Showing results by narrator "Michael Crouch" in All Categories

It’s been a year since eighteen-year-old River Lang’s best friend died in a car accident. And every day since, he’s had to pass by the depressing billboard that appeared as a result: a texting and driving PSA that reduces Dylan to a cautionary tale and River to the best friend of the dead kid at school. Dylan was so much more than a statistic, though, and River hates that everyone in town seems to have forgotten. When he’s caught improving (a.k.a. vandalizing) Dylan’s billboard, River is blackmailed into joining the Affinity Trials.

Nathan’s used to being alone. Drifting from town to town following his salesman father, he seeks solace in his studies when he can’t find understanding in his own home; his father is abusive and an alcoholic and his mother would rather disappear into the background than protect him. Enter Roy. The older boy next door might have a girlfriend at school and at church, but there’s no question that they’re drawn to one another, and the two quickly become entangled in a covert relationship.

Lilith Thorne, forty, rarely sees the light of day. She has spent the past three years in total isolation at Guthrie Hall. She doesn't see anyone, her groceries are delivered to the front gate. She adores her house and takes comfort in her routine, eating the same carefully prepared meals day after day. And yet, she is lonely, and posts an ad on Craigslist for a companion. Eighty-year-old Beverly Smith answers the ad. Fiercer than her age will allow people to believe, the two women couldn't be more different. Where will this extraordinary friendship lead the two women?

It has been nine months since Gordy and his friends, Max and Adilene, stopped Esmeralda from destroying B.R.E.W. and the Vessel. Gordy is starting the eighth grade, where he meets another Dram, Sasha Brexil, whose mother is the new President of B.R.E.W. Gordy has also been practicing new brewing techniques and has even taken some of his potions to school - something expressly forbidden - but when he starts zoning out during practice, he knows something is wrong.

Ross Maloy just wants to fit in. But after he is diagnosed with a rare eye cancer in Year Seven, he suddenly becomes the "cancer kid" of his school. Now he has to deal with weird hats, a squinty eye and - hardest of all - disappearing friends, social media bullies, and the threat of losing his eyesight...or worse. Based on Rob Harrell's real-life experiences, this is a heartbreaking and hilarious story of survival, and of finding the music, magic, and laughter in all of life's weirdness.

Reed Beckett's little sister, Beatrice, has never been awakened by the smell of breakfast or a school-day alarm clock. Instead, she wakes to hospital beeps and poking doctors. And now, their mother has gone. With no job prospects on the horizon, Reed begins making and selling fake IDs so he and Bea can survive. But the problems keep piling up, from an angry landlord demanding rent to looming medical bills.

An ordinary boy encounters the paranormal when a photo of the same girl starts inexplicably showing up in every book he opens. One day, the girl reaches out and pulls him into the photo to her location: a cell in a top-secret facility belonging to the SCP Foundation, an organization dedicated to the research and containment of people, objects and phenomena that defy reality!

Dexter Foreman is twelve going on eighty. He has lived at The Pines retirement village with his grandmother since he was six years old, and as a result he gets along better with senior citizens than kids his own age. He's homeschooled by the residents up until the day the county’s truancy officer shows up and announces that Dex has to go to a “real” school, to the local middle school. At school, Dex sticks out like a sore thumb. He dresses like a grandpa (and can be just as cranky). His taste in movies and music is decades out of date.

What would have happened if the Animorphs had never existed? If Jake and the others had taken the long way home from the mall that night, instead of cutting through the abandoned construction site? If they'd never met Elfangor. Never rescued Ax. Never heard of the Yeerks.... Jake's finally weakened. After one particularly grisly battle, the Drode hits him when he's down and offers the Animorphs' leader an escape from the terrifying pressure. He'll take Jake back to the mall and reverse the decision that started the Animorphs. It's an offer Jake's too tired to refuse.

A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: His adopted brother, Rusty, is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin’s parents, aunt, and uncle. The trial came to epitomize the 1980s hysteria over Satanic cults; despite the lack of physical evidence, the jury believed the outlandish accusations Dustin and his cousin made against Rusty. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning.

