Synopses & Reviews
This suspenseful debut follows a group of teenage misfits in their delicious quest for revenge on those who have wronged them at their high school. When a mysterious note appears in Charlotte’s mailbox inviting her to join the League of Strays, she’s hopeful it will lead to making friends. What she discovers is a motley crew of loners and an alluring, manipulative ringleader named Kade. Kade convinces the group that they need one another both for friendship and to get back at the classmates and teachers who have betrayed them. But Kade has a bigger agenda. In addition to vandalizing their school and causing fights between other students, Kade’s real intention is a dangerous plot that will threaten lives and force Charlotte to choose between her loyalty to the League and her own conscience.
Praise for League of Strays
"A group of misfits is drawn together by a charismatic, sinister boy for friendship and revenge."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Readers may very well be drawn in by the suspense of the pranks, each more cringe worthy than the last."
—Booklist
"A solid psychological thriller, this novel will find a fan base with readers who enjoy their vigilante justice with a heavy helping of vengeance."
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"This is a great book about the trials of high school. First loves, friends, enemies, bullying, difficult teachers, pushy parents, deciding your future, it’s all here."
—The Tulsa Examiner
Review
"The commentary on today's life-as-public-spectacle society is sound. The pacing is relentless, and readers will find themselves flipping madly to the very last page."
Review
Praise for
Nerve:
"The commentary on today's life-as-public-spectacle society is sound. The pacing is relentless, and readers will find themselves flipping madly to the very last page." -Kirkus Reviews
"Readers will likely remain tightly keyed into questions about what is going to happen." -Booklist
Review
Praise for NERVE by Jeanne Ryan
"Ryan questions the nature of entertainment and explores the concept of privacy in a world of increasingly sophisticated social media. Teens will find themselves drawn in by the story's possibilities, and unNERVEd by its outcome. Give this to Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games fans (Scholastic, 2008)." -School Library Journal
"The pacing is relentless, and readers will find themselves flipping madly to the very last page."-Kirkus Reviews
"Ryan's story is thought-provoking and unsettling."-Publishers Weekly
Review
Praise for
Nerve:
“Teens will find themselves drawn in by the storys possibilities, and unNERVEd by its outcome. Give this to Suzanne Collinss Hunger Games fans.” School Library Journal
"The commentary on today's life-as-public-spectacle society is sound. The pacing is relentless, and readers will find themselves flipping madly to the very last page." -Kirkus Reviews
"Readers will remain tightly keyed into questions about what is going to happen." -Booklist
“Ryans story is thought-provoking and unsettling…the ending goes off with a bang and a twist.” Publishers Weekly
"An original, page-turning novel that offers a slice of pop culture that gives a whole new meaning to the trendy, reality-television genre." -VOYA
LA Times Fall 2012 roundup of young adult fiction
Synopsis
It was only an accident -- but it would change their lives forever. Last summer, four terrified friends made a desperate pact to conceal a shocking secret. But some secrets don't stay buried, and someone has learned the truth. Someone bent on revenge. This summer, the horror is only beginning....
Synopsis
For fans of The Hunger Games
A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly
When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?
Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.
Synopsis
For fans of The Hunger Games
A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly
When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?
Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.
About the Author
Jeanne Ryan lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. She dreams of the day scientists develop a DNA alteration for flying. In the meantime, writing provides her wings.
Author Q&A
Lois Duncan grew up in Sarasota, Florida and from early childhood she knew she wanted to be a writer. She submitted her first story to a magazine at the age of 10 and made her first sale at 13. Throughout her high-school years, she wrote regularly for young people's publications, particularly
Seventeen Magazine.
"My first book was a young adult novel because I wrote it at age 20, and teenage subject matter was all I knew about," Duncan says. "Today, although I write other types of books as well, I still choose to write primarily for teenagers because I love the sensitivity, vulnerability and responsiveness of that age reader."
Duncan is best known for her brilliant psychological suspense novels. She was drawn to this genre because those were the books he enjoyed reading. Of her writing technique, she once said, "Although I've been told that some authors start writing with only a general idea in mind and let their stories evolve on their own, I couldn't work that way. My books are tightly plotted and carefully constructed; every sentence is there for a reason. Personally, I can't imagine writing a book without knowing exactly how it's going to end. It would be like setting out on a cross-country trip without a road map."
Her next writing project was, by necessity, of a totally different nature. "There was no way I could force myself to create a fictional mystery when our real-life mystery was consuming me," she says. "For sanity's sake, I decided that I had to switch channels." The result was The Circus Comes Home, a book for all ages about life behind the scenes at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Duncan's home town was winter quarters for the circus in the 1940s, and her photographer father, Joseph Steinmetz, captured its magic on film. His remarkable photographs of elephants climbing onto the circus train, Emmett Kelly, the clown, in a bubble bath, and the Flying Wallendas teaching their four-year-old to walk the high wire provide stunning illustrations for Duncan's colorful essay about "a life that was fashioned of sawdust and star dust."
Duncan's most popular teenage novels have had to do with psychic phenomena, a subject that she admits she used to consider fantasy. "Today I believe differently," she says. "My experiences with psychic detectives during Kait's murder investigation have forced me to change my mind about what is and isn't possible. I feel a responsibility to let my readers know that ESP, as represented in books of mine such as A Gift of Magic and The Third Eye, is a reality." Other popular novels for teens by the author include Killing Mr. Griffen and I Know What You Did Last Summer, both of which were recently adapted for film.
Her nonfiction book, Psychic Connections: A Journey into the MysteriousWorld of Psi, written in collaboration with William Roll, Ph.D., projectdirector for the Psychical Research Foundation, introduces teenagers to thefascinating world of parapsychology. Based on laboratory research anddocumented case histories, Psychic Connections addresses such subjectsas astral projection, near-death experiences, apparitions and hauntings,poltergeists, clairvoyance, telepathy, and practical applications of ESP, suchas the use of psychic detectives by law enforcement.
author fun facts
Born: April 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Education: University of New Mexico
Currently lives: North Carolina
Favorite . . .
. . . hobbies: photography
. . . foods: rare roast beef, spaghetti, avocados, tomatoes, shell fish, anything chocolate
. . . clothes to wear: shorts and bare feet in summer; jeans and sweat shirts in winter
. . colors: yellow
. . . books: everything
Inspiration for writing: It's what I do. Like breathing.
If you would like to ask Lois Duncan a question of your own, send email to [email protected]