{Coping: Book One} In which a suicidal boy who expresses his feelings in the form of poetry falls in love with a girl who knows all too well how it feels to have your own mind suffocate you. {WARNING: THIS WHOLE STORY IS TRIGGERING}

(Previously known as 'CUTTHROAT') She was a misfortune, a black sheep, the locals' substitute for the real culprit behind their own suffering. That was all she ever was, and it didn't seem like things would change anytime soon, either. Being the only daughter to the town's most notorious serial killer, Helmine grew accustomed to the antipathy and distrust she constantly received from everyone around her, and with few exceptions, she knew that standing alone was a destiny that had been bestowed upon her from an early age. As if things could not get any worse, when a new range of serial killings begins to occur in town, Helmine finds herself becoming a part of something ominous she could only get nightmares of being dragged into. Her entire world starts to shatter once more, and this time, the reason is left ambiguous for her to figure out on her own. Is it her past that continues to break her down, or will it become the one's whose obsession she has become a focus on?

Sixteen-year-old Sage Greene was locked in a maximum-security asylum for the criminally insane after murdering nearly 200 civilians. It isn't her, though - it's the voices. There are two sides to Sage: the normal, self-conscious teenager, and the Voice lurking inside her head, the one that forced her to strike out and kill. Now, both parts of Sage are being sent into space, destined for a new rehabilitation program upon Mars, with a group of the most dangerous teenagers in America. Before they can reach the red planet, however, they are abducted by a strange alien race and taken away from their spaceship and everything they have ever known to compete in a sadistic set of physical and mental tests nicknamed the Trials. And so far, nobody has survived the Trials. * {Highest ranking: #5 in science fiction as of 9/3/17} [Comment threads contain spoilers at random. You have been warned.] WARNING This is a very dark book that only spirals further down. Murder is discussed and there are slightly graphic scenes.