Stand-Off is the sequel to Winger by Andrew Smith. In this duology, we follow a boy named Ryan Dean West. He goes to a Pine Mountain Academy. He is a 14-year-old junior who is also on the rugby team. In Winger, we read about his junior year: his classes, his friendships, his new relationship, and his time on the rugby team. Unfortunately, he is moved to O-Hall or Opportunity Hall, which is where all the bad kids reside during their school year. He was caught hacking a stolen cell phone from a teacher.
Natalie Payson is having nightmares. Nightmares about an old abandoned house in her home town of Bernier, Maine. She has come back to Bernier for the summer to visit the house and try to figure out what the house wants from her and to face some bullies from her childhood who caused severe trauma to her and her cousin Teddy.
Cager Messer is a Woz-head also known as a drug addict. He is kidnapped by his caretaker Rowan and his best friend Billy and they take him to the Tennessee, which is a giant lunar ship that is orbiting the moon. During their stay on the Tennessee, Earth is destroyed due to the 30 plus wars that are happening concurrently. Cager and Billy are the last humans alive in the universe and they have millions of robots or "cogs" as company. The cogs eventually become insane and start eating each other due to the invasion of blue worms by Queen Dot.
Slayer by Kiersten White is a new series that takes place in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe. It is set after Buffy's time when a new slayer has been chosen and all magic has been destroyed by Buffy. The new chosen one is a girl named Nina who is studying at the Watcher's Academy in Dublin, Ireland. To all of the other watchers, including her mother and twin sister, she has been dubbed not important. She doesn't get to do any kind of defensive or weapons training. Her twin sister, Artemis, is seen as the strong and dominant one.
The City of Sand is about a teenage boy named Tianyi. He lives the life of a grave robber who uses Feng Shui skills to locate the buried treasures of deceased ancient royalty. He learned the art from his deceased grandfather, who turned to grave robbing while addicted to opium. His grandfather left behind half of a book that basically held all the tricks of the trade. Some of these include how to use the astronomical signs to guide to the correct tomb, how to stay safe while pillaging through a tomb, the proper gear to have and what to say before digging through the coffin.
Written as a two act stage play, we follow the story of the souls of those who are buried at Westminster Cemetery. Westminster Cemetery is famous for being the final resting place for Edgar Allen Poe. We meet the main character Lacy Brink. She is classified as a modern when she wakes up dead and the other souls who awaken all died before 1913. She learns of the strict routine and rules that the dead follow. If they don't follow the rules, and there are a lot of them, they receive strikes.
