Contemporary – Page 99 – Trigger Warning Database

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

What if? Why not? Could it be? When a fortuneteller’s tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller’s mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Physical injury
Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
Death of a father during military service recounted
Explosion mentioned
Animal illness & injury
Animal attack

And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks

Exciting fans of such writers as Kelly Link, Karen Russell, and Carmen Maria Machado with prose that shimmers and stings, Amber Sparks holds a singular role in the canon of the weird. Now, she reaches new, uncanny heights with And I Do Not Forgive You. In “Mildly Happy, With Moments of Joy,” a friend is ghosted by a simple text message; in “Everyone’s a Winner at Meadow Park,” a teen precariously coming of age in a trailer park befriends an actual ghost. At once humorous and unapologetically fierce, these stories shine an interrogating light on the adage… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Incest
Animal death

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Zara Hossain, has been leading a fairly typical life in Corpus Christi, Texas since her family moved there for her father to work as a pediatrician. While dealing with the Islamophobia that she faces at school, Zara has to lay low, trying not to stir up any trouble and jeopardize their family’s dependent visa status while they await their green card approval, which has been in process for almost nine years… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bimisia
Homomisia
Racism & racial slurs
Islamomisia
Hospital
Gun violence
Bullying

On Deck by Kimberly Readnour

On Deck by Kimberly Readnour

There are two types of people in Bellow Bay. The rich.
And me, Dalton Boyd. But my baseball scholarship is my one-way ticket out of this town and away from judgmental eyes. Nothing stands in my way. That is, until a pretty blonde with the brightest blue eyes breezes into town and tilts my world. Cassie Green comes with one simple rule. Don’t fall in love. One summer is all we have. And trust me, a summer fling isn’t a problem. But there’s one small glitch in our plan.
I’ve never been one to follow the rules. Only this time, it may be me wishing I’d stuck to the plan.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Abandonment
Alcoholism
Drug abuse
Attempted shooting during a robbery

The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian

The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian

Beth Kramer is a “townie” who returns to her sophomore year after having endured a year of judgment from her roommate, Sarah. But Sarah Brunson knows there’s more to that story. Amanda Priya “Spence” Spencer is the privileged daughter of NYC elites, who is reeling from the realization that her family name shielded her from the same fate as Sarah. Ramin Golafshar arrives at Chandler as a transfer student to escape the dangers of being gay in Iran, only to suffer brutal hazing under the guise of tradition in the boys’ dorms. And Freddy Bello is the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Homomisia
Adult-minor relationship
Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Sexual assault
Trichotillomania
Self-harm
Bullying & hazing

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian—the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Misogyny
Child abuse, on-page
Disordered eating
Alcohol consumption
Starvation
Hospital
Bullying
Death of a parent

Together We Will Go by J Michael Straczynski

Together We Will Go by J. Michael Straczynski

Mark Antonelli, a failed young writer looking down the barrel at thirty, is planning a cross-country road trip. He buys a beat-up old tour bus. He hires a young army vet to drive it. He puts out an ad for others to join him along the way. But this will be a road trip like no other: His passengers are all fellow disheartened souls who have decided that this will be their final journey—upon arrival in San Francisco, they will find a cliff with an amazing view of the ocean at sunset, hit the gas, and drive out of this world. The unlikely companions… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Fatmisia
Rape
Suicide
Drug use

Belly Up by Eva Darrows

Belly Up by Eva Darrows

I’d planned to spend senior year with my bestie-slash-wifey, Devi Abrams, graduating at the top of my class and getting into an Ivy League college. Instead, Mom and I are moving in with my battle-ax of a grandmother and I’m about to start a new school and a whole new life. Know what’s more fun than being the new girl for your senior year? Being the pregnant new girl. It isn’t awesome. There is one upside, though—a boy named Leaf Leon. He’s cute, an amazing cook and he’s flirting me up, hard-core. Too bad I’m knocked up with a stranger’s baby.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Domestic abuse mentioned
Unplanned teen pregnancy (theme)
Childbirth

Love and Other Moods by Crystal Lee

Love and Other Moods by Crystal Z. Lee

Naomi Kita-Fan uproots her life from New York to China when her fiancé’s company transfers him to Shanghai. After a disastrous turn of events, Naomi finds herself with no job, no boyfriend, and nowhere to live in a foreign country.. Amidst the backdrop of Shanghai welcoming millions of workers and visitors to the 2010 World Expo, we meet a tapestry of characters through Naomi: Joss Kong, a Shanghai socialite who leads an enviable life but must harbour the secrets of her husband, Tay Kai Tang. Logan Hayden, a womanizing restaurateur looking for love in all the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Cheating
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Plane crash

Thirsty by Mia Hopkins

Thirsty by Mia Hopkins

My name is Salvador Rosas. Back in the barrio, my past is written on the walls: ESHB. Short for East Side Hollenbeck, my father’s gang—my gang. Hell, it’s a family tradition, one that sent both my brothers away. They used to call me “Ghost” because I haunted people’s dreams. Now I’ve got nothing going for me except a hipster gringo mentoring me in a new career. An ex-con making craft beer? No names. Still, people in this neighbourhood look out for one another. That’s how I became Vanessa Velasco’s unwelcome tenant. Chiquita pero picosa. She’s little, but with curves so sweet they’re dangerous. I remember… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Recreational drug use
Blood & injury depiction
Hospital
Death of a mother in a car accident recounted
Death of a sister
Gang violence
Bombing