The American Dream

"We are going to help him die, Cassie," Shantavi told me that afternoon, over steaming cups of soy milk latte, as casually as if announcing a gardening project.

Cassie was an international student at Harvard, the most prestigious university in the world. She was shy and observant, yet underneath her quiet disposition was a desire to experience the world to the fullest, beyond her traditional boundaries and limitations.

One fateful night at the university campus, a free-spirited, daredevil student from the extension school named Shantavi came into her life, and they became fast friends over the next four years.

In the spring semester of Cassie's senior year, Shantavi disclosed to her that she was looking for a partner-in-crime to consort with a wealthy elderly benefactor who planned to kill himself in a year's time. In exchange for companionship and assistance in the suicide process, they would inherit all his assets and properties after his death.

Thus began the premise for a thrillingly seductive spiral down a rabbit hole over the spring break in Florida, where Cassie inevitably had to cross a point of no return.

The American Dream by Alice Huang Wijaya explores this gripping and morally complex journey.