Committed to a mental hospital against her will for something she claims she did not do, Cassie O'Malley signs herself out against medical advice when she turns eighteen and tries to start over at college, until her estranged mother appears, throwing everything Cassie believes about herself into question.

Moving to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, a young gymnast hides a secret as she makes new friends and investigates her grandmother's claim that someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm.--

As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse.

1939. In the small, rural community of Augusta Falls, Georgia, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan learns of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, a classmate he knew better than anyone in his class, a girl he quietly loved. The murder is the first in a series of killings that will plague the community over the next decade. Compelled by fear and duty, Joseph gathers a group of friends to form "The Guardians," who vow to watch over the young girls...

As a way of teaching her little boy about sexual abuse, a mother tells him the story of a child who was lured into the neighbor's house to see some non-existent kittens.

Fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father abuses her older brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally becomes angry enough to take action.

Told in alternating viewpoints, new couple Erica and Thomas face the devastating aftermath of a drunken party.