rachel @ typed truths

Permafrost by Eva Baltasar

Permafrost by Eva Baltasar

Permafrost’s no-bullshit lesbian narrator is an uninhibited lover and a wickedly funny observer of modern life. Desperate to get out of Barcelona, she goes to Brussels, ‘because a city whose symbol is a little boy pissing was a city I knew I would like’; as an au pair in Scotland, she develops a hatred of the colour green. And everywhere she goes, she tries to break out of the roles set for her by family and society, chasing escape wherever it can be found: love affairs, travel, thoughts of suicide.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Suicide & attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Self harm

Sleepless by Cyn Balog

Eron DeMarchelle isn’t supposed to feel this connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce his human charges to sleep. Though he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn’t encouraged to do so. After all, becoming too involved in one human’s life could prevent him from helping others get their needed rest. But he can’t deny that he feels something for Julia, a lonely girl with fiery red hair and sad dreams. Just weeks ago, her boyfriend died in a car accident, and Eron can tell that she feels more alone than ever. Eron was human once tood… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexual assault of a minor (on-page)
Adult-minor relationship*
Abusive relationship
Domestic violence
Alcohol consumption
Death of a boyfriend in a car accident
Kidnapping & stalking

Context : The teenaged protagonist’s romantic love interest is a supernatural being over a 100-years-old who has known her since birth.

What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again.She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size-zero obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Protagonist admitted to an in-patient treatment program at an eating disorder clinic for recovery & related medical issues (theme)
Anxiety & self-harm
Bullying

Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

In Victorian England, Londoners wash up dead on Thames, drained of blood and bone. Clandestine Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is forbidden to investigate. But Eliza Braun, with bulletproof corset, fondness for dynamite, remarkable devices, drags along timorous new partner Wellington Books, of encyclopedic brain, against Phoenix intent on enslaving Britons.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Racism & racial slurs
Colonialism
Rape
Incest (uncle-niece)
Dismemberment mentioned
Death of a friend
Murder
Explosions
Gun violence

Fangs, Volume 1 by Billy Balibally

Fangs, Volume 1 by Billy Balibally

Bitten by a vampire at a club, nineteen-year-old En barely survived. Taken under the wing of Ichii — a member of the health and welfare division of the vampire rights organization known as FANGS — En learns he’s to be taught about this new “world” he must survive in.

In order to control the urge to suck blood and attack innocents, FANGS established a “pairing system”, where two vampires support one another with regular meals. As a young, virginal vampire, En is highly sought after by many senior vamps. That is, until he declares his intention to pair with his guardian, Ichii..

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Suicide
Suicidal ideation

The Stars of Whistling Ridge by Cindy Baldwin

The Stars of Whistling Ridge by Cindy Baldwin

Ivy Mae Bloom, whose name is one letter away from a complete sentence, has lived her entire life on the road. Her mama is a fallen star who travels near and far to tend to the magic that underpins our world. When Ivy steals Mama’s entire supply of wish jars in the hopes of finding a forever home, a series of disasters strands the Blooms in Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, with Mama’s two star sisters. Ivy knows her wish has been granted and that Whistling Ridge is her forever home—she just needs to convince her parents to stay.

But something is draining the magic from Whistling Ridge, and the star sisters can’t stop it. With help from some new friends, Ivy stumbles across a clue in the town’s history . . . Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Animal death

Where the Watermelons Grow by Cindy Baldwin

Where the Watermelons Grow by Cindy Baldwin

When twelve-year-old Della Kelly finds her mother furiously digging black seeds from a watermelon in the middle of the night and talking to people who aren’t there, Della worries that it’s happening again—that the sickness that put her mama in the hospital four years ago is back. That her mama is going to be hospitalized for months like she was last time.

With her daddy struggling to save the farm and her mama in denial about what’s happening, it’s up to Della to heal her mama for good. And she knows just how she’ll do it: with a jar of the Bee Lady’s magic honey, which has mended the wounds and woes of Maryville, North Carolina, for generations… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Parent with schizophrenia (theme)
Psychotic episode

I Will Miss You Tomorrow by Heine Bakkeid

I Will Miss You Tomorrow by Heine Bakkeid

Fresh out of prison and a stint in a psychiatric hospital, disgraced ex-policeman Thorkild Aske only wants to lose himself in drugged dreams of his beloved Frei. Wild, unknowable Frei. The woman he loved. The woman he has lost forever.

Yet when Frei’s young cousin goes missing off the Norwegian coast and Thorkild is called in by the family to help find him, dead or alive, Thorkild cannot refuse. He owes them this.

Tormented by his past, Thorkild soon finds himself deep in treacherous waters. He’s lost his reputation – will he now lose his life?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Drug addiction
Alcohol abuse
Graphic autopsy procedures
Murder

Borderline by Mishell Baker

A year ago Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales. For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star, who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Attempted suicied & self-harm

A Bicycle Made For Two by Mary Jayne Baker

A Bicycle Made For Two by Mary Jayne Baker

In a lost corner of the Yorkshire Dales, Lana Donati runs a medieval theme tourist trap restaurant with her brother. As a distraction to help them get over losing the father they loved dearly, and as a tribute to his passion for the beautiful area they live in, Lana hatches a plan to boost business for everyone by having the Grand Départ route pass through their village.

But this entails getting the small community to work together to convince the decision-makers that their beloved village is Tour material. Not an easy task when the people involved include Lana’s shy, unlucky-in-love brother Tom, the man-eating WI chair Yolanda, bickering spouses Gerry and Sue, arrogant celebrity Harper Brady, and Lana’s (attractive) arch-nemesis, former pro-cyclist turned bike shop owner, Stewart McLean, whose offbeat ideas might just cost them everything.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Depression
Death of a parent from cancer