A haunting, hopeful journey through grief, friendship, love, and second chances.
When Johnny loses his two best friends in a tragic accident, life becomes a maze of sorrow and solitude. Struggling with loss, unrequited love, and the suffocating weight of depression, he finds himself at the edge, until a fateful decision whisks him away to a mysterious rehabilitation center that exists somewhere between life and death.
In this strange, ever-changing village, Johnny is reunited with his lost friends, forced to confront the darkness inside himself, and discovers that healing is not a straight path but a winding journey. When he encounters Jasmine, his long-time crush who is battling her own secret pain, their intertwined stories unfold with raw honesty, humor, and aching vulnerability.
JASMINE is a powerful coming-of-age story about the bonds that tether us, the wounds that never quite heal, and the possibility of finding hope even after the world breaks apart.
Will Johnny and Jasmine find a way back from the edge, or do some journeys have no return?
A haunting, hopeful journey through grief, friendship, love, and second chances.
When Johnny loses his two best friends in a tragic accident, life becomes a maze of sorrow and solitude. Struggling with loss, unrequited love, and the suffocating weight of depression, he finds himself at the edge, until a fateful decision whisks him away to a mysterious rehabilitation center that exists somewhere between life and death.
In this strange, ever-changing village, Johnny is reunited with his lost friends, forced to confront the darkness inside himself, and discovers that healing is not a straight path but a winding journey. When he encounters Jasmine, his long-time crush who is battling her own secret pain, their intertwined stories unfold with raw honesty, humor, and aching vulnerability.
JASMINE is a powerful coming-of-age story about the bonds that tether us, the wounds that never quite heal, and the possibility of finding hope even after the world breaks apart.
Will Johnny and Jasmine find a way back from the edge, or do some journeys have no return?
September 26th, 2025
“Get up, you pussy!” cried Ralph.
Johnny opened his eyes and looked up at his two best friends, Ralph and Tommy, standing at his bedside. Johnny’s nose was blocked up like a trash can overflowing with garbage, his throat so sore that it felt like he had drunk acid. But even though his head was killing him, he knew why his friends were there: it was Friday night. School was out. For the weekend, at least.
“I feel like I’m going to die,” croaked Johnny. He’d been sick for three days. At this point, he was wondering if he’d even be better by Monday. A whole weekend down the drain. Tragic beyond description!
“He’s really bad,” said Tommy to Ralph.
Ralph knelt by Johnny, the comic books strewn across Johnny’s normally spotless room crinkling under his knees. “Remember what we said when we were kids? The second one of us gets their license, we would go for a drive together. Now get up!”
“We also said we’d all have girlfriends by now,” muttered Tommy.
Johnny turned on his side to face Ralph. “Tell Jasmine I love her.” The cough that followed his chuckle felt like he was bringing up fire, but it was so well worth it. “And get off my comics.”
Ralph stood up. “This is hopeless. I drove here on my own to honor our pact. Poor Tommy had to walk!”
“He lives down the next block.”
“Right, that’s it. If you’re going to let a little cold beat you down, then I am going for a drive with Tommy. On our own!”
“Fine by me.”
“Feel better, man,” said Tommy, giving Johnny a pat on the shoulder.
“Cheers, Tommy. You were always my favorite.”
Ralph and Tommy headed for the bedroom door. “No goodbye, Ralph?” asked Johnny.
Ralph stopped and turned in the doorway. “All I can say is, I’m incredibly disappointed in your immune system’s inability to stave off minor inconveniences. And I hope you feel better. Message if you need anything. Kiss, kiss.”
“I like you, too.” Johnny raised a hand to wave goodbye to his friends as Tommy closed the bedroom door. He had another coughing fit, having lost count of how many he’d had already that day. Phlegm in the throat. Gross!
Johnny looked over at his board game collection. It was gathering a fine layer of dust on a bookshelf. Some games would start and end in the same session, often multiple times, and others were almost never ending. Those were his favorites. As he, Ralph and Tommy had gotten older, they had been playing less and less, which he lamented, but it was all a part of growing up and doing more adult things. They would not be kids forever. They would not always have all the free time in the world to do whatever they wanted…endless time. It was coming to an end.
Ralph had officially had his driver’s license for one day, his parents giving him a secondhand car to celebrate. He had been driving around the town for about a quarter tank of gas and it was time to take Tommy home. It had been dark before they had started, which had been fine by Ralph because it meant fewer cars on the road, but now it was raining heavily enough to drown monsters hiding in storm drains.
“He won’t ask her,” said Ralph.
“Of course he will. He’s just shy,” said Tommy.
“Fifty bucks says he won’t do it before the end of high school.”
