The Adventure Zone, Volume 2: Murder on the Rockport Limited! by Carey Pietsch, Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Justin McElroy

In the second Adventure Zone graphic novel (adapted from the McElroy family’s wildly popular D&D podcast), we rejoin hero-adjacent sort-of-comrades-in-arms Taako, Magnus, and Merle on a wild careen through a D&D railroad murder mystery. This installment has a little of everything: a genius child detective, an axe-wielding professional wrestler, a surly wizard, cursed magical artifacts, and a pair of meat monsters. You know, the usual things you find on a train.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Dismemberment
  • Beheading discussed
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Fire
  • Train crash
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Animal attack

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman

When Laura Costello moves to Los Angeles, trying to escape an overprotective family and the haunting memories of a terrible accident, she doesn’t expect to be homeless after a week. (She’s pretty sure she didn’t start that fire — right?) She also doesn’t expect to find herself adopted by a rogue bookseller, installed in a lovely but completely illegal boardinghouse, or challenged to save a losing trivia team from ignominy… but that’s what happens. Add a regretful landlady, a gorgeous housemate and an ex-boyfriend determined to put himself back in the running and you’ll see why Laura isn’t really sure she’s cut out for this… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Alcoholism
  • Disordered eating
  • Car accident
  • Earthquakes
  • Fire

Across a Broken Shore by Amy Trueblood

The last thing eighteen-year-old Wilhelmina “Willa” MacCarthy wants is to be a nun. It’s 1936, and as the only daughter amongst four sons, her Irish–Catholic family is counting on her to take her vows—but Willa’s found another calling. Each day she sneaks away to help Doctor Katherine Winston in her medical clinic in San Francisco’s Richmond District. Keeping secrets from her family only becomes more complicated when Willa agrees to help the doctor at a field hospital near the new bridge being built over the Golden Gate. Willa thinks she can handle her new chaotic life, but as she draws closer to a dashing young iron… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment mentioned
  • Abortion (botched)
  • Miscarriage
  • Alcoholism
  • Blood & injury depiction

Ace by Angela Chen

What exactly is sexual attraction and what is it like to go through the world not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about consent, about compromise, about the structures of society? This exceedingly accessible guide to asexuality shows that the issues that aces face—confusion around sexual activity, the intersection of sexuality and identity, navigating different needs in relationships—are conflicts that all of us need to address as we move through the world. Through interviews, cultural criticism and memoir, ACE invites all readers to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism mentioned
  • Amisia
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Rape discussed
  • Forced sterilization mentioned
  • Domestic terrorism mentioned

The Accident by CL Taylor

Sue Jackson has the perfect family but when her teenage daughter Charlotte deliberately steps in front of a bus and ends up in a coma she is forced to face a very dark reality. Retracing her daughter’s steps she finds a horrifying entry in Charlotte’s diary and is forced to head deep into Charlotte’s private world. In her hunt for evidence, Sue begins to mistrust everyone close to her daughter and she’s forced to look further, into the depths of her own past. There is a lot that Sue doesn’t know about Charlotte’s life. But then there’s a lot that Charlotte doesn’t know about Sue’s …

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Murder
  • Car accident
  • Stalking

Accidentally Amy by Lynn Painter

Isabella Shay is usually a very honest person. But when she’s running late for her first day at a dream job and the barista yells for “Amy” 3x with no answer, she does the unthinkable. Izzy takes that PSL. It’s the exact drink she ordered and paid for, only waaaay further ahead in the line, so she mutters “I’m Amy” and grabs the cup. But when she turns around and runs directly into the most attractive man she’s ever seen, spilling the drink all over his GQ shirt and tie, she ends up having the ultimate meet-cute. Sparks fly and things feel beyond promising until he says the words, “See you tomorrow, Amy.” Uh, oh – she’ll definitely have to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis

The Sea in You by Jessi Sheron

15-year-old Corinth was just trying to clean up the beach; she never expected to meet a mermaid, let alone be nearly drowned by one. It was the start of a very strange friendship! After Skylla, the deadly fanged mermaid, mysteriously lets Corinth live, they grow closer through a cautious exchange of stories, gifts, jokes, and sign language. Mermaids, it turns out, eat people, but however terrifying Skylla may look, she’s a little younger, a little smaller, and perhaps a little too soft for all that. Bewitched by Corinth and their growing bond, she learns about all the best things in life on books, burgers, donuts, and this strange… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Abusive relationship

Miles Morales: Stranger Tides by Justin A Reynolds and Pablo Leon

Miles Morales has just about gotten used to this being Spider-Man thing. Keeping Brooklyn safe, taking down bad guys, and finishing his homework―he’s got this! But when Spider-Man is invited to a launch for a brand-new video game, things go sideways fast. Anyone who plays the game is frozen, and it’s all because of a villain named the Stranger. He’s judged humanity and found it lacking, and his idea of justice is extreme. Left with the fate of the world in his hands, and the clock is ticking on Miles. Can he turn old foes to friends and find the answers he needs in time?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation of an uncle

New Adult by Timothy Janovsky

Twenty-three-year-old Nolan Baker wants it all by the time he’s thirty. Too bad he’s single, barely able to cover his own expenses, and still paying his dues at a prominent NYC comedy club. When faced with his perfect sister’s wedding, Nolan takes it as a wakeup call. It’s time to quit comedy and make good on his practical dreams—most importantly, asking Drew Techler, his best friend, to be his date. But right as Nolan is about to give it all up, he’s asked to fill a last-minute spot for a famous comedian. Score! He crushes his set, but stands Drew up, misses his sister’s big day, and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Parent with Alzheimer’s
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a parent recounted, off-page

Foxglove by Adalyn Grace

A duke has been murdered. The lord of Thorn Grove has been framed. And Fate, the elusive brother of Death, has taken up residence in a sumptuous estate nearby. He’s hellbent on revenge after Death took the life of the woman he loved many years ago…and now he’s determined to have Signa for himself, no matter the cost. Signa and her cousin Blythe are certain that Fate can save Elijah Hawthorne from prison if they will entertain his presence. But the more time the girls spend with Fate, the more frightening their reality becomes as Signa exhibits dramatic new powers that link her to Fate’s past. With mysteries and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning
  • False imprisonment