rachel @ typed truths

Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed. Without an Ang male to punish, the…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Graphic misogyny (theme)
Spousal & parental abandonment
Physical & verbal domestic by parent-in-law
Torture

New from Here by Kelly Yang

When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay for work. At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the flights have been…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
COVID-19

Undone by the Ex-Con by Talia Hibbert

To protect her brother, Lizzie must seduce the man she despises… Isaac Montgomery is a killer. A savage. He doesn’t belong in the glittering world of high-society, but somehow, that’s where he’s ended up. After all he’s been through, it should take more than a prima ballerina with a cut-glass accent to get under his skin. But when Isaac meets Lizzie Olusegun-Keynes, he doesn’t just lose his cool. He f$*king melts. Lizzie is losing control of her body, her life—and her desires. She shouldn’t want a man like Isaac, a man who’s rough and coarse and forceful, but the lust that sparks between them is impossible to ignore. When a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia & parental disownment
Internalised ableism
Sexual harassment
Diabetes
Blackmail

*Context : The protagonist’s employer blackmails her and threatens to out her brother.

Final Offer by Lauren Asher

Callahan. I’m the Kane brother everyone gossips about behind closed doors. Trust fund brat. Washed-up athlete. High-functioning alcoholic. No one knows the real me but her. Lana Castillo—my childhood best friend and the only woman I ever loved. When I broke her heart six years ago, I promised to never return to Lake Wisteria. I kept my word until my grandfather’s will changed everything. To receive my inheritance, I was tasked with spending a summer at the family lake house before selling it. The request was simple in theory until my entire plan blew up on the very first day. Turns out Lana doesn’t just live at the house, but… Read mor e.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment
Emotional & verbal child abuse
Substance addiction & alcoholism
Anxiety & panic attacks
Drug use (smoking)
Overdose recounted
Infertility
Cancer
Death of a grandfather
Animal abuse

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare — poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world’s top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him “The Fittest (Real) Man in America.”

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Child abuse
Alcoholism
Military enlistment & deployment (theme)

XOXO by Axie Oh

Cello prodigy Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets mysterious, handsome Jaewoo in her uncle’s Los Angeles karaoke bar, it’s clear he’s the kind of boy who would uproot her careful plans. But in a moment of spontaneity, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one unforgettable night of adventure…before he disappears without a word. Three months later, when Jenny and her mother arrive in South Korea to take care of her ailing grandmother, she’s shocked to discover that Jaewoo is a student at the same elite arts academy where she’s.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Cancer
Chronic illness
Death of a parent recounted
Bullying

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Set in 1776, against the backdrop of the American struggle for independence, this powerful novel is also an incredible adventure about one girl’s struggle for freedom in a society in which she is considered someone else’s property. Isabel and her sister, Ruth, are slaves. Sold from one owner to the next, they arrive in New York as the Americans are fighting for their independence, and the English are struggling to maintain control. Soon Isabel is struggling too. Struggling to keep herself and her sister safe in a world in which they have no control.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Slavery
Torture
Branding & whipping
War themes

The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike

Rotterham Home was a hospice for young people—a place where teenagers with terminal illnesses went to die. Nobody who checked in ever checked out. It was a place of pain and sorrow, but also, remarkably, a place of humor and adventure. Every night at twelve, a group of young guys and girls at the hospice came together to tell stories. They called themselves the Midnight Club, and their stories could be true or false, inspiring or depressing, or somewhere in-between. One night, in the middle of a particularly scary story, the teenagers make a secret pact with each other, which says… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicide
Alcohol & drug abuse
Overdose
Cancer, AIDs & terminal illness
Amputation
Paralysis
Emesis
Death of a child
Mass shooting & gun violence

The Marquis Who Mustn’t by Courtney Milan

One good fraud deserves another… Miss Naomi Kwan has long wanted to take ambulance classes so that she can save lives. But when she tries to register, she’s told she needs permission from the man in charge of her. It would be incredibly wrong to claim that the tall, taciturn Chinese nobleman she just met is her fiancé, but Naomi is desperate, and desperate times call for fake engagements. To her unending surprise, Liu Ji Kai goes along with her ruse. It’s not that Kai is nice. He’s in Wedgeford to practice his family business, and there’s no room for “nice” when you’re out to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Misogyny
Racism
Child abuse & parental abandonment recounted

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Mia, the irreverent, hyper analytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything–which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking clock… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape mentioned
Suicide
Angelman Syndrome
Disappearance of parent (theme)