Marley is comfortable with being gay in Winston-Salem, but he never had any real passions until he met Christopher, son of a bigoted television evangelist; the two become an inseparable couple until Christopher's parents send him to a religious program intended to "cure" him of being gay, and outraged Marley tells a very big lie--and then has to deal with the repercussions.

When Spencer Plain's uncle pulls him out of school, and they find themselves being chased by a strange car, Spencer does not know what is going on--but soon he is rescued from the woods by a bear, and taken to Bearhaven, a secret refuge his parents created, filled with bears who can talk, where, desperate to find his parents, he and a bear cub named Kate decide to take matters into their own hands.

"Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can't bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf, an ancient and profane magic to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when...