A Disaster in Three Acts

Gr 9 Up–Eighteen-year-old student filmmaker Saine’s eye for storytelling is why she knows her friendship with Holden Michaels is over when he rejects her publicly during a middle school game of spin-the-bottle and, years later, dates and breaks up with her best friend. But then Saine needs his help to complete her documentary for a filmmaking program at Temple University when her original subject drops out. With her preliminary application submitted, Saine has to stick to her topic—following a contestant through a series of live-action gaming competitions to win a prototype virtual reality headset—which is where Holden comes in. Following her ex-best-friend around while thinking she’s telling a familiar tale about a white boy getting what he wants is hard. Doing that while worrying if her current best friend is jealous is even harder. Saine’s fixation on the success of her film makes it easy to put her growing feelings for Holden and crumbling relationships on hold while she tries to shape real life to make sure her documentary wins her a spot at Temple, inventing financial problems and resorting to sabotage. As her lies and manipulations grow, Saine faces a reality check when she realizes that sometimes narrative growth hurts—especially when it comes to facing the consequences of her actions. Saine and Holden are white, with some secondary characters cued as BIPOC. The cast also includes characters across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.