While learning to bestow dreams, a young dream giver tries to save an eight-year-old boy from the effects of both his abusive past and the nightmares inflicted on him by the frightening Sinisteeds.

In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis' parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents - telekinesis and telepathy - who got to this place the same...

A twelve-year-old boy is confined to his basement without food or clothing.

It's the summer of 1994 in Claypot, Wisconsin, and the lives of ten-year-old Fischer "Fish" Branson and Dale "Bread" Breadwin are shaped by the two fathers they don't talk about. One night, tired of seeing his best friend bruised and terrorized by his no-good dad, Fish takes action. A gunshot rings out and the two boys flee the scene, believing themselves murderers. They head for the woods, where they find their way onto a raft, but the natural terrors...

Ryan Steel, his world recently upended by an earth-shattering secret, now faces yet another potential revelation surrounding the Steel family mystery. He no longer fully trusts his siblings or the woman he loves. He's alone---alone and terrified and immersed in a conundrum that becomes more twisted each day. Ruby Lee loves Ryan and desperately wants to help him. She'll do whatever she must to see him through this troubling time, but her own shrouded...

For generations, the Greer men have perfected the fine art of assholery. And Eddie Greer does not disappoint. For most children, summers in the 60s and 70s in the small town of Holland Crossing are spent splashing in lakes, playing backyard baseball, and biking with friends--but not for Eddie. The only thing he plays is defense against his father's drunken abuse. But even fleeing at the first sound of the devil's heavy footsteps, sometimes, isn't...

Emma Averell loves her life--her high-powered legal career, her two beautiful children, and her wonderful stay-at-home husband--but it wasn't always so perfect. When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and "normal," but Emma can only remember her as one thing--a monster. And that monster emerged right...

Gabriella Harrison grew up in a world of privilege and terror. Abused by her aristocratic mother and abandoned at a convent, she uses her writing skills to escape the pain. In adulthood and living in New York, she is once again introduced to suffering through a betrayal and horrible beating from someone she trusts. Eventually, she is able to gain the courage move forward, leave her past behind, and find hope and forgiveness in her future.

Twenty-one-year-old Hardy "Hardly" Reed--good-natured, easygoing, usually stoned--is drifting through life. A minimum-wage scare actor at an amusement park, he avoids unnecessary effort and unrealistic ambitions. Then one day he notices two children, around six or seven, sitting all alone on a bench. Hardly checks if they're okay and sees injuries on both children. Someone is hurting these kids. He reports the incident to Child Protective Service....

In Oregon, eleven-year-old Hope begins coping with her mother's verbal abuse by devising survival strategies for herself based on a history unit about the Holocaust, and meanwhile she works toward buying a pair of purple hiking boots by helping at a second-hand shop. Includes "Hope notes" and readers' guide.