DO THE WRONG THING is based on a true story. You know those movies—they’re the best. They take an already fantastic tale and notch it up with drama. They punch up the highs; punch down the lows; give the people involved more colour, intelligence and character than they have in real life—Do the Wrong Thing is like that.

We open to protagonist, Ava Meuller, describing her suicide attempt. She has trouble talking, second-guesses herself and stumbles, but once she gets going, her story pours out. Sort of.

The weird thing about my suicide attempt, Ava says, was how normal and logical it felt, like a mundane task I had to do, like brushing my teeth. She says that the story she’s going to tell: her story, despite all appearances, is not about drudgery and pain—then backtracks and says it is about drudgery and pain, but how she escaped them.

It’s a good story, she hopes, “like a virus too small to see but having the power to kill.”

Written like a memoir, with journal entries from older Ava as she examines the life she’s led and encountered, we meet an everyday hero, a Gen X Proust.

Do the Wrong Thing spans five books, Do the Wrong Thing (bk 1),Trouble Girl (bk 2), Shiny, Pretty, Gothic (bk 3, coming soon), Eyes of Different Colours (bk 4, coming soon) and How Low Can You Go? (working title) (bk 5, in progress).