1. Compare and contrast the fictional characters in Crosses with the teens described in the book Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids or portrayed in movies like River's Edge or Kids.

2. Did Katie jump or did she fall? Did she commit suicide or did she die accidentally?

3. Some reviewers criticized the end of Crosses; one described it as "gratuitous and perversely prim." What were some other possible endings for this story?

4. Can a book like Crosses cause readers to try to copycat a practice like cutting? Does the book make cutting, drug use, and other behaviors seem too enticing and too appealing? Rather than exploring a problem, is Stoehr exploiting one?

5. Should a book like Crosses, with its strong language and sexual situations, be used in school setting? Should it be in a school library? Should it be in a public library?

6. What happens to...