Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.

But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Gentrification & classism
  • Cheating
  • Slut-shaming
  • Sexual harassment and the non-consensual distribution of private photos
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a family member
  • Physical assault
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Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighbourhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyper-empathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery
  • Child sexual assault & abuse
  • Rape, including statutory rape
  • Abusive relationship
  • Adult-minor relationships
  • Arranged, forced & coerced marriage
  • Domestic abuse
  • Estrangement
  • Physical child abuse & neglect
  • Addiction
  • Drug abuse
  • Blood and gore depiction including dead bodies and body parts
  • Cannibalism
  • Physical injuries
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Bushfire
  • Earthquake
  • Home invasion
  • Homelessness
  • Poverty themes
  • Hunting

A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo

A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asbedo

A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo book cover

Ever since her mother walked out, Trix McCabe has been determined to make it on her own. And with her near-magical gift for pulling valuables off unsuspecting strangers, Trix is confident she has what it takes to survive. Until she’s caught and given a choice: jail time, or go live with her long-lost family in the tiny town of Rocksaw, Kansas.

Trix doesn’t plan to stick around Rocksaw long, but there’s something special about her McCabe relatives that she is drawn to. Her aunt, Mia, bakes pies that seem to cure all ills. Her cousin, Ember, can tell a person’s deepest secret with the touch of a hand. And Trix’s great-aunt takes one look at Trix’s palm and tells her that if she doesn’t put down roots somewhere, she won’t have a future anywhere… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Addiction
  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Terminal illness mentioned, specifically cancer
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
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Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Undead Girl Gang by Lil Anderson book cover

Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There’s not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley’s favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone’s explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body-shaming
  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Cheating
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Physical injuries
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a sister
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a girlfriend
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Hanging
  • Drowning
  • Fire
  • Home invasion
  • Animal death and animal sacrifice
  • Bullying
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One Would Think the Deep by Claire Zorn

One Would Think the Deep by Claire Zorn

Sam has always had things going on in his head that no one else understands, even his mum. And now she’s dead, it’s worse than ever.

With nothing but his skateboard and a few belongings in a garbage bag, Sam goes to live with the strangers his mum cut ties with seven years ago: Aunty Lorraine and his cousins Shane and Minty.

Despite the suspicion and hostility emanating from their fibro shack, Sam reverts to his childhood habit of following Minty around and is soon surfing with Minty to cut through the static fuzz in his head. But as the days slowly meld into one another, and ghosts from the past reappear, Sam has to make the ultimate decision … will he sink or will he swim.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother (theme)
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The Protected by Claire Zorn

The Protected by Claire Zorn

Hannah’s world is in pieces and she doesn’t need the school counsellor to tell her she has deep-seated psychological issues. With a seriously depressed mum, an injured dad and a dead sister, who wouldn’t have problems?

Hannah should feel terrible but for the first time in ages, she feels a glimmer of hope and isn’t afraid anymore. Is it because the elusive Josh is taking an interest in her? Or does it run deeper than that?

In a family torn apart by grief and guilt, one girl’s struggle to come to terms with years of torment shows just how long old wounds can take to heal.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & transmisia
  • Amnesia (parent)
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Car accident recounted
  • Bullying & cyberbullying
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Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess

Swing by Kwame Alexander & Mary Rand Hess

Swing by Kwame Alexander book cover

Things usually do not go as planned for seventeen-year-old Noah. He and his best friend Walt (aka Swing) have been cut from the high school baseball team for the third year in a row, and it looks like Noah’s love interest since third grade, Sam, will never take it past the “best friend” zone. Noah would love to retire his bat and accept the status quo, but Walt has big plans for them both, which include making the best baseball comeback ever, getting the girl, and finally finding cool.

To go from lovelorn to ladies’ men, Walt introduces Noah to a relationship guru—his Dairy Queen-employed cousin, Floyd—and the always informative Woohoo Woman Podcast. Noah is reluctant, but decides fate may be… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Gun violence
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Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Suicidal ideation, and assisted suicide (euthanasia) by asphyxiation by carbon monoxide poisoning
  • Terminal cancer
  • Death of a mother & wife
  • Death of a pet dog (off-page) recounted
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Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess

Solo by Kwame Alexander & Mary Rand Hess

Solo by Kwame Alexander book cover

Blade never asked for a life of the rich and famous. In fact, he’d give anything not to be the son of Rutherford Morrison, a washed-up rock star and drug addict with delusions of a comeback. Or to no longer be part of a family known most for lost potential, failure, and tragedy. The one true light is his girlfriend, Chapel, but her parents have forbidden their relationship, assuming—like many—that Blade will become just like his father.

In reality, the only thing Blade has in common with Rutherford is the music that lives inside them. But not even the songs that flow through Blade’s soul are enough when he’s faced with two unimaginable realities: the threat of losing Chapel forever, and the revelation of a long-held family secret, one that leaves him questioning everything he thought was true. All that remains is a letter and a ticket to Ghana—both of which could bring Blade the freedom and love he’s been searching for, or leave him feeling even more adrift.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Child abuse and neglect
  • Addiction
  • Drug overdose
  • Death of a child
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I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He’s pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That’s when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That’s when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape (on-page) and sexual assault*
  • Verbal parental abuse

*Unwanted kiss without prior consent. The protagonist also complains about being ‘in the friend zone’ and states he ‘deserves’ sex from his crush.

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