like I learned a lot about wrestling from this book too.
My only thing is I wish the wrestler voice in Julie’s head had more to say. Haha. Also the plot and characters were a little silly. Overall a nice little YA book.

This is my first book by Bliss and it certainly didn't disappoint. What a read...this story follows Julie's struggle with grief after losing her father after she recently stumbles upon old VHS tapes of his favorite pro wrestler. While I know little to nothing about wrestling, I loved Julie's character development and felt anyone could relate to the themes of love, loss, and grief in this coming-of-age novel. While I'm fortunate to not fully understand what she went through, this book creates plenty of empathy and understanding, something that I feel more of today's teens could use. Thanks so much for this ARC!

I am a fan of Bryan Bliss's "No Parking at the End Times," so was eager to read this new title. "Dispatches from Parts Unknown" is a book about how a girl deals with the grief of her father's death. Since he loved pro wrestling, she pulls his old tapes out for comfort. Growth and change happen throughout the book, but I won't ruin the storyline by expanding. Bliss writes that although readers may not connect with pro wrestling, they will recognize what it feels like to love something in a primal way, something that ultimately brings healing. This book is a great testament to that. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
#DispatchesfromPartsUnknown #NetGalley