As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, Sideways Pike has had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now-- unbelievably-- Sideways' best friends. The four form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude...

In this collection of short stories, Archer gifts us with a dozen different tales ranging from murder mysteries to bildungsromans to war stories based on real events that have critics comparing him to Dumas, Dahl, and Maugham.

"Just graduated from high school and waiting to start college at Oxford, Lily lives under the scrutiny of her volatile Singaporean mother, May, and is unable to find kinship with her elusive British father, Charlie. When May suspects that Charlie is having an affair, there’s only one thing that calms May down: a glass of perfectly spoiled orange juice served by Lily, who must always taste it first to make sure it's just right. As her mother becomes...

"It's the summer after junior year of college, and Grace is looking forward to going to LA with her boyfriend, Josh. When he unexpectedly dumps her, she's left with a hole in her heart and in her summer schedule. Her (very wealthy) best friend, Tiff, along with their new friend, Camille, a French foreign exchange student, come to the rescue and whisk her away to a beach house in Cancun for a week of RR. Little do Tiff and Camille know, though, that's...

"It's 2005, and 24-year-old Jane is miserable. Overworked, buried in debt, she senses the life she wanted slipping away-while the world around her veers badly off course, hurtling toward economic and ecological collapse. She wants to find something better. But she has no idea where to start. In a sudden and unprecedented burst of rebellion, Jane decides to abandon everything she knows, leaving behind her relationships and responsibilities to go on...

"Summer Sullivan, the youngest founding member of Elm Creek Quilts, has spent the last two years pursuing a master's degree in history at the University of Chicago. Her unexpected return home to the celebrated quilter's retreat is met with delight but also concern from her mother, Gwen; her best friend, Sarah; master quilter Sylvia; and her other colleagues--and rightly so. Stymied by writer's block, Summer hasn't finished her thesis, and she can't...

"For fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, a propulsive literary novel about sexual obsession in which a meek Harvard freshman becomes dangerously infatuated with a classmate. David Federman has never felt appreciated. One of the most painfully forgettable members of his New Jersey high school class--yet the only one accepted to Harvard--shy, witty David arrives in Cambridge fully expecting to embrace, and be welcomed by, a new tribe of like-minded...

Emma Nolan wants only one thing before she graduates: to dance with her girlfriend at the senior prom. But in her small town of Edgewater, Indiana, that's like asking for the moon. Alyssa Greene is her high school's "it" girl: popular, head of student council, and daughter of the PTA president. She also has a secret. She's been dating Emma for the last year and a half. When word gets out that Emma plans to bring a girl as her date, it stirs a community-wide...

Told in two voices, Lou Patterson reconnects with her neighbor and ex-best friend Sam Alvarez, now seniors in high school, after they rediscover their childhood bucket list. Luisa (Lou) Patterson grew up across the street from Sam Alvarez in the small, quirky town of Port Coral. Then middle school-- and an most embarrassing serenade-- happened, and Lou and Sam haven't talked in four years. Now it's the summer before their senior year. Lou is retaking...

Lifelong rivals Natalie and Reid have never been on the same team. So when their school’s art budget faces cutbacks, of course Natalie finds herself up against her nemesis once more. She’s fighting to direct the school’s first ever student-written play, but for her small production to get funding, the school’s award-winning band will have to lose it. Reid’s band. And he’s got no intention of letting the show go on. But when their rivalry...