rachel @ typed truths

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson

Max already expects some of the raucous behaviour of his new, American friends—like their insatiable hunger for the fried and cheesy, and their locker room talk about girls. But he doesn’t expect the comradery—or how quickly he would be welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he’s “playing dress-up.” That is until he meets Pan, the school “witch,” in Physics class: “Pan in his all black. Pan with his goth choker and the gel that made his hair go straight up.” Suddenly, Max feels seen, and the pair… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Transmisia
Homomisia
Rape
Poisoning
Graphic animal death
Animal abuse

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

Liz Buxbaum has always known that Wes Bennett was not boyfriend material. You would think that her next-door neighbour would be a prince candidate for her romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only proven himself to be a pain in the butt, ever since they were little. Wes was the kid who put a frog in her Barbie Dreamhouse, the monster who hid a lawn gnome’s severed head in her little homemade neighbourhood book exchange. Flash forward ten years from the Great Gnome Decapitation. It’s Liz’s senior year… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother in a car accident mentioned
Bullying

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings. For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bipolar Disorder
Substance addiction
Drug use & abuse
Overdose recounted

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. She would be eight years old now—if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as “the Child Finder,” Naomi is their last hope. Naomi’s methodical search takes her deep into the icy, mysterious forest in the Pacific Northwest, and into her own fragmented past. She understands children like… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Antiziganism (g slur)
Incest (foster siblings)
Paedophilia, child sexual assault and rape (theme)
Child abuse and neglect
Foster care system experiences recounted
Amnesia and memory loss
Dissociation
Blood and gore depiction
Physical injuries mentioned, including the loss of an arm in an explosion while deployed
Death of a foster mother, off-page and discussed
Death of a wife from cancer mentioned
Death of a wife from suicide mentioned
Accidental infanticide
Murder by stabbing, on-page
Physical assault
Kidnapping and captivity of a child
Incarceration
Graphic animal death and hunting
Animal dead bodies and butchery, on-page

Context : The story follows a private investigator trying to find a missing child. The book is told from her POV, the missing child, and the predator who kidnapped and held the child captive. While there are no on-page scenes of sexual violence, it is clear that the captor sexually abuses and rapes the child. It is vaguely mentioned through metaphors and lyrical writing from the child’s perspective; as well as mentions of pain and blood on her legs. The predator was also raped by his captor as a child. Again, there are no on-page scenes of this.

A secondary character leaves her baby in their stroller on a bus that is parked in storage. It is unclear how the baby dies but the protagonist finds his body (off-page, no descriptions).

Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz

Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz

Sia practically grew up in the water scuba diving, and wreck dives are run of the mill. Take the tourists out. Explore the reef. Uncover the secrets locked in the sunken craft. But this time … the dive goes terribly wrong. Attacked by a mysterious creature, Sia’s boat is sunk, her customers are killed, and she washes up on a deserted island with no sign of rescue in sight. Waiting in the water is a seemingly unstoppable monster that is still hungry. In the jungle just off the beach are dangers best left untested. When Sia reunites with a handful of survivors, she sees it as the first sign of … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood & gore depiction
Physical injuries
Dead bodies
Incarceration of a parent
Boating accident
Animal death

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing songbirds from the Empire State Building as they migrate through the Tribute of Light, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Classism
Depression
Animal cruelty

The Monarchs by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

The Monarchs by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

The sorority girls at Kappa Rho Nu—the Ravens—are determined to restore balance to the world. After destroying an ancient talisman and barely saving their sorority in the process, they’ll go to any lengths to keep their secret as Westerly’s most powerful coven of witches. Scarlett Winter, a legacy Raven, has finally gotten what she’s always wanted: the Kappa Rho Nu presidency. After the disaster that killed the sorority’s last president, Scarlett is determined that no sister will fall under the sway of wicked magic ever again. But the powers of the presidency have their own…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Loss of autonomy (magical mind control)

The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

Kappa Rho Nu isn’t your average sorority. Their parties are notorious. Their fundraisers are known for being Westerly College’s most elaborate affairs. But beneath the veil of Greek life and prestige, the sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of witches. Kappa Rho Nu isn’t your average sorority. Their parties are notorious. Their fundraisers are known being Westerly College’s most elaborate affairs. But beneath the veil of Greek life and prestige, the sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Queermisia
Emesis
Bullying

Starcrossed by Barbara Dee

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

Mattie, a star student and passionate reader, is delighted when her English teacher announces the eighth grade will be staging Romeo and Juliet. And she is even more excited when, after a series of events, she finds herself playing Romeo, opposite Gemma Braithwaite’s Juliet. Gemma, the new girl at school, is brilliant, pretty, outgoing—and if all that wasn’t enough: British. As the cast prepares for opening night, Mattie finds herself growing increasingly attracted to Gemma and confused, since, just days before, she had found herself crushing on a boy named Elijah… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Queerphobia
Emesis
Bullying

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly. Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical sexism & ableism
Slavery
Forced sex work
Suicide
Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation
Murder of a father
Physical assault & kidnapping