NANCY MONROE’s mother DENISE just got married — and Nancy has a new stepbrother, VICTOR, a Goth guy who dresses in black, wears lots of sunscreen, apparently talks to his cat, and has the ability to cloud women’s minds. So Nancy is convinced that he’s a vampire — but is she a paranoid wingnut, or is she the only person who sees Victor’s true nature?

Maddy is 16 years old. She lives alone with her sick grandmother in a rundown farmhouse off a highway in Nowheresville, Texas. She does her best to take care of her mute, wheelchair-bound grandmother, but life at home is lonely and depressing. So, like everyone else within a 20 mile radius, Maddy spends her free time at the only place with half a pulse- the local roller rink.