A heart tearing memoir of being a young military wife and the effects of war on all those that are touched by it. Very heartfelt, heart wrenching book. I felt all the pain this poor couple felt. War, drugs, the terrible way military families are ignored. Scary world we live in. Really enjoyed this book. Thank you to Netgalley for an early read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Karie and Cleve are too young to be thrown into the type of situation they are placed in - quick marriage, deployment, injury, PTSD, miscarriage, separation - yet Karie kept on going, because that's the only way she saw to get thru it. The perception of veteran's compensation and support are brought even more sharply into consideration today as they were 20 years ago. A brave memoir, and I am so happy that Karie found love and fulfillment in her life.

Wow! This book shredded my heart. Far removed from the years when I was an Army wife during the Viet Nam war, I related to her journey in so many ways. Although my husband returned whole in body, what he left behind spiritually and emotionally can never be reclaimed. Fugett's memoir activated every one of the memories from that time and reinforced my own convictions about how we send our youngest, most vulnerable, men and women to fight the wars old men create.

But this isn't my story. It's Karie's, and she relates it in such down-to-earth, exceptional detail - what it means to be a military wife, the burden of care-giving a wounded spouse, the reliance on pain killers that becomes addiction, the effects of PTSD on the soldiers and their families. The reader never detects a sense of self-pity, but we do feel the emotionally harrowing impact of her and Cleve's life together, from falling in love to falling apart physically and psychologically.

I rarely read nonfiction, almost never memoir, but I simply could not put this book down. It is a brave, honest deep dive into a world barely acknowledged and rarely recounted...and a tribute to the author's resilience and the love she still holds for her deceased spouse. That she has found a way to fulfill her own promise is amazing. I was cheering for her all the way.

A most sincere congratulations to Karie Fugett (author) for this outstanding memoir. Her detailed descriptions of her background and her experiences as a young military wife reinforce the shameful truth of how our country treats its veterans. In this highly readable story, she talks about the reality of war on the spouse at home, the difficulties faced (both physically and mentally) when her husband returned stateside, the web of red tape to get anything done, and the emotional toll on these very young couples. I’m most impressed with the hard work she put in and the honesty in telling her story. Truly a remarkable woman.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for the ARC to read and review.

Barely out of her teens, Fugett got married on a whim—because she was in love, yes, but also because she was jobless and homeless and marriage to her middle-school sweetheart promised some level of security. Marriage meant she could be added to Cleve's military health care plan, and it meant she'd have some assistance in figuring out where to live.

"Cleve and I weren't heroes. He was just a boy who loved his mama and hoped to afford her a better life one day. And I was just a girl searching for home." (loc. 4840*)

Then Cleve was deployed again. And this time, he didn't come back in one piece. And every bit of stability Fugett had cobbled together over the past months went out the window.

"The military often reminded me that I was a 'wounded warrior's caregiver.' They told me I was 'strong, brave, and essential.' I understand now that the military relies on young spouses like me as cheap—sometimes free—labor. Military brass knows what to say to make young women think their labor is their duty. But at the same time, I believed those pretty words: Courageous. Self-sacrificing. Brave. Hero." (loc. 1364)

This makes for a quietly devastating read. All the things Fugett had hoped for were sidelined again and again as she struggled to care for her injured husband, whose medical care was centered on his physical wounds and did not take into account mental health—think PTSD—or the fact that he was still basically a kid without the experience or education to understand what he was going through, or to understand the risks of being prescribed opioid upon opioid to dull his pain. She describes learning on the fly how to fill out reams and reams of paperwork without which they would be left to fall through the cracks—and then falling through the cracks anyway, because the military wasn't prepared to treat psychological wounds or addiction. She's both precise in her language and unflinching in the details she shares, and you're left wondering just how many ways things could have been different.

If you're thinking about reading this—and I'd recommend doing so—you might want to avoid looking up Fugett in advance, or reading too many reviews; this is one that unfolds better if you don't have too much information going in.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This was an honest and illuminating memoir about being a military wife at a young age- and so much more. Karie had a challenging childhood to begin with, moving lots of times and having to make new friends. Her parents weren't practical with money and were more dialed into each other's needs. She met Cleve when they were both teenagers where they dated a little bit. They reconnected in their early twenties, making an impulsive decision to marry on the eve of him deploying to Iraq as a Marine post 9/11. Like many of his brethren, within months he was injured and confined to a military hospital.

