rachel @ typed truths

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding

Thomas and Viv Adler are the envy of their neighbours: attractive, successful, with well-mannered children and a beautifully restored home. Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs. It’s a prank, Thomas insists; the work of a few out-of-control kids. But when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry. Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. And the police dismiss the attacks, insisting they’re just the work of bored teenagers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Kleptomania
Blackmail

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo’s quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexual assault
Child abandonment
PTSD & trauma
Alcoholism
Torture
War & colonisation themes

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth

When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both. Then Coley Taylor moves… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Lesbophobia & transphobia
Conversion therapy (theme)
Child abuse
Attempted suicide
Graphic self-harm
Drug use
Death of a mother & father in a car accident

Love Is the Higher Law by David Levithan

Love Is the Higher Law by David Levithan

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him. Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

9/11 (theme)

BVita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko

Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko

While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin. As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Depression
Attempted suicide
Abortion mentioned
Blackmail

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She’s been able to support her unemployed mother–and Mom’s deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week–so far, but it isn’t enough. Money’s still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world–from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences. Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Domestic abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Emotional abuse & gaslighting
Suicidal ideation (passive)
Cancer mentioned
Gun violence
Fire
Graphic animal cruelty
Animal death (dog)
Poverty

Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan

Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan

It’s been a year since the Catalog Killer terrorized the sleepy seaside town of Camera Cove, killing four people before disappearing without a trace. Like everyone else in town, eighteen-year-old Mac Bell is trying to put that horrible summer behind him—easier said than done since Mac’s best friend Connor was the murderer’s final victim. But when he finds a cryptic message from Connor, he’s drawn back into the search for the killer—who might not have been a random drifter after all. Now nobody—friends, neighbours, or even the sexy stranger with his own connection to the case—is beyond suspicion. Sensing that someone is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Queermisia
Drug use
Grief & loss depiction
Murder

Hidden Truths by Neva Altaj

Hidden Truths by Neva Altaj

I’m trying to not fall for a man I shouldn’t want. Now, I’m fighting to stay away from my enemies, Only to end up in the hands of a crazed killer. But what will happen when we both reveal our hidden truths? The only place where a killing machine like me belongs. And I feel out of control, full of rage, Until a broken, injured woman stumbles onto my path, and there will be no escaping it this time. Sometimes, my demons come rushing back, Keeping her prisoner is my only option. That’s all I can do. And sending my demons to sleep. Close to losing myself completely. My sanctuary from the past. Awakening my protective instincts… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Human trafficking
Attempted sexual assault recounted
Child abuse
Death of a parent
Murder
Organised crime (bratva)
Gun violence
Kidnapping & captivity

The Art of Insanity by Christine Webb

The Art of Insanity by Christine Webb

Putting up a front and hiding her mental illness from her classmates is going to be the hardest thing Natalie’s ever done. It’s her senior year, and she’s just been selected to present her artwork at a prestigious show. With the stress of performing on her shoulders, it doesn’t help when Natalie notices a boy who makes her heart leap. And then there’s fellow student Ella, who confronts Natalie about her summer car “accident” and pressures her into caring for the world’s ugliest dog. Now Natalie finds herself juggling all kinds of feels and responsibilities. Surely her newly… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Suicidal ideation
Death of a parent
Car accident
Blackmail

The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois

The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois

Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive. The Laws of the Skies follows the terrified children as they scatter into the night to escape danger, dressed only in their pyjamas. They face their darkest childhood fears and new imaginary threats, like trolls masquerading as boulders and child-eating tree trunks. A harrowing story of those days in the woods, of illness, poisoning, and accidents; of a love triangle among tots; a pint-sized hero; and a child on a murderous rampage that comes to a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Child abuse
Alcohol consumption
Graphic death of a child
Murder