Contemporary – Page 104 – Trigger Warning Database

How She Died, How I Lived by Mary Crockett

How She Died, How I Lived by Mary Crockett

On the eve of Kyle’s sentencing a year after Jamie’s death, all the other “chosen ones” are coping in various ways. But our tenacious narrator is full of anger, stuck somewhere between the horrifying past and the unknown future as she tries to piece together why she gets to live, while Jamie is dead.

Now she finds herself drawn to Charlie, Jamie’s boyfriend–knowing all the while that their relationship will always be haunted by what-ifs and why-nots… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Murder

Permanent Record by Mary HK Choi

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is.

Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at Age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers ask… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Anxiety
Depression
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Cancer mentioned
Financial difficulties

Love at First Fight by Mary Jayne Baker

Love at First Fight by Mary Jayne Baker

Love cynic Bridie Morgan is staging a last hurrah to the ‘dating’ stage of her life: she’s going on twenty dates in twenty days. If this ‘love’ thing really is a numbers game, then surely she’ll find The One. And if not? Well, at least the memory of her date with the Spice Girls’ biggest fan will be enough to put her off for life. She’ll never again wonder what she was missing.

But being love’s biggest sceptic is a challenge in the face of best friend Hattie’s upcoming nuptials… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Cheating

The Maid by Nita Prose

The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etique… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Assisted suicide, on-page
Murder
Bullying

If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So

If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So

Elsie has a crush on Ada, the only person in the world who truly understands her. Unfortunately, they’ve never met in real life and Ada lives an ocean away. But Elsie has decided it’s now or never to tell Ada how she feels. That is until her long-lost best friend Joan walks back into her life.

In a summer of repairing broken connections and building surprising new ones, Elsie realises that she isn’t nearly as alone as she thought. But now she has a choice to make…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Queermisia
Toxic relationship recounted

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith

When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Slut-shaming discussed
Bullying discussed

Private Lessons by Cynthia Salaysay

Private Lessons by Cynthia Salaysay

After seventeen-year-old Claire Alalay’s father’s death, only music has helped her channel her grief. Claire likes herself best when she plays his old piano, a welcome escape from the sadness — and her traditional Filipino mother’s prayer groups. In the hopes of earning a college scholarship, Claire auditions for Paul Avon, a prominent piano teacher, who agrees to take Claire as a pupil. Soon Claire loses herself in Paul’s world and his way of digging into a composition’s emotional core. She pra… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Statutory rape, on-page
Paedophilia & grooming
Teacher-student relationship
Emotional & verbal abuse
Depression
Self-harm
Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Death of a parent from cancer

Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata

Saucy by Cynthia Kadohat and illustrated by Marianna Raskin

Being a quadruplet can make it hard to stand out from the crowd. Becca’s three brothers all have something that makes them…them. Jake has his music and dancing, Jammer plays hockey, and K.C. thinks they’re all living in a simulation and doesn’t see the point of doing much of anything. Becca is the only one with nothing to make her special. But when she finds a tiny, sick piglet on the side of the road, Becca knows this is it. This is her thing. She names the piglet Saucy and between her… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Animal cruelty
Animal illness & injury

With You All the Way by Cynthia Hand

With You All the Way by Cynthia Hand

Ada’s life is a mess. She just caught her boyfriend cheating on her after a humiliating attempt at losing her virginity, and she’s had it up to here with her gorgeous older sister’s unsolicited advice.

But things really hit the fan during a family vacation in Hawaii, where Ada discovers her own mother is having an affair. Apparently, everyone is falling into bed with people they shouldn’t. Everyone except Ada. But wh… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Cheating
Alcohol abuse

The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand

The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand

Cassandra McMurtrey has the best parents a girl could ask for. They’ve given Cass a life she wouldn’t trade for the world. She has everything she needs—except maybe the one thing she wants. Like, to know who she is. Where she came from. Questions her adoptive parents can’t answer, no matter how much they love her.

But eighteen years ago, someone wrote Cass a series of letters. And they may just hold the answers Cass has been searching for.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Depression
Alcoholism
Attempted suicide
Drug abuse
Heart disease
Hospitalisation