Karie describes her husband's fate post war injury, navigating pain medication dependence/addiction, PTSD, financial and medical support, and so much more involving the "military machine". I marvel at Karie's strength and determination at such a young age, employing every avenue to make sure the military provided benefits to make them whole in the wake of Cleve's life-altering injuries. She often had to reach out to outside charities/entities for financial support of various kinds, advised by the military that aid would be given more swiftly via those methods. This woman had a difficult childhood that led into an even more challenging adulthood, but through Karie's inner strength came out the other side. I applaud her forthrightness in penning this moving memoir, and wish her all the best in life.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group / The Dial Press for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

finished Karie Fugett's memoir a couple days ago after finishing it in just three days. I usually write my reviews right away so I don't forget the story a book tells but I couldn't write my review of Alive Day because...

How do you review a memoir without sounding like you're passing judgment on someone's life? Or how they tell the story of their life? Especially when the story is something as raw and open and... dare I say, current as this one.

Another reviewer on Goodreads called Alive Day 'gracious and important' and those two words are the correct ones.

For whatever reason that Karie Fugett shared her & Cleve's story with all of us, she didn't have to. And I am so grateful that she did. I was in college studying history and political science when the US declared war on Iraq in 2003 so she and I are close to the same age. I wasn't in the military and I was never close to anyone who was so it was illuminating to see 'news' I read & consumed through the eyes of someone who lived the news. Not just the war itself, either, but the way the effects of it. There's something to be said for being aware of current events, but it's important to remember that you don't know the whole story. And sometimes you can't.

But you have to try. You have to know that the heroes sometimes fall by the wayside when they get home because it's easier than supporting them. You have to know how it affects not just them but their families and their communities. And you have to try and understand that's not okay to thank someone for their service and then walk away, or actively vote and work toward making their lives so much harder after.

Everything is politics and breaking news, and that's unfortunate. But I happened to be on a trip to Washington, D.C. and in the Senate gallery when they debated and approved $80 billion for the Iraq war in October 2003. And we're still funding wars today.

While we cut the budgets for the VA and the other support systems that might've helped Cleve and Karie. So if at the height of patriotic fervor, we failed so many...

But that's a tangent.

Alive Day is gracious and important. I hope it's widely read and I hope people learn from the story that Karie Fugett is so kindly and thoughtfully sharing with all of us.

Thanks to Penguin Random House, The Dial Press, NetGalley, and the author for the chance to read this memoir in exchange for an honest and original review.

emotionally fraught and yet filled with humor and life. an incredible memoir that's well-written. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Fantastic read! Deserving of more than five stars. I really had no knowledge of how the military works. This was an eye opener! Karie and her husband had barely turned twenty when his marine unit was deployed to Iraq. Shortly after that he was wounded, a severe wound on his leg. He kept his leg for a while but eventually it had to be amputated. Cleve was in a lot of pain taking strong opioids for a long time. Karie was worried over this but the doctors just shrugged it off. It was a heartbreaking story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This generous and important memoir is relevant to today's world in its depiction of the life of a marine and his wife after he loses his leg doing service. The threat of a decrease in veterans' benefits and its impact on the families of those receiving them cannot be better illustrated.

I came across a tiktok made by Karie about she and Cleve. I knew I had to read this book. So beautifully written. Thank you Karie for sharing so many personal moments, not only about Cleve but about your own traumas as well.

Not only does this memoir show the harsh realities of addiction but also the desperate need for care for our veterans - so relevant right now!!!

Intimate and personal, you’ll feel as if you know Cleve and Karie through her storytelling. I cried so many times.

I received a free copy of, Alive Day: A Memoir, by Karie Fugett, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Karie Fugett is homeless and living in her car, when she becomes engaged to her boyfriend, Cleve who is in the Marines, and is wounded in combat. This is in interesting read.

A fascinating look at what I think is an underreported crisis in our country--the life of veterans when they return from war and how it effects their families. I enjoyed Karie's journey and the heartfelt way in which she told it in this interesting narrative.

Months after the author eloped with her boyfriend Cleve, he was deployed to Iraq. His vehicle was hit by an IED and he suffered severe injuries that led to the amputation of his leg. This memoir details the struggles Cleve had with both the physical and mental trauma, the toll it took on his relationship with his wife, and Karie's desperate attempt to get him care. It's a gritty and devastating look at how we both applaud and neglect our military veterans.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!