Contemporary – Page 124 – Trigger Warning Database

Sidelined by Kara Bietz

Sidelined by Kara Bietz

Julian Jackson has a short to-do list for his senior year at Crenshaw County High School in Meridian, Texas: football, football, and more football. He knows he’s only got one chance to earn a college scholarship and make it out of his small town, and keeping his head down, his grades up, and his cleats on the field is that one chance. And then Elijah Vance walks back into his life, throwing all of his carefully-laid plans into a tailspin.

Elijah and Julian used to be best friends, maybe even on their way to something… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Teen pregnancy

Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Hazel knows a lot about the world. That’s because when she’s not hanging with her best friend or helping her two moms care for the goats on their farm, she loves reading through dusty encyclopedias. But even Hazel doesn’t have answers for the questions awaiting her as she enters eighth grade. How can she make friends in a new school where no one seems to understand her? What’s going to happen to one of her moms who’s pregnant again after having two miscarriages? Why does everything have to change when life was already perfectly fine?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Anxiety
Suicidal ideation mentioned
Self-harm recounted
Miscarriage
Hospital
Bullying

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Melly only joined the school band because her best friend, Olivia, begged her to. But to her surprise, quiet Melly loves playing the drums. It’s the only time she doesn’t feel like a mouse. Now, she and Olivia are about to spend the next two weeks at Camp Rockaway, jamming under the stars in the Michigan woods.

But this summer brings big changes for Melly: her parents split up, her best friend ditches her, and Melly finds herself falling for a girl at camp named Adeline. To top it off, Melly’s not sure she has what it takes to be a real rock ‘n’ roll drummer. Will she be able to make music from all the noise in her heart?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableist language
Sexism
Toxic friendship
Parent with Multiple Sclerosis

Starting from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Starting from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Sixteen-year-old Colby Bingham’s heart has been broken too many times. Her mother has been dead for almost two years, her truck driver father is always away, her almost girlfriend just dumped her for a guy, and now she’s failing chemistry.

When a stray dog lands literally at her feet, bleeding and broken on a busy road, it seems like the Universe has it in for Colby. But the incident also knocks a chink in the walls she’s built around her heart… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bimisia
Cancer mentioned
Death of a parent mentioned

A Show for Two by Tashie Bhuiyan

A Show for Two by Tashie Bhuiyan

Mina’s ticket to winning the competition falls into her lap when indie film star—and known heartbreaker—Emmitt Ramos enrols in her high school under a secret identity to research his next role. When Mina sets out to persuade Emmitt to join her cause, he offers her a deal instead: he’ll be in her short film…if she acts as a tour guide to help him with a photography contest.

As Mina ventures across the five boroughs with Emmitt by her side, the city she grew up in starts to look different and more like home than it ever has before.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Emotional parental abuse
Depression
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father mentioned

Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything: Karina is my girlfriend.

Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Verbal & emotional parental abuse
Anxiety & anxiety attacks, on-page
Emesis mentioned

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena

Susan is the new girl—she’s sharp and driven, and strives to meet her parents’ expectations of excellence. Malcolm is the bad boy—he started raising hell at age fifteen, after his mom died of cancer, and has had a reputation ever since.

Susan’s parents are on the verge of divorce. Malcolm’s dad is a known adulterer. Susan hasn’t told anyone, but she wants to be an artist. Malcolm doesn’t know what he wants—until he meets her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental infidelity mentioned
Death of a mother from cancer

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk-taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Slut shaming
Victim blaming
Rape
Sexual assault
Sexual harassment
Physical & psychological child abuse
Domestic violence
Depression
Nonconsensual drugging
Death of a parent
Graphic car accident
Death of a pet

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman and illustrated by Sarah Watts

Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles. But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold and leads to a valuable prize… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Gun violence
Stalking

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—

Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Lesbomisia mentioned
Slut shaming
Child abuse recounted
Teen pregnancy
Adoption (theme)
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse