Che is trying to be normal. He has a list, even. Of things he wants to accomplish soon, after moving to New York with his family.
However, Item Number One is: Keep Rosa Safe.
Seems normal right? After all, Rosa's just his five-year-old sister. Completely normal. Except she's also a diagnosable psychopath. Rosa has a long trail of seemingly innocent acts of killing on her small hands, and it's only a matter of time before he kills again, maybe this time a person.
Che has to protect his sister from the world- but he may need to protect the world from his sister.
People deal with grief, fear, anger, and other difficult emotions in many ways. One of those ways is humor. That's Mara. Her telling of her story is hilarious. With a cynical, skeptical, acerbic, over-the-top wit of the best social-commentary-humorists, she shares how she spent her senior year of high school dealing with the very real possibility that she might just spontaneously combust.
In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott’s dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott’s dad can shut the door.
Kahlen is just a normal girl. She has 2 brothers and a nice family. Her mom and dad have lots of money so she lives well. But that all changes one summer day while on a cruise. She's just inside her cabin, watching her mom put on make up when all of a sudden she hears some wonderful music. What could it possibly be? Everyone goes out to check. But then disaster strikes when everyone starts to jump overboard. Kahlen finds herself surrounded by a few beautiful women who look to be teenagers after finding herself thrown into the water, wishing not to die.
In the beginning, Bob created the heavens and the earth and the beasts of the field and the creatures of the sea, and twenty-five million other species (including lots of cute girls). But mostly he prefers eating junk food and leaving his dirty clothes in a heap at the side of his bed.
Taken in the middle of the night, Garrett is taken to Harmony Lake, a boot camp for child delinquents. But Garrett knows he doesn’t deserve to be there. He doesn’t think he did anything wrong. He endures harsh physical and psychological abuse from both the campers and the staff. There is no way to fight back because the battle is futile. He can’t leave until he has admitted his “mistakes” and conformed to the standard of behavior. He has slowly been beaten, humiliated, and stripped of what little pride he has left, he feels he will never be able to escape.
Cadence is part of the incredibly wealthy and distinguished Sinclair family. She has been spending the summer on a private island with a group of her four friends. She has amnesia. She can’t remember their revolution. She can’t remember the accident. Everyone is keeping a secret from her, how can she remember the truth?
Rosa seems like a charming and brilliant young girl, she makes it look like there is nothing wrong with her. But her brother knows better. She is so talented at deception and persuasion, he is certain she is a diagnosable psychopath. She hasn’t hurt any people yet, but he is sure it is only a matter of time. Ever since their parents moved them to New York City, Rosa has been playing increasingly complex and disturbing games. Can he protect Rosa from the world, but more importantly, can he protect the world against Rosa?
Brendan and Gray have been relentlessly harassed and bullied by the jocks at Middletown high for as long as they could remember. But not anymore. They decide enough is enough. They take all their classmates hostage at a school dance with an arsenal of stolen guns. It soon becomes clear to the students during the chaos that the only thing that matters to Brendan and Gary is revenge. At points along the story, there are statistics about gun violence, further educating the reader's understanding of the backdrop of this story.
