After the drug-overdose death of a fellow student, Beverly breaks away from the fast crowd but finds herself friendless and full of guilt until she meets Derek who helps her come to terms with the past and look with some hope to the future.

"A coming-of-age story about a girl with creative aspirations and the star swimmer who charms his way into her life, centering on themes of addiction, loss, and the tumultuousness of first love--and how to find strength when everything falls apart"--

Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.

Bird, an artistic young African American boy, expresses himself through drawing as he struggles to understand his older brother's drug addiction and death, while a family friend, Uncle Son, provides guidance and understanding.

With his best friend on life-support after taking drugs at a party, seventeen-year-old Clay, a medical technician, recalls their long friendship, future plans, and recent disagreement, and tries to figure out who is responsible for the accidental overdose.

Seventeen-year-old Rose Hemmersbach aspires to break out of small town Sparta, Wisconsin and achieve her artistic dreams, just like her aunt Colleen, but must face her mother's heroin addiction and its ramifications first.

"Kristina Snow es una hija y estudiante ejemplar hasta que, durante una visita a su padre, se sumerge en un mundo delirante que despierta a Bree, su álter ego. Bree es todo lo que Kristina nunca soñó ser: poderosa, atrevida, seductora y... adicta a la mentanfetamina cristal. Pero el monstruo de las drogas es más poderoso de lo que jamás imaginó y la arrastrará en un viaje con insospechadas consecuencias."--Back cover.

Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a strange man who reveals different turning points in Lil J's life when he could have made better choices.

Rainey Paxton was born addicted to heroin. In the fragile first hours of Rainey’s life, hospital doctors and nurses fight to keep her alive. Several months later she is released into her parents’ custody, where the baby is forced to live on neglect and tainted breast milk. Constrained in her home, infested with drug addicts and drifters, Rainey’s drug-addicted parents leave little hope for her protection. While Rainey is still an infant, her...

While other high school seniors are dreaming about their futures, Sophie and Carter are just trying to make it through each day. Carter is overwhelmed by troubles at home as he struggles to support his mother. Meanwhile, next door neighbor Sophie is left to care four her three younger siblings in place of their absent and troubled mother. All that holds these two best friends together is each other, and knowing that each night they'll sit together...