“That’s, like, two years from now. But I could use fifty bucks.”
“We’ll shake on it when we get back.”
“Deal.”
“Oh fuck!”
Another car, which did not have its headlights on, drifted to the wrong side of the road. It connected head on with Ralph and Tommy. Even if they had been looking out for it, with the blackness of the night and the hammering of the rain, they wouldn’t have seen it. Ralph’s car spun around several times as the other car bounced onto the sidewalk and into a brick wall.
The impact sliced through the hood of Ralph’s car like a sharp knife cutting through meat. Tender, juicy meat. Flesh and bone. When Ralph reopened his eyes, it was raining. Streams of red, like he was sweating profusely, flowed from a gash on his forehead, in front of his eyes. His first instinct was to check on Tommy but he did not recognize the person he had known since kindergarten anymore. His friend had been killed instantly. It was more messed up than anything he had seen in horror movies, or even on the darker side of the internet. Tommy’s left arm and shoulder had been ripped away from his neck and his head was flopping over his right shoulder, only connected by vertebrae.
Ralph couldn’t wiggle his toes. His legs had been severed, one at the knee, the other higher up at the thigh. The adrenaline rushing through him started to fade and crippling pain rose to surface. A pool of blood beneath him, dripping onto the road. Intestine protruded out of his stomach. How grateful he was that Tommy wasn’t suffering. How pissed off he was that he was about to die and having to experience it in all its gory, painful glory. His breathing was getting shallow. His brain had finally caught up to the situation and was like, yep, you shouldn’t still be here. Ralph caught a glimpse of the driver of the other car. He had gotten out of his vehicle without so much as a scratch and was strolling drunkenly off down the street, not even checking on Ralph or Tommy. What a bastard.
With his remaining life, Ralph raised a hand and placed it on Tommy’s leg, wanting to be connected to his friend in death as he had been for nearly seventeen years of life. How grateful he was that Johnny was sick and not in the car with them. He could go on and live his life and live it well.
I hope she says yes, Johnny, I really do. Then, there was nothing left to do but die.
Johnny stared at his cell phone, wondering why Tommy hadn’t responded to a message that he had sent an hour ago. Tommy wasn’t the one driving, so he could have responded to the message that had been sent to their group chat. Very strange, if not peculiar.
Johnny had, however, received a message from a girl named Abbie asking how he was feeling. This was even weirder than not hearing back from Tommy. He and Abbie didn’t share many classes and hadn’t even spoken in person that much, if at all. How did Abbie know he was sick, and how did she have his cell phone number…? Ralph was meddling again, that’s what it was.
When Johnny heard his mother knocking on his bedroom door, he knew that something was wrong. There was a difference between a knock to see how he was doing, trying to fight off his cold, and a knock to say, Johnny, your father and I need to talk to you about something. He sat up as the bedroom door opened. His symptoms disappeared as if he had never been sick in the first place.
It opens with three teenage boys bantering (like they always do), but one of them, Johnny, is sick and doesn’t go out with the other two that night. What begins as an ordinary evening soon leaves Johnny grappling with the sudden death of his two best friends, Ralph and Tommy. Fast forward a year, and he’s a high school senior working at his father’s burger joint alongside his longtime crush, Jasmine. Johnny wrestles with whether to ask her out, but one night, he offers to walk her home. Once on her doorstep, he takes the leap and asks her out, only to learn she’s just started to date someone else. At first, he tries to accept her answer with grace. But when he sees her with her new boyfriend at a party, the weight of everything he has been carrying rises to the surface in the form of a panic attack. That moment becomes a quiet but significant turning point. Meanwhile, Jasmine’s perspective reveals that she, too, is carrying more than she lets on. Beneath her calm exterior lies pain that few around her recognize. Unbeknownst to the other, each is fighting a private emotional battle, leading to decisions that may have lasting effects far into the future.
The dialogue is authentic, especially between the three boys in the beginning scenes and Johnny’s inner dialogue about Jasmine and his feelings for her. The narrative truly shines with the author’s portrayal of teen grief. Once his friends have passed, Johnny's imagined conversations with Ralph and Tommy are deeply moving. They’re definitely difficult to read without feeling their weight. The idea of loss is also solidified when Jasmine discusses her parents. Edlin masterfully portrays the slow creep of depression with restraint, showing how loneliness can settle in even when someone isn’t physically alone. Their vulnerability feels real rather than exaggerated. The novel closes on a note that feels both fragile and cautiously hopeful, honoring the seriousness of its subject matter.
This poignant story grips readers who like emotional YA tales on mental health and first love. It would also make a good read for those who have also dealt with loss, and they should expect tears and lots of reflection.
Trigger warnings: grief, depression, suicidal ideation.