rachel @ typed truths

Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad by Sally Green

Sixteen-year-old Nathan lives in a cage: beaten, shackled, trained to kill. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world’s most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. Nathan’s only hope for survival is to escape his captors, track down Marcus, and receive the three gifts that will bring him into his own magical powers—before it’s too late. But how can Nathan find his father when there is no one safe to trust, not even family, not even the girl he loves?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse & neglect
Self-harm
Coerced suicide of a mother recounted
Smoking, on-page
Cannibalism mentioned
Involuntary body modifications including branding and tattoos
Mass murder & genocide discussed
Torture
Physical assault
Kidnapping & captivity

The Door That Lead to Where by Sally Gardner

The Door That Lead to Where by Sally Gardner

AJ Flynn has just failed all but one of his major exams, and at almost seventeen years old, he sees a future that’s far from rosy. So when he’s offered a junior clerk position at a London law firm, he hopes his life is about to change—and it does, but he could never have imagined how much.

While on the job, AJ finds an old key labelled with his birth date, and he’s determined to find the door it… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Drug abuse
Death of a parent
Murder

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

There’s only been one time that Rose couldn’t stop me from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Fatmisia
Sexual assault of a child
Child abuse
Emotional abuse & gaslighting
Infertility
Death of a parent

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Cannibalism
Starvation & dehydration
Whale hunting & butchering

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magi… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Incest mentioned
Depression
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
Suicidal ideation
Infertility
Pregnancy
Miscarriage
Blood & gore depiction
Amputation
Grief & loss depiction
Murder
Beheading
Imprisonment
Torture
Fire

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

So begins an unexpected journey that takes…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Slavery
Suicide mentioned

Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning

Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning

He has stolen her past, but MacKayla will never allow her sister’s murderer to take her future. Yet even the uniquely gifted sidhe-seer is no match for the Lord Master, who has unleashed an insatiable sexual craving that consumes Mac’s every thought—and thrusts her into the seductive realm of two very dangerous men, both of whom she desires but dares not trust.

As the enigmatic Jericho Barrons and the sensual Fae prince V’lane vie for her body and soul, cryptic entries from her sister’s diary mysteriously appear… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape

Faefever by Karen Marie Moning

Faefever by Karen Marie Moning

When MacKayla Lane receives a page torn from her dead sister’s journal, she is stunned by Alina’s desperate words. And now MacKayla knows that her sister’s killer is close. But evil is closer. And suddenly the sidhe-seer is on the hunt: For answers. For revenge. And for an ancient book of dark magic so evil that it corrupts anyone who touches it.

Mac’s quest for the Sinsar Dubh takes her into the mean, shape-shifting streets of Dublin, with a suspicious cop on her tail. Forced into a dangerous triangle of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume

In the early morning hours, two men enter a hansom cab. When the first man exits the cab, the driver continues on to the second’s destination—only to discover upon arrival that the remaining passenger is dead, murdered in the backseat. Police detective Samuel Gorby believes the solution to the crime is as simple as identifying the passengers. But Kilsip, Gorby’s rival on the force, thinks the case is more complicated, and Defense Attorney Duncan Calton concurs. Upon further investigation, the mystery takes a series of strange and unsettling turns, leading the investigators into dark, secret places they never imagined they would go… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol abuse
Murder

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what’s happening to him and cannot fail to be a changed young man.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Incarceration (theme)