Bec @ bec&books

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Pregnancy
Childbirth
Miscarriage
Infertility
Foot binding
Death of a mother
Grief depiction

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Transmisia
Slavery
Rape threatened
Alcohol consumption
Loss of autonomy, by possession
Blood & gore depiction
Dead bodies
Murder
Knife violence
Torture
Poisoning
Fire
Genocide mentioned
Fantastical animal attack

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Hate crimes
Classism
Death of a parent
Child death
Physical assault
Animal cruelty

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism, including slurs & cultural appropriation
Classism
Colourism
Misogyny & sexism
Islamophobia
Violent hate crime
Slavery, including child labour
Sexual assault
Suicide discussed
Self-harm
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Blood depiction
Emesis
Feet binding discussed
Plague
Death of mother
Grief depiction
Murder
Police brutality
Genocide
Gun violence
Torture
Physical assault
Colonization
War themes

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexism
Homomisia mentioned
Sexual assault
Prostitution
Intimate domestic abuse
Depression
Attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Drug & alcohol abuse
Starvation
Cancer recounted
Death of a loved one
Grief depiction
Physical assault
Imprisonment
War themes

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Bullying
Anxiety
Emesis
Heart failure mentioned
Blood depiction
Death of a friend
Death of an animal
Death of a parent recounted
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning mentioned
War themes

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

It’s been six months since Deka freed the goddesses in the ancient kingdom of Otera and discovered who she really is… but war is waging across the kingdom, and the real battle has only just begun. For there is a dark force growing in Otera—a merciless power that Deka and her army must stop. Yet hidden secrets threaten to destroy everything Deka has known. And with her own gifts changing, Deka must discover if she holds the key to saving Otera… or if she might be its greatest threat.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Sex work-shaming
Parental abuse mentioned
Panic attacks
Body horror & gore depiction including dead bodies
Murder
Grief depiction
Death of a friend
Death of a father
Torture
Immolation (burning alive) & fire mentioned
Hanging mentioned
Drowning mentioned
Death from falling discussed
Loss of autonomy (mind control)

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

It was Hannah who found April’s body ten years ago.
It was Hannah who didn’t question what she saw that day.
Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison?

She needs to know the truth.

Even if it means questioning her own friends.
Even if it means putting her own life at risk.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Cheating
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Pregnancy
Death of a friend
Grief depiction
Murder
Stalking discussed
Home invasion
Incarceration, including discussed of wrongful conviction

Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth

When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish. When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape discussed
Toxic relationships
Parental neglect
Emotional abuse
Borderline Personality Disorder
Hallucinations & delusions
Dissociation
Suicide
Self-harm
Miscarriage & pregnancy discussed
Cannibalism
Graphic grief & loss depiction
Death of mother
Murder

The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life. Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Self-harm, specifically cutting
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Drug use & abuse
Blood depiction
Murder
Disappearance of children
Animal cruelty