Lost Boys

Lost Boys, a novel by Orson Scott Card, is set in the '80s and revolves around a computer programmer and his family. Step Fletcher, a devout Mormon, moves his wife and three children (Stevie, ?, and ?) cross-country to North Carolina so he can find work. He must deal with several unpleasant situations. His boss is greedy and manipulative, Stevie's teacher hates the boy, and one of his co-workers is a pedophile. Meanwhile, his new house is periodically being invaded by hordes of insects, and his Stevie becomes withdrawn, playing only with his imaginary friends. As Stevie's group of friends grows, his parents become increasingly concerned and eventually take him to a psychologist, against their better judgment. Then they see a newspaper article about young boys who are disappearing. The names of Stevie's imaginary friends are the same as the missing children. Major spoiler: At the end of the novel, Stevie figures out who has been kidnapping and killing the children and confronts the man. Because of this, Stevie is murdered and hidden in the crawlspace beneath the Fletchers' house -- with all of the other missing children. He manages to appear to his family and helps all of the others to do so as well. The other boys' parents are called, and each one says goodbye and disappears. The molester (not the same man that Step works with, incidentally) is arrested, and the bodies of the boys are removed from under the house. Stevie says goodbye to his family and vanishes as well.