Between the Bliss and Me

Written by Lizzy Mason

Narrated by Laura Knight Keating

When eighteen-year-old Sydney Holman announces that she has decided to attend NYU, her overprotective mom is devastated. Her decision means she will be living in the Big City instead of commuting to nearby Rutgers like her mom had
hoped. It also means she’ll be close to off-limits but dreamy Grayson—a guitar prodigy who is going to Juilliard in the fall and very much isn’t single.

But while she dreams of her new life, Sydney discovers a world-changing truth about her father. She knew he left when she was little due to a drug addiction. But
no one told her he had schizophrenia or that he was currently living on the streets of New York City.

She seizes the opportunity to get to know him, to understand who he is and learn what may lie in store for her if she, too, is diagnosed.

Even as she continues to fall for Grayson, Sydney is faced with a difficult decision: Stay close to home so her mom can watch over her, or follow her dreams despite the risks?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705010365

Reviews for Between the Bliss and Me

[Plamedi · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book doesn’t know whether it’s advocating for people or wants to play into stereotypes.

Also most people aren’t just suddenly schizophrenic. That’s a onset period that happens in your 20s or later. It’s very rare to develop symptoms at 17-18.

This book plays into every awful stereotype about mentally I’ll people while also lecturing you that they are like everyone else.

[fromthecomfychair · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very believable story of the effect of a parents' schizophrenia on his child. Sydney has been raised by her hard-working single mom, after her father left the family when she was young. She always believed he was an alcoholic and a drug addict. At 18, as she is preparing to leave home for college, she finds out the truth about her Dad: the alcoholism and drug addiction are the results of his unmedicated schizophrenia, and the reason he lives on the street. Since schizophrenia is a hereditary mental illness, this raises alarm bells for Sydney, and explains why her mother wanted her to attend college locally, and live at home. There is a budding romance with a boy who will be attending Juilliard, and a best friend who is gay. There is a secret trip to New York to try and find the father. There is what she learns about her fathers' illness and what she learns about herself. Worth reading.