Every year, 100 of the most dangerous convicted criminals from the impoverished Ward are given a chance to earn their freedom and to live a life of luxury in Nova Heights, the walled-in city of glass and steel estates built into the side of a mountain. All that’s standing between the Hopefuls and a full pardon are the Amnesty Games, a seven-day barrage of challenges, puzzles, mazes, traps, obstacles, contests, and competitions.

In the realm of Kravan, children of lower-class citizens are raised in a prison-like structure called "The Tower" from birth until adulthood. Known as the Tethered, they are held in thrall until their powers reveal themselves around the time of their nineteenth birthday. Every year, the Tethered who are tested and deemed harmless are chosen to leave the Tower and join the outside world as servants to live in the households of the ruling class. Those who are deemed threats are taken away—and no one knows what happens to them, though they suspect the worst.

On her 17th birthday, Ashen Spencer is blindfolded and escorted to the massive, mysterious building known as the Arc to begin her year of training and testing in hopes that she can earn the Cure - a powerful drug given only to those deemed worthy to survive beyond their 18th birthday. Ashen has a chance to rise up from her former life of squalor and be granted a place in society, if the Panel - the mysterious group of powerful men and women in charge of the Arc - deems her year a success.

Water is scarce. Deserts have taken over the land. Nuclear war has devastated humanity. Humans live in walled super cities to keep out the irradiated. The land that was formerly known as America is divided into kingdoms ruled by royal elites. Born into the lowest Echelon of the Kingdom of Phangloria, 16-year-old Zea Calico faces a life of hunger, thirst, and toil. The only way out of this drudgery is revolution, and Zea is desperate to help the cause.

Claren Greenwood is happy to play by the rules. After her mother is killed by rebels and her father is exiled, she will do whatever it takes to keep herself and her brother safe. But when Claren is identified as an Empath on her aptitude test, she's pulled closer to the Center and discovers the world she’s always known is a lie. With the help of a handsome and mysterious rebel, Claren learns there is more to life than what's inside the city walls. And the Leadership she's always trusted is dead set on destroying it.

Twenty-one years after his parents won the presidency, a Culling is called. James has waited his entire life for this moment, a chance to carry on his parents' legacy. Meanwhile, whispers in Denver of an "Heir's Curse" make a Reed winning the presidency seem impossible. A presidential heir has never won a Culling before, but there has also never been a Culling where three heirs could qualify. James and his siblings are determined to break the so-called curse and prove them all wrong.

In a new world isolated by a rising, toxic sea, a single bridge connects Askala to the Outlands. Those who remain will need to pass a "proving" to determine if they have the intelligence and heart to champion the future of their broken Earth. Those who succeed will become Bound, the ones chosen to breed. Those who fail, are Unbound. Free of responsibility, but robbed of their ability to bear children.

What was once the Western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, 15-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, 15-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect.

In a secret facility called the Processor, Kress and her fellow Recruits are subjected to endless weapons training, violent puzzles, dangerous war games, deadly escape rooms, and impossible Virtual Reality simulations. In the end, they’ll get answers to questions they’ll wish they never asked.

It’s graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. All Cia can think about—hope for—is whether she’ll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization.

In the year 2043, with the nation destroyed by war, 17-year-old Kress and her conspiracy of friends embark on a dangerous cross-country mission to locate and recruit other Emergents, the name given to teenagers who have begun to exhibit strange evolutionary abilities. Not all Emergents are ready to accept who and what they are, however, and some have even started using their abilities for selfish or evil ends. Now Kress has to figure out who is friend and who is foe as she risks everything to expose the government’s lies and take down the tyrannical President Krug once and for all.

Tally lives in a world where your 16th birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation that erases all your flaws, transforming you from an "Ugly" into a "Pretty". She is on the eve of this important event and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also 15 - but with a very different outlook on life.

Even before becoming a husband and father, safety had been Shane McDonald’s priority for most of his 45 years. As a nuclear engineer, it’s his responsibility to keep the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant functioning at optimum levels to avoid what protesters fear most: a meltdown. But when a coronal mass ejection from the sun wipes out power across the globe, stopping a nuclear chain reaction is no longer his primary concern.

Every year, a lottery is held for the hard-working people of Lutum. The prize? Eternal life. And everyone wants it. Well, everyone except for 17-year-old Silverstasia Blackwood. She doesn't think it's fair that the rich get to live luxurious lives while the people of Lutum are enslaved, forced to work hard every day to support the immortals.

After their costly victory over President Krug and the Patriot Army, 18-year-old Kress and her Conspiracy travel to a newly medieval London, England where they are forced to fight their way through two warring factions amid a decimated hellscape. Their struggle for survival takes them on an epic quest through what’s left of London as they race to track down a pair of mythical twins, who are rumored to have the unique ability to enter the world of dreams.