Lauren DeStefano

After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

When Wil must return home to discover the origins of her curse, she is forced to untangle the secrets within her own family and fight against the evil Pahn and her own dangerous brother.

"Neglected by her father who spends all of his time building a ghost machine to bring her mother back from the dead, twelve-year-old Emmaline decides that the only way to bring her father back will be to make the machine work, or destroy it forever." --

"Bright, imaginative, eleven-year-old Pram lives with two aunts who run a retirement home, hiding the fact that she can talk with ghosts--but not the spirit of her mother--and after befriending Clarence, who also lost his mother, she decides to find her father in hopes he can answer her questions." --

"Sixteen-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives in Internment, a floating city utopia. But when a murder occurs, everything she knows starts to unravel"--

"The unicorn smells nice, but she is very rude. She never waits for an invitation to come over--she walks right in and tracks heart-shaped hoof-prints across the carpet. She sits in Elizabeth's chair and makes a complete mess of the house. She even sleeps in Elizabeth's bed. When the unicorn comes to dinner, is there even room for Elizabeth?" --

"Lionel, a wild boy, and Marybeth, a good girl, are best friends at the orphanage, and when a mysterious spirit possesses Marybeth they will do anything to stop it." --