Fiction
So Much Pretty
Cara Hoffman
“So Much Pretty is a fearless first novel,” announced The New York Times Book Review, “for all the passion in this intense narrative, Hoffman writes with a restraint that makes poetry of pain.”Set in a rural community steeped in silence and denial, So Much Pretty explores all parents’ greatest fear, that their child will be hurt. But it also examines a second, equally troubling question: What if my child hurts someone else? The disappearance and murder of nineteen-year-old Wendy White is detailed through the eyes of journalist Stacy Flynn and a host of other richly drawn characters, each with their own secrets and convictions. After Wendy’s body is found, Flynn’s intense crusade to expose a killer draws the attention of a precocious local girl, Alice Piper, whose story intertwines with Wendy’s in a spellbinding and unexpected climax.
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Kings of Colorado
David E. Hilton
"A heartfelt portrait of young men in a bygone age” (Kirkus Reviews) about troubled boys, wild horses, and the high price of a childhood lost.Thirteen-year-old William Sheppard stabs his abusive father and is sent to the Swope Ranch Boys Reformatory, setting off a string of events that ultimately leads to a horrifying end in the Colorado mountains. Along the way, he befriends three boys who become his surrogate family. Their work together taming horses brings peace, as the boys struggle to survive a world of hurt and shocking cruelty wherein the only thing they can rely on is each other as the laws of normal society are stripped away.With a backbone of heart-wrenching suspense, Kings of Colorado is a beautiful portrayal of brotherhood set against the nobility, danger, and wildness of youth and horses. The bonds between man and beast, along with other themes of community, friendship, and atonement are boldly explored on every page. Kings of Colorado illustrates just how easily innocence can be stripped away, robbing us of something most precious: childhood.
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Ashfall
Mike Mullin
Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to seach for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.
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Gravestone
Travis Thrasher
His Fear Will Soon Turn to Anger…. At first, Chris Buckley was simply warned. And watched. But as Chris unravels the haunting riddles of the town of Solitary, he finds that much more than the life of a town is at stake. Whether facing a pastor with a house full of skeletons or a cousin he never knew existed, Chris is forced to choose between light and darkness, life and nightmarish death. Every choice he makes reminds him that the unthinkable has already happened—and if he trusts the wrong person, it may happen again. This second book in the Solitary Tales continues Chris’s journey toward finding out who he is and what his own role is in the darkness suffocating his tiny new hometown. Filled with shocking twists, Gravestone is a tale of a teenager thrown into a battle over a town, a secret—and ultimately his own soul.
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Hemingway Man
Jim Maher
Hemingway Man is the story of Will Charles, a young man who's just lost his father. Will feels the intense pressure to become the man of the house, but has no idea how to get there. Ernest Hemingway wrote a list of four tasks a boy must do to become a man. 1. Plant a tree. 2. Write a book. 3. Fight a bull. 4. Have a son. Good luck, Will.
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Solstice
P. J. Hoover
Piper's world is dying. Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles which threaten to destroy the Earth. Amid this Global Heating Crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom. Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper's life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth—her very identity…. An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Flip
Martyn Bedford
“Flip is captivating from beginning to end, with rich characters and a fascinating mystery. . . . Highly recommended!” --James Dashner, author of the Maze Runner seriesWhat does it mean to have a soul whose will to live knows no limits?One morning fourteen-year-old Alex wakes up to find himself in the wrong bedroom, in an unfamiliar house, in a different part of the country. Six months have disappeared overnight. The family at the breakfast table? Total strangers.And when he looks in the mirror, another boy's face stares back. A boy named Philip, known as Flip. Unless Alex finds out what's happened and how to get back to his own life, he'll be trapped forever inside a body that belongs to someone else.Martyn Bedford's debut novel for young adults is fearless and fast-paced, a riveting psychological thriller about a boy coming undone in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Praise for FlipA Junior Library Guild SelectionA School Library Journal Best Book of the Year"The mysteries are countless: What is a soul? Where does it go when its human host ceases to function? Bedford adeptly sweeps the existential curtain aside and tackles these heavy questions as the tension soars." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred
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What Comes After
Steve Watkins
A gripping portrait of a teen’s struggles through grief and abuse - and the miraculous power of animals to heal us.After her veterinarian dad dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must leave her beloved Maine to live on a North Carolina farm with her hardbitten aunt and a cousin she barely knows. Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover, immediately clashes with Aunt Sue, who mistreats the livestock, spends Iris’s small inheritance, and thinks nothing of striking Iris for the smallest offense. Things come to a head when Iris sets two young goats free to save them from slaughter, and an enraged Aunt Sue orders her brutish son, Book, to beat Iris senseless - a horrific act that lands Book and his mother in jail. Sent to live with an offbeat foster family and their "dooking" ferrets, Iris must find a way to take care of the animals back at the farm, even if it means confronting Aunt Sue. Powerful and deeply moving, this compelling novel affirms the redemptive power of animals and the resilience of the human spirit.
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Nashoga: Book 1 of the Redstone Series
Rainey April
Nashoga, the alpha of the Redstone Pack, has been run off. While in exile, Nashoga meets Buck, an elk with an attitude, and the two are thrust into a dire situation. Will the two be at each others' throats or will they learn to work together to defeat this new threat? Will Nashoga reunite with his pack and his love? Only time will tell in this story of power struggles, love and friendship.
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Baby Grape and The River Folk
Thom Rogers
The adventures continue in this story with more of the events that plague the 'crew.' Having returned home to Pittsburgh,after months on the road, Toby learns that his mother and sisters have had to move downriver to stay with his aunt, which (again) leaves Toby homeless, with four mouths to feed! Old problems resurface, as do enemies, and Toby is again on the run to keep him and the others out of harm's way. There is no escaping as events unfold, separating Toby and Jane from the others and they are forced to find ways to survive on their own. Each of the characters face their own problems -- some life threatening, as deathly sicknesses, revenge driven enemies, and unforeseen tragedies fill the pages and lives of your favorite characters. Love and shame, friendship, and the need for others, make this Toby sequel something you won't want to miss. New immigrants -- and pure dumb luck, add to Toby's arsenal of friends, and begin the setting of something big in the future for the 'River Folk.' So why not join the crew?
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