A new Wii console and simulation game show up in his rec room, and Reid is just bored enough to try them out. When a demon from inside the game threatens him in reality, Reid is plunged into a world of troubled teens he didn't know existed. The demon's challenge takes him on a journey of discovery. Suddenly exposed to other outsiders, Reid learns to question authority and find his own answers. He finds true friends among those labeled defective and cast aside by society-and together, they learn to fight for themselves.

Set against a background of video games, teen mental illness, and anticonsumer counterculture; told through the eyes of Reid and his friends, Outside the Box challenges the safe, orthodox picture of the world championed in many popular teen novels.