Nice Try, Jane Sinner

“Jane Sinner snarked her way into my heart, and she’s never leaving. Prepare to fall hard for this hilarious, heartfelt gem of a book.” —Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

It’s Kind of a Funny Story meets Daria in the darkly hilarious tale of a teen’s attempt to remake her public image and restore inner peace through reality TV. The only thing seventeen-year-old Jane Sinner hates more than failure is pity. After a personal crisis and her subsequent expulsion from high school, she’s going nowhere fast. Jane’s well-meaning parents push her to attend a high school completion program at the nearby Elbow River Community College, and she agrees, on one condition: she gets to move out.

Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show that is basically Big Brother, but for Elbow River Students. Living away from home, the chance to win a car (used, but whatever), and a campus full of people who don’t know what she did in high school . . . What more could she want? Okay, maybe a family that understands why she’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus to make sense of her life, but she’ll settle for fifteen minutes in the proverbial spotlight.

As House of Orange grows from a low-budget web series to a local TV show with fans and shoddy T-shirts, Jane finally has the chance to let her cynical, competitive nature thrive. She’ll use her growing fan base, and whatever Intro to Psychology can teach her, to prove to the world—or at least viewers of substandard TV—that she has what it takes to win.

To win the car, she’ll have to survive the other contestants, the cameras, and herself. Good thing Jane has a plan.

• Diary Novel Format: Get an unfiltered, first-person look into Jane Sinner’s mind as she documents every snarky observation, psychological experiment, and mortifying moment in her journal.
• Dark Comedy: A laugh-out-loud story that tackles serious themes like depression, family drama, and finding your place with the sharp, witty voice of a teen who’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus.
• Rivals to Romance: She thinks he’s a meticulous, judgmental know-it-all. He thinks she’s a chaotic mess. Living together under 24/7 surveillance is bound to create some sparks.
• Big Brother Style Competition: Welcome to House of Orange, where a group of community college students compete in ridiculous challenges and vote each other out for the grand prize: a five-year-old VW Golf.