Category Archives: Fantasy & Paranormal

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Mutism (protagonist)
  • Nightmares
  • Alcoholism, implied
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a brother by knife violence recounted
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Death of a cousin (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Strangulation
  • Bullying
  • Graphic animal death (crow, cat)

The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab

Shades of Magic Vol. 3: The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab and illustrated by Andrea Olimpieri

Once just a single ship, now the pirate fleet of the Rebel Army numbers in its thousands. Made up of traitors from each of the three empires, the fleet, who once made the open waters of the Blood Coast their home, have set their sights on establishing their own land based empire with London as their capital.

The Rebel Army is a battalion made up of traitors to each of the three empires, who’ve claimed the open waters of the Blood Coast as their territory. Led by a Faroan, a Veskan, and an Arnesian (Rowan, the Antari from the Night of Knives), the RA started as a rag-tag gang, a single ship, but in the last few months, they’ve gained momentum… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide
  • Torture

The Steel Prince by V.E. Schwab

Shades of Magic, Vol. 1: The Steel Prince by V.E. Schwab and illustrated by Andrea Olimpieri

Delve into the thrilling, epic tale of the young and arrogant prince Maxim Maresh, long before he became the king of Red London and adoptive father to Kell, the lead of A Darker Shade of Magic!

The youthful Maresh is sent to a violent and unmanageable port city on the Blood Coast of Verose, on strict orders from his father, King Nokil Maresh, to cut his military teeth in this lawless landscape.

There, he encounters an unruly band of soldiers, a lawless landscape, and the intoxicatingly deadly presence of the newly returned pirate queen, Arisa…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Torture

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine. But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her newfound power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other. With Marcella’s rise, new enmities create opportunity–and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Alcoholism, alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Vivisection
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Graphic torture
  • Fire
  • Drowning

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Prince Rhy was wounded, and since the nefarious Dane twins of White London fell, and four months since the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift–back into Black London.

Now, restless after having given up his smuggling habit, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks as she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games–an extravagant international competition of magic meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighbouring countries–a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Self-harm
  • Torture

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, travelling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Attempted rape
  • Attempted prostitution of a child, recounted
  • Parental abuse discussed
  • Self mutilation for use in magic
  • Torture

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise.

Kell – once assumed to be the last surviving Antari – begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive?

Lila Bard, once a commonplace – but never common – thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible. And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity

A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan

A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan

The war for humanity’s survival has begun. Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, has escaped the snares of the White Tower and the first of the rebel Aes Sedai have sworn to follow him. Attacked by the servants of the Dark, threatened by the invading Seanchan, Rand rallies his forces and brings battle to bear upon Illian, stronghold of Sammael the Forsaken . . .

In the city of Ebou Dar, Elayne, Aviendha and Mat struggle to secure the ter’angreal that can break the Dark One’s hold on the world’s weather – and an ancient bane moves to oppose them. In the town of Salidar, Egwene al’Vere gathers an army to reclaim Tar Valon and reunite the Aes Sedai . . . And in Shadar Logoth, city of darkness, a terrible power awakens. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Angrboda’s story begins where most witches’ tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Family separation
  • Toxic relationship
  • Child birth
  • Near-pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Medical procedure, specifically sutures
  • Death of a child
  • Burning alive
  • Torture
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Fire
  • Animal death

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller

Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power. Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims’ secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault (unwanted kiss)
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks (on-page)
  • Agoraphobia & claustrophobia
  • Self-harm for magic
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction & emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder (on-page)