Storm Siren by Mary Weber

Storm Siren by Mary Weber

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn’t merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth — meaning, she shouldn’t even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she’s being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons. But what if she doesn’t want to be the weapon they’ve all been waiting for?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery (theme)
  • Knife violence
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Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner

Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner

Jo and Bethie Kaufman were born into a world full of promise. Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life.

But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Recreational drug use
  • Cancer
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Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten

Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten

They say Delia burned herself to death in her stepfather’s shed. They say it was suicide. But June doesn’t believe it.

June and Delia used to be closer than anything. Best friends in that way that comes before everyone else—before guys, before family. It was like being in love, but more. They had a billion secrets, binding them together like thin silk cords.

But one night a year ago, everything changed. June, Delia, and June’s boyfriend Ryan were just having a little fun. Their good time got out of hand. And in the cold blue light of morning, June knew only this—things would never be the same again.

And now, a year later, Delia is dead. June is certain she was murdered. And she owes it to her to find out the truth…which is far more complicated than she ever could have imagined.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Toxic relationships
  • Cheating
  • Suicide
  • Murder
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Artemis by Andy Weir

Artemis by Andy Weir

Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Slut shaming
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Explosions
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The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

Esther Ann Hicks—Essie—is the youngest child on Six for Hicks, a reality television phenomenon. She’s grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family’s fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie’s mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show’s producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia’s? Or do they try to arrange a marriage—and a ratings-blockbuster wedding?

Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media—through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell—Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom? 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia mentioned
  • Racism mentioned
  • Child sexual assault
  • Incest
  • Teen pregnancy
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Network Effect by Martha Wells

Network Effect by Martha Wells

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.

When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Indentured servitude & slavery discussed
  • Amnesia
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Contagion
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Loss of autonomy discussed
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Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue? And what will become of it when it’s caught?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Amnesia
  • Blood depiction & physical injuries
  • Attempted murder
  • Explosion
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
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Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

SciFi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Self-sacrifice
  • Physical injuries
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Loss of autonomy discussed
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Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Dubious consent to sex work discussed*
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Surgery for coerced body modifications
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Mass murder recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Attempted plane crash
  • Mind control discussed

*Note: Android sex workers have a limited or no ability to override their mind control-like regulating system and therefore are unable to truly consent.

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