NICE TRY, JANE SINNER
Author: Lianne Oelke
Publication Date: January 9, 2018
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pages: 432
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
The
only thing 17-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.
March
FriMar4
I’m not a particularly good daughter, but I sat through a month of therapy for my parents’ sake. I’d like to think they got more out of it than I did. Couldn’t have been too hard. Any system that requires the patient’s family to pay someone else to care about her is fundamentally flawed. But I digress. If my decision to stop attending therapy means James Fowler High School no longer welcomes me as a student, I guess that’s on me.
The novelty of playing hooky has worn off, and I’m desperate to fill my time with something other than introspection, the occasional afternoon stocking groceries, and Mario Kart.
Bonnie just texted me. She wants me to burst through the clouds like the beautiful ray of sunshine that I am and come to a party tonight where everyone is apparently super super stoked to see me again. I told her it’s too dangerous. I have been known to blind others with my relentlessly sunny disposition. I may be desperate for a change, but I’m not desperate enough to face a party full of ex-classmates. Bonnie is a better person than I will ever be, so she promised to stop by later for whatever garbage I’ll be binge watching on my laptop.
So that’s nice. It’s also nice to write in here. I haven’t written in this journal for months. It’s kind of funny that the only time I don’t write in here is when a therapist says I should. But I needed a break from myself. Understandably, I think.
SunMar6
Ditching school five months before grad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s too late to catch up now. I dropped the ship, that ball has sailed, Jane Sinner has left the building. Everyone is still a little scared to ask what I’m going to do now because they know I have no fucking clue. The parents certainly didn’t see this coming. They’re still scrambling to find “the window God must have opened, since he closed this particular door.” I’m old enough to close doors on my own, thank you very much. But the parents don’t want to hear that. They want to hear me say, “Why yes, I’d love to come with you to church this morning.” Not “I can’t, I have to catch up on a variety of reality television shows.”
They thought if Bonnie came over for lunch after the service, it would encourage me to at least shower and put on a bra by the time they got home. It didn’t.
Apparently, Bonnie’s fashion choices are rubbing off on Carol. They both decided to wear skinny jeans and fluorescent baggy sweaters to church, which annoyed the parents. Carol kept getting her sleeve caught in her lasagna while we ate.
Excerpt from Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke (originally shared on EW on April 26, 2017)
March
FriMar4
I’m not a particularly good daughter, but I sat through a month of therapy for my parents’ sake. I’d like to think they got more out of it than I did. Couldn’t have been too hard. Any system that requires the patient’s family to pay someone else to care about her is fundamentally flawed. But I digress. If my decision to stop attending therapy means James Fowler High School no longer welcomes me as a student, I guess that’s on me.
The novelty of playing hooky has worn off, and I’m desperate to fill my time with something other than introspection, the occasional afternoon stocking groceries, and Mario Kart.
Bonnie just texted me. She wants me to burst through the clouds like the beautiful ray of sunshine that I am and come to a party tonight where everyone is apparently super super stoked to see me again. I told her it’s too dangerous. I have been known to blind others with my relentlessly sunny disposition. I may be desperate for a change, but I’m not desperate enough to face a party full of ex-classmates. Bonnie is a better person than I will ever be, so she promised to stop by later for whatever garbage I’ll be binge watching on my laptop.
So that’s nice. It’s also nice to write in here. I haven’t written in this journal for months. It’s kind of funny that the only time I don’t write in here is when a therapist says I should. But I needed a break from myself. Understandably, I think.
SunMar6
Ditching school five months before grad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s too late to catch up now. I dropped the ship, that ball has sailed, Jane Sinner has left the building. Everyone is still a little scared to ask what I’m going to do now because they know I have no fucking clue. The parents certainly didn’t see this coming. They’re still scrambling to find “the window God must have opened, since he closed this particular door.” I’m old enough to close doors on my own, thank you very much. But the parents don’t want to hear that. They want to hear me say, “Why yes, I’d love to come with you to church this morning.” Not “I can’t, I have to catch up on a variety of reality television shows.”
They thought if Bonnie came over for lunch after the service, it would encourage me to at least shower and put on a bra by the time they got home. It didn’t.
Apparently, Bonnie’s fashion choices are rubbing off on Carol. They both decided to wear skinny jeans and fluorescent baggy sweaters to church, which annoyed the parents. Carol kept getting her sleeve caught in her lasagna while we ate.
Lianne
lives in Vancouver, BC. A mere three years of working in the film
industry has left her far more jaded, bitter, and misanthropic than she
could have dreamed possible. Having worked on one too many made-for-TV
movies featuring the mild romantic antics of generically attractive
white people, she’s taken it upon herself to push back with some pretty substandard stories of her own.
Besides
books, her three great passions in life are cats, craft beer, and
camping. When she’s not working, Lianne likes to take off, eh in her ‘83
camper van. She maintains a steady hate/ love relationship with hiking,
but is always up for exploring British Columbia- whatever it takes to
find a nice spot to set up her hammock. Her hammock is her favorite place in the world.
(3) winners will receive a finished copy of NICE TRY JANE SINNER (US Only)
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
1/1/2018- Emily Reads Everything- Spotlight
1/2/2018- The Hermit Librarian- Review
1/3/2018- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt
1/4/2018- The Bookish Libra- Review
1/5/2018- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Interview
Week Two:
1/8/2018- The Book Nut- Review
1/9/2018- Margie's Must Reads- Guest Post
1/10/2018- Book-Keeping- Review
1/11/2018- BookHounds YA- Interview
1/12/2018- JustAddaWord- Review
Our heroine sounds like a bit of a handful, maybe!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see Jane find her path.
ReplyDeleteLove the title even! I should have said that to others in my past! LOL BTW, great passions in life, Lianne! bonita7878(at)yahoo(dot)com
ReplyDelete