Contemporary – Page 123 – Trigger Warning Database

Kneel by Candace Buford

Kneel by Candace Buford

For guys like Russell Boudreaux, football is the only way out of their small town. As the team’s varsity tight end, Rus has a singular goal: to get a scholarship and play on the national stage. But when his best friend is unfairly arrested and kicked off the team, Rus faces an impossible choice: speak up or live in fear.

Desperate for change, Rus kneels during the national anthem. In one instant, he falls from local…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial profiling
Hate crime
Police brutality

One True Loves by Elise Bryant

One True Loves by Elise Bryant

Lenore Bennett has always been a force. A star artist and style icon at her high school, she’s a master in the subtle art of not giving a . . . well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she’s a little less sure.

She’s heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for “undeclared”) written across her chest. Her parents always remind her that Black kids don’t have the luxury of figuring it out as they go—they have to be 110 percent… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Emesis

sourced from michelle

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She’s rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she’s a true leading lady is in her own writing—in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.

When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism & ableist language
Racism
Anxiety & panic attacks

sourced from adri, paige, rose, signed, iza, usom, and tib

Love Is for Losers by Wibke Bruggemann

Love Is for Losers by Wibke Bruggemann

Did you know you can marry yourself? How strange/brilliant is that?

Fifteen-year-old Phoebe thinks falling in love is vile and degrading, and vows never to do it. Then, due to circumstances not entirely in her control, she finds herself volunteering at a local thrift shop. There she meets Emma . . . who might unwittingly upend her whole theory on life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child neglect

sourced from star

The Paris Connection by Jaye Robin Brown

The Paris Connection by Jaye Robin Brown

When Hannah and her boyfriend, Simon, board their train with only a few seconds to spare, they’re confident that they’ll make it to Amsterdam in time for his sister’s wedding. But unbeknownst to them, the train is scheduled to divide in the middle of the night. And when it does, half of it continues on the route to Amsterdam. And the other half–the one with Hannah in it–heads 300 miles away, to Paris. Left without her luggage, ticket, cell phone or hope of reuniting with Simon, Hannah has no choice but to spend the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Death of a parent

Come Away with Me by Karma Brown

One minute, Tegan Lawson has everything she could hope for: an adoring husband, Gabe, and a baby on the way. The next, a patch of black ice causes a devastating accident that will change her life in ways she never could have imagined. Tegan is consumed by grief, not to mention her anger toward Gabe, who was driving on the night of the crash. But just when she thinks she’s hit rock bottom, Gabe reminds her of their Jar of Spontaneity, a collection of their dream destinations and experiences, and so begins an adventure of a lifetime. From the bustling markets of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Depression
Attempted suicide
Miscarriage
Surgery (hysterectomy)
Death of a partner
Car accident

The Tradition by Jaye Robin Brown

The Tradition by Jaye Robin Brown

Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown’s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie? Brown makes mythical pastorals question the terrors to which we’ve become accustomed and celebrate how we survive. Poems of fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma are … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Rape

The Key to You and Me by Jaye Robin Brown

The Key to You and Me by Jaye Robin Brown

Piper Kitts is spending the summer living with her grandmother, training at the barn of a former Olympic horseback rider, and trying to get over her ex-girlfriend. Much to Piper’s dismay, her grandmother is making her face her fear of driving head-on by taking lessons from a girl in town.

Kat Pearson has always suspected that she likes girls but fears her North Carolina town is too small… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bimisia
Abandonment
Adult-minor relationship
Alcohol consumption
Car accident

The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown

The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown

Before, Jessica has always struggled with anger issues, but come sophomore year that all changed when Vivi crashes into her life. As their relationship blossoms, Vivi not only helps Jess deal with her pain, she also encourages her to embrace her talent as an artist. And for the first time, it feels like the future is filled with possibilities. After In the midst of senior year, Jess’s perfect world is erased when Vivi suddenly passes away. Reeling from the devastating loss, Jess pushes everyone away and throws out her plans to go to art school. Because art is Vivi and Vivi is gone forever… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Queermisia
Suicidal ideation

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees.

Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Homomisia
Miscarriage mentioned
Death of a parent recounted
Bullying