Category Archives: Historical Fiction

Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed. Without an Ang male to punish, the…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic misogyny (theme)
  • Spousal & parental abandonment
  • Physical & verbal domestic by parent-in-law
  • Torture

The Women by Kristin Hannah

The missing. The forgotten. The brave… The women. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Infidelity
  • Attempted suicide
  • Miscarriage
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation
  • Graphic blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Medical procedures
  • Death of a brother
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions & bombings
  • Military violence & Vietnam War (theme) including mentions of chemical gassing

The Diamond Keeper by Jeannie Mobley

Eighteen-year-old Claudie Durand’s future is planned. She’ll take over the family inn, watch her much prettier younger sister, Mathilde, married off to the butcher’s son, and live out her days alone, without the hope of finding a love of her own. Her mother ran off to the cloister when she was young, and her gruff, abusive father has deemed her unmarriageable, a nuisance, and only good for hard labour. But outside their small village in Brittany, a revolution is brewing. When the Army of the Republic seizes their town, and Claudie finds herself at the center of the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Depiction of dead bodies
  • Gun violence
  • Murder by stabbing & bayonet
  • Physical assault
  • Riots

My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid

Miss Katherine Danvers is a desperate wallflower. Her family is on the brink of financial ruin, and it is up her to save her mother and sisters from a life of indignities. So she transforms herself into the incomparable Kitty Danvers, the fiancée of the enigmatic and reclusive Alexander Masters, Duke of Thornton—once dubbed the mad, bad, and dangerous catch of the Season. Ten years ago, society and the woman Alexander Masters loved called him a monster, after a traffic accident left him scarred and confined to a wheelchair. His… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault mentioned
  • Death of parents in a house fire recounted, which also left the love interest with burn scars, mobility issues & chronic pain

9/11 by Alan Gratz

9/11 by Alan Gratz

September 11, 2001. New York City. Nine-year-old Brandon goes to work with his dad on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere, an aeroplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion that threatens everyone in the building. Can Brandon survive–and escape? September 11, 2019. Afghanistan. Eleven-year-old Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help him–and put herself and her family in mortal danger?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • War themes
  • The events of 9/11 (theme) including building collapse and plane crash

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz and illustrated by Brent Schoonover

In this thrilling historical adventure, 18-year-old Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) and his young sidekick, Bucky Barnes are fighting in WWII when they encounter a threat like none they’ve ever seen — a Ghost Army. The dead of this war and wars past are coming back to life, impervious to bullets, flames, or anything else the Allies can throw at them. The armies rise from the ground in the night and seem to disappear without a trace. How can Cap and Buck fight something that’s already dead? And just what does the mysterious Baron Mordo, sitting in his castle atop nearby Wundagore Mountain have to do with this?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nazism
  • Death from a head injury (sc)
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)

Allies by Alan Gratz

Allies by Alan Gratz

Welcome to D-Day. Dee, a young U.S. soldier, is on a boat racing toward the French coast. And Dee — along with his brothers-in-arms — is terrified. He feels the weight of World War II on his shoulders. But Dee is not alone. Behind enemy lines in France, a girl named Samira works as a spy, trying to sabotage the German army. Meanwhile, paratrooper James leaps from his plane to join a daring midnight raid. And in the thick of battle, Henry, a medic, searches for lives to save.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antisemitism
  • Medical procedures
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)
  • Train accident
  • Bullying

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Infiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage. World War II is raging. Michael O’Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth. But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies. Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for. But he joins in the Hitler Youth’s horrific games and book burnings, playing the part so he can gain insider knowledge. When Michael learns about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission, things get even more complicated. He must prove his loyalty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • War World Two (theme)

Prisoner B3087 by Alan Gratz

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

Survive. At any cost. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It’s something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prison, his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend
  • Imprisonment in concentration camps (theme)
  • War World Two & the Holocaust

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe. All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & Nazism
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation of a grandparent due to trauma sustained in a concentration camp
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Blood & injury depiction, including the mention of the floating dead body with gunshot wounds
  • Physical assault (beating)
  • Police violence
  • Riots, specifically in 1994 Cuba
  • Home invasion
  • Destruction of a home & buildings from a missile strike
  • WWII themes, including detainment in concentration camps
  • Refugee experiences & displacement (theme)
  • Animal attack (secondary character dies from a shark bite)