Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

Feeling torn between two boys and growing more resentful of her father's hidden past, teenaged psychic Sabine witnesses a gruesome murder while using astral projection to spy on her secret half-sister Jade.

Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Bront b͡efriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody.

Knowing that the friendships she depends on will change when her parents split up, Beth witnesses a private act of violence in her crush's home before forging a pact with her friends to offer support in the face of a life-altering decision.

After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.

"There's always been a hole in Gio's life. Not because he's into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio's life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he's started to get his life together, she's back" --...

In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness.

Fifteen-year-old Marcie's depressed mother forces her to move to New Hampshire when Marcie's father begins dating another man, and just as Marcie is getting used to her new life, she is forced to move back home, where she finds all of her old relationships have become strained.

When Mari and her stepsister Sierra share a ride to a music festival with two brothers, T.J. and Tyler, Mari and T.J. are instantly attracted to each other, but Mari is only in Chicago for a weekend with her father's new family, and eventually she will have to return to her increasingly abusive mother--unless she can overcome her reservations about dating and maybe arrange to stay in Chicago permanently.

Senior year at high school is going to be hard enough for Rooney Harris, desperate to get into a good college and away from her small town, but things get tougher when she ends up as the sole support for herself and her younger brother because of their mother's obsession with the Next World Society, a cult that believes they will be whisked away to a new world paradise on November 17.