by Meleena Erikson

Meet Ashlyn, a wobbling teenager with one saving grace – a sense of humor as wicked as her tragic sense of life (“You see, I hate a lot of things, and life is only one of them”). Written by a schoolgirl from Maine over her 15th and 16th summers, this cinematic story follows Ashlyn through a few bad love affairs, a few toxic all-nighters, and several poorly-thought-through suicide attempts which ultimately land her in a residential treatment facility.

A teenage Cuckoo’s Nest follows: there is a humorous, if pained group of teenagers to be reckoned with; a boyfriend’s ill-timed death; an odd-ball group of counselors and nurses. Throughout, Ashlyn must try to unravel the problems of these cohorts and the impossible cast of characters in her life at home: her airhead mother; her born-again sister; her child-molesting uncle; her toxic set of boyfriends. And most of all, she must try to figure why it is that she refuses to go out in the rain…