BIRDS OF PARADISE

Hollywood in the 1980s… The neon and synthesizers hearken to days of no rules, Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers, and breaking curfew. It was a time of ultimate decadence and excess. However, it was also a time of immeasurable loss.

Seventeen-year-old Tate is no stranger to loss. The rules of her father’s house are suffocating, her sister is pure evil, and the only place she feels like she can be herself is in the cemetery, sitting beside her mom’s grave, and talking over a picnic. But when she meets the devastatingly beautiful and intriguing Simonne, it not only challenges everything Tate believes about people, it tests the very limits of her love and desire.

Suspicious of Simonne, Tate’s lifelong best friend, Taylor, grows weary of watching the rollercoaster relationship and tries repeatedly to reason with her, but his focus shifts suddenly when he discovers he has a life-threatening disease.

Over the years, Tate must navigate the many phases of her love affair with Simonne, while learning how to be a better friend to Taylor in his time of ultimate need. Gradually, she discovers that life isn’t love or loss, but a heartbreakingly beautiful mixture of both.