The Mask of Aubrey Clover

“I don’t know if I’m a girl dreaming about being a monster, or a monster dreaming about being a girl.” Fantasy and reality blur in the story of twelve-year-old orphan Aubrey Clover. Born with a rare disfiguring bone disease, Aubrey believes she will transform into a monster on her thirteenth birthday. Looking for a place to belong, Aubrey’s dream is to find Edward Scissorhands’ castle, before she has to leave society forever. Two months before her birthday, after a lifetime of living in foster homes, Aubrey meets her father for the first time, an unstable man who lives vicariously through 1980s cop dramas, and is unable to accept a misfit daughter. Living with him in a monotonous suburb, Aubrey can’t relate to her surroundings and doesn’t fit in at her new school. Like Joseph Merrick (“The Elephant Man”), Aubrey feels tormented and as isolated as a girl on the moon. She spends her time reading Senor Captain Magic comic books, writing in her journal and writing poetic quotes on her shoe soles, watching monster B-movies, and searching for Edward’s castle. As her birthday approaches, the impending transformation, she wonders if her fantasies are the only place she will ever truly be accepted. Or will she be rescued? The Mask of Aubrey Clover is a fable told through the voice of an abandoned young girl who makes us wonder if society is the real monster. A story for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.