It’s the summer before senior year. Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small, rural town by their queerness, their good grades, and their big dreams. But they have plans for the summer, each about to embark on a new adventure. Gabriel is interning at an environmental nonprofit in Boston. Reese is attending design school in Paris. Sal is volunteering on Capitol Hill for a senator. Heath is heading to Florida, to help out at his aunt’s boardwalk arcade.

There is an Anti-morphing ray out there. It's purpose: to cause a person in morph to revert to his natural form. And the Yeerks have done a very good job in hiding it. Word from the Chee that the Yeerks are ready to test the weapon. Just one problem: They don't have a test subject. Yes, they could have Visser Three go into morph and them hit him with the ray. But Yeerk scientists say there's a definite chance that the ray will prove fatal. The Visser isn't volunteering.

When Tom Chantry comes west to buy cattle, he quickly runs into trouble. During a drunken scuffle in a bar, Dutch Akin challenges Chantry to a gunfight. Leaving town rather than face Akin, Chantry is quickly branded a coward. Later, when hiring men to take his herd to the railroad, Chantry faces a dilemma: No one wants to make the long, dangerous ride with a leader of questionable courage. So when French Williams, a shrewd and ruthless cattleman, makes Chantry an offer, Tom reluctantly accepts his unusual terms: Tom must remain with the drive from start to finish.

Lewis Madigan is young, gay, out of work, and getting antsy when he’s roped into providing end-of-life care for his insufferable homophobic neighbor, Chester Wheeler. Lewis doesn’t need the aggravation, just the money. The only requirements: run errands, be on call, and put up with a miserable old churl no one else in Buffalo can bear. After exchanging barbs, bickering, baiting, and pushing buttons, Chester hits Lewis with the big ask. Lewis can’t say no to a dying wish.

At a crossroads, my life a hot mess, I swiped right on the guy with the washboard abs and the tree-trunk thighs. His handle was Holt (yeah, really) but as soon as he opened the door, I recognized him: Hudson Grey, the hottest prospect in pro-hockey and apparently, secretly playing for my team. Not mind-blowing enough? He needed someone to punch his V-card, and I was only too happy to volunteer as tribute... Then he ghosted me when it got to be too much. A year later, my life is back on track and I’m a candidate firefighter at legendary Engine 6.

Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake.

Cutthroat political consultant Thom Morgan is thriving, working on the governor of California’s presidential campaign. If only he didn’t have to deal with Clay Parker, the infuriatingly smug data analyst who gets under Thom’s skin like it’s his job. In the midst of one of their heated and very public arguments, a journalist snaps a photo, but the image makes it look like they’re kissing. As if that weren’t already worst-nightmare territory, the photo goes viral — and in a bid to secure the liberal vote, the governor asks them to lean into it. Hard.

Yeerk ships are pouring in from all ends of the galaxy—this is it. What will be the climactic, awful battle the Animorphs have been waiting for. Rachel has always been prepared for all out war, perhaps a little too ready. The President of the United States is a Controller, so the Animorphs have to rally their own military force. They succeed. Five thousand troops will fight against the seemingly endless onslaught of Yeerks. And this time, there will be no compromise. No half way. It's all out war for the Animorphs. It's Rachel's moment.

We found out who Visser Four is. And he has found the Time Matrix, the machine Elfangor had hidden in the abandoned construction site. The same place we met him on a night none of us will ever forget. Especially me. Now Visser Four has the Matrix, and he plans to use it to become Visser One. But Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco, Ax and I can't let that happen. We can't let him alter time so that the Yeerks will win the invasion. So we're prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. Eventually, one of us will lose this fight.

After a life-changing summer, four friends are finally ready for senior year. Gabriel is thrilled to create his school's first LGBTQ+ advocacy group, but his long-distance relationship is fading from summer love to something else. Heath feels secure for the first time in years, but with his future riding on a baseball scholarship each pitch triggers his anxiety. Reese is set on pursuing a career in fashion design, but his creativity takes him in an unexpected direction. Sal wants to be in politics. After a chat with his aunt, he is ready for an unlikely path.