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.

Once in a generation, the young women of the Unified Territories of Palias are given the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to become a princess. It’s an honor Kaia Luvaryan has no interest in competing for. In the aftermath of the Great War, huge swaths of what was once the United States of America are uninhabitable. Every day is a struggle to survive. But Kaia doesn’t want to leave her family or her best friend Finn behind. Life in her home territory of Hilora is hard, but at least it’s hers. Her life. Her choice. Until, suddenly, it’s not anymore.

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.

In the future, mankind has learned to manipulate their DNA, harnessing only the good genes, like intelligence, strength, and height. They called this prime DNA and humans rushed to get these new pDNA injections, which gave them superhuman-like qualities. Centuries later, however, their DNA became so engineered that humans rarely lived past the age of 30, thanks to a new deadly disease called the Kiss. The only cure is to receive an injection of oDNA, DNA from an Original human that hasn't been genetically altered. Problem is there aren't many Originals left.

After America’s Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement. According to their Bill of Life, human life may not be terminated from the moment of conception until the age of thirteen. But between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, the child may be gotten rid of by their parent through a process called “unwinding.”

I never wanted to join the Queen Trials. But I’m not a victim and never have been. When a peacekeeper attacks me in a mine shaft, I fight back and win. Sort of. Because I made a mistake. I let him live. He knows my name. He’ll come after me, and he’ll kill the only person I love: my sweet, clueless brother Shellor. Nobody escapes from Locality Fourteen. There was only one way out that would protect us both: Enter the Queen Trials and become a star. Now, I’m plunged into a competition with dozens of gorgeous women from all over the kingdom.

My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods...or monsters. I still can't decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me. Then there's Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn't felt anything for a hundred years. But there's something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what's broken in me. Which could spell death for us all.

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue - Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

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.

"Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't."

Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty - because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring. Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel's glittering facade.

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.

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted the Society’s choices. And when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, she is certain he’s the one - until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now she is faced with impossible choices: Between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s ever known and a path no has dared to follow...between perfection and the truth.

Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary - how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lie ahead for her in royal life.