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This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures… until the day their adventures turn all too real.

They stumble upon the Dark Library and discover secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies. Father forbids them from ever entering the room again, but when Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is drawn back to the Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life… Read more.

Determined to save Konrad, Victor, along with his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry, scale the highest trees in Strumwald, dive into the deepest lakes, and even make an unthinkable sacrifice in their quest for the elixir’s ingredients. And as if their task was not complicated enough, a new realm of danger—that of illicit love—threatens to end the ordeal in tragedy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Ableism, including the Disabled Villain trope
Sexual assault*
Incest*
Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
Serious illness of a child
Medical treatment & procedures, including consensual amputation
Needles
Emesis
Death of a brother
Animal death
Animal attack

* Explanation : There are two on-page sexual assault scenes, including one where the main character pretends to be his identical twin to trick his brother’s girlfriend into kissing him, and another where he forces a kiss on her. The romance subplot involves a love triangle between the two Frankenstein twins and their cousin.

The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste

The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste

He’ll slice your flesh. Your bones he’ll keep. What if the figure that haunted your childhood nightmares was real?

Twenty years ago, four teenagers entered the woods, hoping to find to the supposed home of the Bone Keeper. Only three returned. Now, a woman is found wandering the streets, horrifically injured, claiming to have fled the Bone Keeper. Investigating officer DC Louise Henderson must convince skeptical colleagues that this evil urban myth might be flesh and blood. But when a body is unearthed, the case takes on a much darker tone…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape
Blood & gore depiction
Murder
Home invasion
Fire

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Amnesia
Nightmares
Nonconsensual branding & scars
Medical experimentation
Death of a mother & father recounted
Murder
Knife & sword violence
Explosion
Disappearance of a sibling
Kidnapping

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Misogyny
Adult-minor relationship discussed
Parental abandonment
Domestic abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Depression
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use & abuse
Infertility mentioned
Emesis
Physical injuries
Death of a father & husband
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning
Torture
Whipping
War themes
Graphic animal death, including multiple death of pet dogs
Animal cruelty & abuse
Hunting
Animal attack mentioned

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

Ruthie Midona has worked the front desk at the Providence Luxury Retirement Villa for six years, dedicating her life to caring for the Villa’s residents, and guarding the endangered tortoises that live in the Villa’s gardens. Somewhere along the way, she’s forgotten there’s a world outside of work—until she meets the son of the property developer who just acquired the retirement centre. Teddy Prescott has spent the last few years not taking life too seriously… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia & body-shaming
Dieting
Death of a friend
Animal injury

All That Has Flown Beyond by Marina Vivancos

All that Has Flown Beyond by Marina Vivancos

Kaiyo’s bloodline has been part of the Garrow pack for generations. He has been destined to be shaman, to anchor the werewolves to the land, and lend aid with the force of his Ousía. When Kaiyo is fourteen, however, an attacking group kills all of the adults in the pack, leaving young Ahmik, only fifteen, as leader.

Kaiyo grows increasingly reckless in his desperation to defend his pack, to finally grow into his shaman powers, and to protect Ahmik: the boy he loves. In the end, Kaiyo loses his pack anyway… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Depression

In This Iron Ground by Marina Vivancos

In This Iron Ground by Marina Vivancos

Damien is nine years old when his parents die. What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything.

Instead, he finds the Salgado pack. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & physical child abuse
Death of parents recounted

Honeythorn by Marina Vivancos

Honeythorn by Marina Vivancos

Omega Milan Pryor knows his duty. He must travel North through the continent towards the snow, the cold, and his new betrothed. They say that Lord Alpha Raphael Ledford, the man he is to marry, is as artic as the weather of his land. But Milan has always been an optimist. Perhaps he might find friendship in the arranged marriage. Even love.

It doesn’t take long for Milan to realize that all the rumours about Lord Raphael are true. Reclusive, distant, frigid. Milan finds himself unwelcome in what he must now call his new home… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Arranged marriage
Rape mentioned
PTSD & trauma

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life – which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan’s Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig’s suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sex addiction
Depression
Attempted suicide
Self-harm
Psychiatric hospitalisation

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden, at once feminist high fantasy and a thrilling indictment of monarchy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Body shaming
Misogyny
Parental abandonment
Arranged marriage
Suicide discussed
Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
Nonconsensual & consensual adoption
Emesis mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a partner & wife mentioned
Murder
Exile
War themes, including rebellion & a political coup