Contemporary – Page 82 – Trigger Warning Database

Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She’s never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love–even with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Paedophilia & child sexual assault recounted
Statutory rape
Adult-minor relationship*
Kidnapping of a child
Incarceration of a parent

* Context : The seventeen-year-old female protagonist is in a relationship with her twenty-one-year-old step-uncle.

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

10 00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she’s just performed her hit song “Heartbeat” in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She’s about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She’s in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger. 11 00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She’s very cute… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Disordered eating mentioned
Anxiety

Icebreaker by AL Graziadei

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei

Seventeen-year-old Mickey James III is a college freshman, a brother to five sisters, and a hockey legacy. With a father and a grandfather who have gone down in NHL history, Mickey is almost guaranteed the league’s top draft spot. Seventeen-year-old Mickey James III is a college freshman, a brother to five sisters, and a hockey legacy. With a father and a grandfather who have gone down in NHL history, Mickey is almost guaranteed the league’s top draft spot. This is a story about falling in love, finding your team (on and off the ice), and choosing your own path.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Abandonment
Anxiety
Depression
Tricholillomania
Alcohol consumption
Drug use mentioned

Broderick by Katee Robert

Broderick by Katee Robert

I never wanted any part of my family’s revenge, but no one asked my opinion when my oldest brother handed out the Brides during Lammas. Now I’m saddled with Monroe, heir to the Amazon clan. She’s as deadly as she is sarcastic, and nothing like the woman I really want. Shiloh. My best friend. The night Monroe and I consummate our handfasting is like nothing I’ve experienced before. It’s dark and brutal and intoxicating in a way I’m not prepared for. Which means it can never happen again… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Victim blaming
Emotional & physical child abuse recounted
Workplace sexual harassment recounted
Alcohol consumption
Burn scars
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning
Fire recounted

American Betiya by Anuradha Rajurkar

American Betiya by Anuradha D. Rajurkar

Rani Kelkar has never lied to her parents until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in–his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art–make him her mother’s worst nightmare. They begin dating in secret, but when Oliver’s troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give, desperately trying to fit into her world, no matter how high the cost. When a twist of fate leads Rani from Evanston, Illinois to Pune, India for a summer, she has a reckoning with herself–and what’s really brewing beneath the surface of her first love… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Child abandonment & neglect
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Unplanned pregnancy
Suicide & attempted suicide
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend
Death of a grandparent

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb

In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who seems to truly understand Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California without any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Death of a father recounted

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A Black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas. Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloguing everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisic slur
Racism
Depression & depressive episode
Attempted suicide recounted
Alcohol consumption
Emesis
Police brutality discussed
Bullying

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

For sixteen-year-old Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to keep everyone at arm’s length. And when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to come out and upend her shaky equilibrium. As the walls of Mel’s compartmentalized world crumble, she fears the worst–that her friends will abandon her if they learn the truth about what she’s been hiding. Can Mel bring herself to risk everything to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bipolar Disorder

Anyone But Her by Erica Lee

Anyone But Her by Erica Lee

Reagan Cooper has been an out and proud lesbian since high school, but can’t say no when her gay best friend, Jamie Miller, asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for his family reunion. Jamie has been there for her through everything. Plus, she’s interested in learning more about the family he never speaks of.
Living in California for eight years, Charlie Miller has been able to live authentically, but being back in her small Maryland hometown with her conservative family means going back into the closet. What she didn’t expect was to be so attracted to her brother’s girlfriend.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Queermisia
Outing

American as Paneer Pie by Supriya Kelkar

American as Paneer Pie by Supriya Kelkar

As the only Indian American kid in her small town, Lekha Divekar feels like she has two versions of herself: Home Lekha, who loves watching Bollywood movies and eating Indian food, and School Lekha, who pins her hair over her bindi birthmark and avoids confrontation at all costs, especially when someone teases her for being Indian. When a girl Lekha’s age moves in across the street, Lekha is excited to hear that her name is Avantika .nd she’s Desi, too! .. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Colourism
Hate crimes
Bullying