rachel @ typed truths

I Am Change by Suzy Zail

I Am Change by Suzy Zail

They told her that her body belonged to men and her mind didn’t matter. They were wrong.

“What if I don’t want to marry?” Lillian held her breath. She had never said the words out loud. “Not want to marry?” Her aunt frowned. “What else would you do?”

Set in a Ugandan village, Lilian has learned to shrink herself to fit other people’s ideas of what a girl is. In her village a girl is not meant to be smarter than her brother. A girl is not meant to go to school or enjoy her body or decide who to marry. Especially if she is poor.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape
Incest
Domestic violence
Female genital mutilation
Poverty themes

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

Losing people you love is hard. Aurora De La Torre knows moving back to a place that was once home isn’t going to be easy. Starting your whole life over probably isn’t supposed to be. But a small town in the mountains might be the perfect remedy for a broken heart. Checking out her landlord across the driveway just might cure it too.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse discussed
Grief & loss depiction

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one. After seventeen years—and countless broken bones and broken promises—she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close. But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she’s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything. Including Ivan Lukov.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism from parent
Parental abandonment recounted
Fatphobia & body shaming including mentions of dieting
Stalking & cyberharassment including online sexual harassment
Car accident mentioned

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Vanessa Mazur knows she’s doing the right thing. She shouldn’t feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary. But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn’t find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He’s asking for the unthinkable.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Physical & emotional child abuse
Child neglect & abandonment
Intimate partner abuse

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

It’s an ordinary assignment, nothing more. The cargo? Fifty boxes filled with Transylvanian soil. The route? From Varna to Whitby. The Demeter has made many trips like this. The captain has handled dozens of crews.

He dreams familiar dreams: to taste the salt on the skin of his men, to run his hands across their chests. He longs for the warmth of a lover he cannot have, fantasizes about flesh and frenzied embraces. All this he’s done before, it’s routine, a constant, like the tides.

Yet there’s something different, something wrong. There are odd nightmares, unsettling omens and fear. For there is something in the air. Someone stalking the ship.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antiziganism (g slur)
Homomisia & internalised homomisia
Hate crimes
Suicide
Blood & gore depiction

Gem and Dixie by Sara Zarr

Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr

Gem has never known what it is to have security. She’s never known an adult she can truly rely on. But the one constant in her life has been Dixie. Gem grew up taking care of her sister when no one else could: not their mother, whose issues make it hard for her to keep food on the table, and definitely not their father, whose intermittent presence is the only thing worse than his frequent absence. Even as Gem and Dixie have grown apart, they’ve always had each other.

When their dad returns home for the first time in years and tries to insert himself back into their lives, Gem finds herself with an unexpected opportunity: three days with Dixie—on their own in Seattle and beyond… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Parental abandonment
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use & abuse

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Jill MacSweeney just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she’s been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends—everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she’s somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it’s like to grow up unwanted—to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she’s sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It’s harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child sexual abuse
Teen pregnancy
Nonconsensual pregnancy*
Alcohol consumption
Smoking mentioned
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father

* Note : The protagonist fears she became pregnant when she was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend.

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

When she is caught in the backseat of a car with her older brother’s best friend—Deanna Lambert’s teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of “school slut,” she longs to escape a life defined by her past.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut shaming
Sexual assault
Dubious consent scenario*
Teen pregnancy
Physical assault

*Note : Flashbacks of the protagonist having sex with a seventeen-year-old boy when she was thirteen-years-old.

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

After losing her soul mate, Cameron, when they were nine, Jennifer, now seventeen, transformed herself from the unpopular fat girl into the beautiful and popular Jenna, but Cameron’s unexpected return dredges up memories that cause both social and emotional turmoil.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Parental abuse mentioned
Alcohol consumption

Palaces of Spies by Sarah Zettel

Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel

A warning to all young ladies of delicate breeding who wish to embark upon lives of adventure: Don’t.

Sixteen-year-old Peggy is a well-bred orphan who is coerced into posing as a lady in waiting at the palace of King George I. Life is grand, until Peggy starts to suspect that the girl she’s impersonating might have been murdered. Unless Peggy can discover the truth, she might be doomed to the same terrible fate. But in a court of shadows and intrigue, anyone could be a spy—perhaps even the handsome young artist with whom Peggy is falling in love…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual assault
Alcohol consumption
Blood depiction
Death of a mother
Murder
Poisoning