Combat Love: A Story of Leaving, Longing, and Searching for Home

In Combat Love, we meet young Alisyn, whip-smart and precocious, the daughter of corporate-America washout father, a man fluent in five languages (and most definitely possibly CIA); and an Ivy League-educated mother, a high school drama teacher (and the spitting image of Grace Kelly). Seemingly happy, yet deeply dysfunctional and more than just a touch narcissistic, her parents are so busy with their own dreams and schemes that Alisyn quickly learns that if she was going to get somewhere, she would need to drive herself.When Alisyn starts her freshman year at Red Bank Regional, the school rumored to have inspired the Ramones' "Rock and Roll High School," she finds herself a new family of local misfits--no less troubled or dysfunctional, but far less selfish than the family at home. And at the center of this new constellation: the local punk band Shrapnel.Inspired by childhood military games and decked out in World War II paraphernalia, Shrapnel feels like future stars in the making and the stuff teenage dreams are made of, especially when those teens are a group of suburban punks. While Alisyn's obsession with Shrapnel grows, her mother Elaine's own personal quest for love and belonging is fracturing their life at home, forcing her daughter into situations that are both heartbreaking and scary. Often unsure whether to fight or flee, Alisyn nonetheless manages to come out on top every time, through a combination of sheer confidence and moxie that her longtime CNN viewers would recognize.