Central Kansas Library System

"Looks at a teen's life after the death of his best friend and how he navigates through the guilt and pain by celebrating their lives--and ultimately learning to forgive himself"-- Carver Briggs never thought a simple text would cause a fatal crash, killing his three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake. Carver can't stop blaming himself for the accident, and a judge is pressuring the district attorney to open up a criminal investigation. Eli's girlfriend,...

There are people in Edgewater, Oregon, who think that 20 years ago, Rachel Gaston got away with murder. Rachel still has no idea how a foolish teenaged game turned deadly--or who replaced her soft pellet air gun with a real weapon. When a figure leapt out at her from the darkness, she fired without thinking. Too late, she recognized her half-brother, Luke, and saw blood blooming around his chest. Despite counseling, Rachel's horrifying dreams about...

Kate is in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter's exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter now. But Kate's stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it's already...

"Ride, You Tonto Raiders: Matt Sabre is a young and experienced gunfighter--but not a trouble seeker. But when Billy Curtin calls him a liar and goes for his gun, Matt has no choice but to draw and fire. To his surprise, the dying man gives him $5,000 and begs him to take the money to his wife, who is alone in defending the family ranch in the Mogollons. A combination of guilt, regret, and wanting to do the right thing leads Sabre to make that ride....

Stephen King introduces each of these short stories with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are connections between stories -- themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. "Afterlife" is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature...

Ellory's once inseparable group of friends are torn apart by secrets and deception, but when a shocking incident changes their lives forever, Ellory finds that even in the present the past is everywhere. Bex, Jenni, Ellory, Ret. To Ellory they were Venus. Earth. Moon. Sun. Electric, headstrong young women; Ellory's whole solar system. Now Ellory is alone, her once inseparable group of friends torn apart by secrets, deception, and a shocking incident...