Category Archives: Genres

Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before. While going through their parent’s belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction & drug abuse mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Death of mother & child
  • Murder
  • Fire

You Shouldn’t Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives, she’s pleasantly surprised to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the town. Despite her uneasiness and misgivings from Calvin’s friends and family, the two grow close and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things between them start to change for… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Acrophobia & hallucinations mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Death of parents & a partner recounted
  • Murder
  • Car accident recounted

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned. The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working. Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobic slur
  • Infidelity
  • Substance addiction mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder of a pregnant woman by stabbing

Context : The protagonist is a lawyer defending her husband from the murder of his mistress.

Blended by Sharon M. Draper

“You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” Eleven-year-old Isabella is used to these kinds of comments – her father is black, her mother is white – but that doesn’t mean she likes them. And now that her parents are divorced (and getting along WORSE than ever), Isabella feels more like a push-me-pull-me toy. One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighbourhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism and colourism discussed
  • Racial microaggressions (on-page)
  • Hate crime
  • Parental divorce (theme)
  • Panic attack & trauma (secondary character)
  • Lynching discussed
  • Police brutality & violence
  • Hospitalisation for a gunshot wound with minor blood & injury depiction
  • Minor bullying

Context : The protagonist’s best friend finds a noose in her school locker. It’s implied a white student put it there after their class learned about historical lynching. Later, she has a panic attack when a noose appears on the TV during a sleepover. The protagonist’s teenage step-brother is pulled over by the police and tackled to the ground by three officers. They suspect him of robbing a bank and question him. They force the protagonist, an 11-year-old Black girl, out of his car. A female officer shoots her when she reaches into her pocket to call their parents.

One’s Company by Ashley Hutson

Bonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the ghosts of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, Three’s Company . When Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision―to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity―takes shape. She plans a drastic move to an isolated mountain retreat where she can re-create the iconic apartment set of Three’s Company and slip into the lives of its main characters: no-nonsense Janet Wood, pleasantly airheaded Chrissy Snow… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Victim-blaming
  • Rape recounted
  • Agoraphobia
  • Hospitalisation
  • Suicide, suicidal ideation & attempted suicide including mentions of the death of a parent from suicide
  • Murder

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Alek and Deryn are abroad the Leviathan when the ship is ordered to pick up an unusual passenger. This brilliant/maniacal inventor claims to have a weapon called Goliath that can end the war. But whose side is he really on? While on their top-secret mission, Alek finally discovers Deryn’s deeply kept secret. Two, actually. Not only is Deryn a girl disguised as a guy…she has feelings for Alek. The crown, true love with a commoner, and the destruction of a great city all hang on Alek’s next–and final–move.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Death from electrocution
  • Military violence & war themes including naval warfare, the bombing of submarines, and rocket attacks
  • Animal attack (bear)

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it’s really happening – her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she’s living in New York City, where she’s welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. That means book tours, parties with her favourite authors, and finding a place to live that won’t leave her penniless. It means sleepless nights rewriting her first draft and struggling to find the perfect ending… all while dealing with the intoxicating, terrifying experience of falling in love – with another writer.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder & mentions of the serial murder of children
  • Mass shooting (terrorist attack)

Underwater by Marisa Reichardt

Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then herself. But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school. When it seems Morgan can’t hold… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Agoraphobia & anxiety
  • Parent with Military-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • School shooting & related trauma

A Shot at Normal by Marisa Reichardt

Juniper Jade’s parents are hippies. They didn’t attend the first Woodstock, but they were there for the second one. The Jade family lives an all-organic homeschool lifestyle that means no plastics, no cell phones, and no vaccines. It isn’t exactly normal, but it’s the only thing Juniper has ever known. She doesn’t agree with her parents on everything, but she knows that to be in this family, you’ve got to stick to the rules. That is, until the unthinkable happens. Juniper contracts the measles and unknowingly passes the disease along, with tragic consequences. She is shell-shocked. June.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Discussions of antivaxxers and child neglect
  • Physical illness (measles)
  • Death of an infant

Aftershocks by Marisa Reichardt

When a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits California, Ruby is trapped in a laundromat with Charlie, a boy she had her first conversation with only moments before. She can’t see anything beyond the rubble that she’s trapped beneath, but she’s sure someone will come save them soon. As the hours and days tick by, Ruby and Charlie struggle to stay hopeful—and stay alive. Ruby has only Charlie’s voice and her memories to find the hope to keep holding on. Will the two make it out alive? And if they do, what will they have lost to the earthquake?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Earthquake (theme)
  • Death of a parent mentioned