Social Issues Fiction

An unexpected friendship changes everything. Anita Baum has never been one to make friends. She navigates her high school halls like a mine field; because for her they might as well be. Any misstep means that she risks being teased and humiliated. However, when new student Tina takes an instant liking to Anita, things start to change. Outrageously bold and determined, Tina is the exact opposite of Anita. The duo quickly becomes friends and their unlikely friendship places Anita in the limelight. As the duo maneuver through the toxic culture of Greenwich, they are forced to face the trials ...

Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's family has to love Boy's family. Boy's family has to love Girl's family. Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married. Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India; they are deeply in love and want to get married. Of course their parents don't agree.

A comedian’s joke sparks outrage. A violent crime exposes corruption. A lawyer searching for redemption takes on his most dangerous case yet. When stand-up comic Verne Slater is brutally attacked after a controversial routine, his injuries ignite a storm of media attention and social debate. Called back into action after a six-month suspension, Chance Cormac—boxer, lawyer, and reluctant hero—steps in to defend Verne and uncover the truth behind the assault. But in a city where justice bends to power and anger hides behind every headline, Chance soon realizes the case is about far more...

Winner of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award From legendary master storyteller Stephen King, a riveting story about “an ordinary man in an extraordinary condition rising above hatred” (The Washington Post) and bringing the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine...

When you’re blind to the danger right in front of you, who will you listen to before you get hurt? In a small town in rural Pennsylvania, nothing is as simple as it seems. Secrets lurk behind every corner, dying to be exposed. No one will make it out unscathed. Addie is a teenage girl that seems to have it all figured out. Starting high school can be hard, but not when you’re one of the popular crowd. Addie has all the boys wrapped around her finger, but what fun is there in that? All is not what it seems when her life outside of school is exposed. She makes it look easy, but dealing ...

When a single word shatters the fragile peace of Willow Bend High, four teens find themselves thrust into the center of a storm they never asked for — and can’t escape. Tasha, Jayden, Maya, and Dre are just trying to survive high school when a racial slur ignites a confrontation that ripples through their classrooms, their families, and their entire town. What begins as a moment of hurt becomes a movement of truth as the four friends lead a walkout that forces their community to face the history it has long tried to bury. But change comes with consequences. Parents protest. Teachers ...

An urgent, emotional thriller: "Dramatic...explores the power of grief...that through loss there can be hope for the future" (Library Journal). Everyone at Ridgemont Academy knows what to expect from Emma Caroline Blake. Perfect grades. Perfect record. Perfect life. Then she stands up in class...

Sometimes the silent whispers in our heads get so loud we start to believe the noise is real. I have been there, and the whispers almost convinced me that I should not be alive. In that darkness, I took to writing poetry and little positive notes to find light and hope. I had to convince my mind that it gets better. Nothing remains forever, not even the bad days and the sad moments. In this book, I try to make sense of my emotions and navigate the darkness through words. If you find yourself today in the same dark spot, may these poems and little notes give you a reason each day to live, ...

Ruthless defense attorney Tatum Graham has been living large in Miami, but when his recently acquitted client claims another victim, Tatum has a crisis of conscience. Disillusioned, he heads to his small Utah hometown for a simpler life...but that’s not what he finds. Soon after he arrives, Tatum’s childhood crush offers him a job at the county attorney’s office and assigns him a murder case.

Are you tired of being manipulated by fake news and false arguments? Arm yourself with the ultimate weapon - critical thinking. Critical Thinking For Complex Issues is your guide to cutting through the noise and discovering the truth. Learn how to spot logical fallacies, overcome confirmation bias, and analyze arguments objectively. Case studies and examples throughout show you how to apply these powerful skills in real life. Master the art of Socratic questioning to get to the heart of any issue.

Survivor Issues–Issue 3: A Poem for the Silent is a stream-of-consciousness poetic reflection that gives voice to the emotional reality of surviving trauma, abuse, and silence. Spoken in a raw, improvisational flow, this piece moves through themes of domestic violence, sexual assault, fear, faith, resilience, and the long road toward healing. It captures the internal dialogue of someone processing pain while still searching for strength, truth, and survival.

