A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic violence
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
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Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, two rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne—sets the stage for the explosive events to come.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcoholism
  • Bipolar Disorder
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Loner by Georgina Young

Loner by Georgina Young

Lona kills her days by sneaking into the dark room at her old art school to develop photographs. She kills her nights DJ-ing the roller disco at Planet Skate. She is in inexplicably, debilitatingly love with a bespectacled Doctor Who-obsessed former classmate, and in comfortable, platonic love with her best friend Tab. Lona works hard to portray a permanent attitude of cynicism and ennui but will her carefully constructed persona be enough to protect her from the inevitable sorrows and unexpected joys of adult life?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Transmisia
  • Hospitals
  • Car accident
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Please Don’t Hug Me by Kay Kerr

Please Don’t Hug Me by Kay Kerr

Erin is looking forward to Schoolies, at least she thinks she is. But things are not going to plan. Life is getting messy, and for Erin, who is autistic, that’s a big problem. She’s lost her job at Surf Zone after an incident that clearly was not her fault. Her driving test went badly even though she followed the instructions perfectly. Her boyfriend is not turning out to be the romantic type. And she’s missing her brother, Rudy, who left almost a year ago.

But now that she’s writing letters to him, some things are beginning to make just a tiny bit of sense.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling
  • Drowning
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Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal by Anna Whateley

Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal by Anna Whateley

Peta Lyre is far from typical. The world she lives in isn’t designed for the way her mind works, but when she follows her therapist’s rules for ‘normal’ behaviour, she can almost fit in without attracting attention.

When a new girl, Sam, starts at school, Peta’s carefully structured routines start to crack. But on the school ski trip, with romance blooming and a newfound confidence, she starts to wonder if maybe she can have a normal life after all.

When things fall apart, Peta must decide whether all the old rules still matter.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Domestic violence
  • Poverty themes
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The Boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough

The Boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough

It’s a hot summer, and life’s going all right for Jackson and his family on the Mish. It’s almost Christmas, school’s out, and he’s hanging with his mates, teasing the visiting tourists, avoiding the racist boys in town. Just like every year, Jackson’s Aunty and annoying little cousins visit from the city – but this time a mysterious boy with a troubled past comes with them… As their friendship evolves, Jackson must confront the changing shapes of his relationships with his friends, family and community. And he must face his darkest secret – a secret he thought he’d locked away for good

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Coming out themes
  • Outing
  • Parental abandonment
  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Emesis
  • Minor physical injuries, including broken bones & snake bite
  • Police violence & racial profiling
  • Incarceration
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You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume

You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume

The day I created a boy started out like any other.

Katie didn’t mean to create a boy. A boy like a long-lost Hemsworth brother: six-foot tall with floppy hair and eyes like the sky on a clear summer’s day; whose lips taste like cookie-dough and whose skin smells like springtime.

A boy who is completely devoted to Katie.

He was meant to be perfect.

But he was never meant to exist. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Bullying
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The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson

The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson 

A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There’s a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions. A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom – she’s fighting for her life. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Self harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Amputation
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
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When It Drops by Alex Dyson

When It Drops by Alex Dyson

Caleb Clifford has earbuds, not real buds. And he prefers it that way. They always give him what he wants to hear, he can adjust the volume, and if things get tangled, it’s relatively easy to straighten them out again …

Sixteen-year-old songwriter and aspiring social outcast Caleb Clifford fills his world with music, but – like most things – keeps his songs to himself. That is until his little brother leaks Caleb’s most personal track online; a track that’s quite obviously about his secret crush. Having his innermost feelings (accompanied by a funky bassline) go viral is not Caleb’s idea of a good time. But is this the end of everything, or the start?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cancer
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Bullying recounted
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Fin and Rye and Fireflies by Harry Cook

Fin & Rye & Fireflies by Harry Cook

Then, only a few days later, Fin’s world is turned upside down – and not in a good head-over-heels-in-love way – when Jesse cruelly outs him. An event which ultimately leads to his family leaving town.

But a fresh start isn’t going to change the truth of who Fin is. And it’s not going to stop his sexuality causing everyone all sorts of problems. Everyone, that is, apart from his new best friend Poppy, her girlfriend-in-waiting June, and his new crush Rye… So, while Fin and Rye are enjoying some seriously intimate moonlit moments together, Fin’s parents decide to pack him off to the local ReSouled ‘therapy camp’.

It’s a nightmare – and there’s no easy way out. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Conversion therapy
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
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