Author Archives: rachel @ typed truths

a tired aussie reader with a love of cats, libraries & sunflowers • she/her

Allies by Alan Gratz

Allies by Alan Gratz

Welcome to D-Day. Dee, a young U.S. soldier, is on a boat racing toward the French coast. And Dee — along with his brothers-in-arms — is terrified. He feels the weight of World War II on his shoulders. But Dee is not alone. Behind enemy lines in France, a girl named Samira works as a spy, trying to sabotage the German army. Meanwhile, paratrooper James leaps from his plane to join a daring midnight raid. And in the thick of battle, Henry, a medic, searches for lives to save.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antisemitism
  • Medical procedures
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)
  • Train accident
  • Bullying

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Infiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage. World War II is raging. Michael O’Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth. But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies. Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for. But he joins in the Hitler Youth’s horrific games and book burnings, playing the part so he can gain insider knowledge. When Michael learns about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission, things get even more complicated. He must prove his loyalty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • War World Two (theme)

Prisoner B3087 by Alan Gratz

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

Survive. At any cost. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It’s something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prison, his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend
  • Imprisonment in concentration camps (theme)
  • War World Two & the Holocaust

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe. All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Blood depiction
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation of a parent
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Physical injury
  • Physical assault
  • Police violence
  • Riots
  • Home invasion
  • Bombing
  • Imprisonment in concentration camps
  • War themes
  • Refugee experiences and displacement
  • Animal death

Grenade by Alan Gratz

Grenade by Alan Gratz

It’s 1945, and the world is in the grip of war. Hideki lives on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. When WWII crashes onto his shores, Hideki is drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed a grenade and a set of instructions: Don’t come back until you’ve killed an American soldier. Ray, a young American Marine, has just landed on Okinawa. He doesn’t know what to expect — or if he’ll make it out alive. He just knows that the enemy is everywhere. Hideki and Ray each fight their way across the island, surviving heart-pounding ambushes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Explosions
  • Gun violence
  • War World Two & military violence (theme)
  • Colonialism

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. He’s spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential. He’s obsessed with serial killers but really doesn’t want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he’s written for himself, practising normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation. Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don’t demand or expect the empathy he’s unable to offer. Perhaps that’s what gives him the objectivity to recognize that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Pyromania
  • Dead bodies
  • Graphic murder
  • Animal cruelty mentioned

When You Find Me by PJ Vernon

When You Find Me by P.J. Vernon

Visiting her family’s South Carolina estate, socialite Gray Godfrey wakes from a night out to an empty bed. Her husband Paul is gone and a thrashing hangover has wiped her memory clean. At first, she’s relieved for the break from her tumultuous marriage; perhaps Paul just needed some space. But when his car is found abandoned on the highway, Gray must face the truth: Paul is gone. And Gray may not want him found. When a stranger named Annie calls claiming to know Paul’s whereabouts, Gray reluctantly accepts her help. But this ally is not what she seems: soon Annie is sending frightening messages and revealing… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault of a child
  • Trauma
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Disappearance of a spouse

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs. Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody old… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Chronic illness (Type 1 Diabetes)
  • Death of a parent recounted

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead. From the moment the creature’s shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Quebec suspects it has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized. But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Drug abuse
  • Abortion
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Rescue by Jennifer Nielsen

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Six hundred and fifty-seven days ago, Meg Kenyon’s father left their home in France to fight for the Allies in World War II, and that was the last time Meg saw him. Recently, she heard he was being held prisoner by the Nazis, a terrible sentence from which Meg fears he’ll never return. All she has left of him are the codes he placed in a jar for her to decipher, an affectionate game the two of them shared. But the codes are running low, and soon there’ll be nothing left of Papa for Meg to hold on to at all. Suddenly, an impossible chance to save her father falls into Meg’s lap. After following… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Blood depiction
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • Avalanche
  • World War Two