All our lives they treated us like brother and sister, but our hearts knew the truth. Annelise is one of the most straitlaced, overachieving, perfect-at-everything snobs with whom I’ve ever had the unfortunate luck to share breathing space. She hates me as much as I hate her. Just because we share a couple of half-sisters doesn’t mean we have to like each other. But every holiday and birthday and family event has forced us to exist in the same room! Miss Perfect and The Troublemaker. Then three weeks stuck together at a beach house changes everything, especially our hearts. Who would ...

A single word can break a friendship. The courage to speak can rebuild it. When fourteen‑year‑old Jalen Carter finally tells his best friend Malik to stop calling him a word that cuts deeper than either of them ever admitted, everything changes. What begins as a moment of honesty spirals into a school‑wide conflict—screenshots, rumors, suspensions, and a silence between them that feels impossible to cross. Suddenly, everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a side. And everyone has something to say about a word they don’t all carry the same way. As tensions rise, Jalen and Malik must ...

In the latest thrilling installment of the Clean Sweeps Cozy Mystery Series, Jane finds herself entangled in a web of luxury, deceit, and danger. Known for her keen ability to unravel the most confounding mysteries, Jane is approached by a high-society socialite to solve a case that’s as scandalous as it is deadly: the murder of the socialite's boyfriend. As Jane delves deeper into the opulent world of the wealthy, she quickly learns that beneath the veneer of privilege and glamour lie the same passions and pitfalls that affect us all – love, jealousy, and, in this case, murder. ...

Deshaun James is dying in his sleep, and the only person who seems to know it is his six-year-old son. Night after night, Josiah jolts awake the moment Deshaun stops breathing, screaming his father back to life before silence can finish what poverty, stress, and neglect already started. But no one outside the home sees a little boy trying to save his dad. They see a “troubled” child, a struggling Black family, and a father whose old aggravated assault record makes him easy to judge and even easier to condemn. With eviction closing in and bills swallowing everything Mekayla earns, the ...

From bestselling author Lisa Graff, this important coming-of-age story follows a thirteen-year-old with a mysterious scar on her face—and a big secret she feels pressured to keep. Fallon Little has a secret—and it’s not how she got the enormous scar that divides her face in two...

In this coming-of-age story, the Walker cousins face their own individual challenges while growing up in Washington, DC, during the 80s and 90s. In a world where it's easy to feel alone and lost, they lean on each other and vow to stick together. But one day, a tragic event tests the bonds of their unity, as family secrets begin to unravel. Soon they discover that their enemies were never those on the outside but the ones within their midst.

When Jane's husband left her and their children for greener pastures, she had no choice but to take as many housecleaning jobs as she could get to support them. Little did she know that during one of those jobs she would discover that a valuable ring her client owned had been stolen. Even more unexpected is when her client asks her to investigate the theft and find out who stole the ring. Jane soon discovers she has a knack for solving crimes as well as locating a treasure that has been missing for over a hundred years. When she looked at a long-lost map that a treasure seeker had ...

Fight for your friends, your family, your future. It’s the near future and severe poverty is the new normal for the majority of humanity. The world is suffering from climate change and the future seems bleak. In the UK, children with incredible psychic abilities begin to appear. For Oscar Hyde, life has never been harder. Everyone he knows is moving out of the city. Even his family are considering going. When Oscar discovers he has the power to be ignored, he succumbs to temptation and starts stealing. As his opportunistic tendencies take over, he becomes addicted to the adrenaline-...

The system was built to protect them. Now, it’s the very thing destroying them. Jessie Logan created a fragile sanctuary... a therapy group for girls who aged out of foster care. It's a circle of scuffed floors and mismatched chairs where secrets can finally be spoken. But when a new member, Devon, calls from a motel room bleeding after an illegal procedure, that sanctuary is ripped wide open. What Jessie uncovers leads to something far worse: underground clinics, anonymous threats, and an adoption agency that thrives by keeping vulnerable girls silent. As the precinct scrambles for leads...