Category Archives: Genres

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Death from HIV/AIDS
  • Fire & arson

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard manual labour and freezing cold – and participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature and the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Wrongful imprisonment
  • Gulag

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization. And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Self-sacrifice
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother

The End of Her by Shari Lapena

The End of Her by Shari Lapena

In upstate New York, Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin babies. The girls are a handful, but Stephanie doesn’t mind being a stay-at-home mom, taking care of them while Patrick does the nine to five to pay the bills. When a woman from Patrick’s past drops in on them unexpectedly, raising questions about his late first wife, Stephanie supports her husband wholeheartedly. She knows the car accident all those many years ago was just that–an accident. But Erica is persistent, and now she’s threatening to go to the police… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & drug abuse

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

In this family, everyone is keeping secrets–especially the dead. Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there. And they don’t come much richer than Fred and Sheila Merton. But even all their money can’t protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered the night after an Easter Dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated. Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their capricious father and neglectful mother… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Emesis
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning
  • Stalking

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses–and into the owners’ computers as well–learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too. Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they’re telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic murder
  • Home invasion

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge wood-burning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery. So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Bury Your Gays trope
  • Gang rape recounted
  • Infidelity
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Attempted suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Death of a wife, fiancée & husband
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a son
  • Murder & attempted murder by strangulation and poisoning
  • Physical assault
  • Death from a fall
  • Death from exposure to the cold
  • Drowning
  • Military service recounted

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Bury Your Gays trope
  • Gang rape recounted
  • Cheating
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Attempted suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Death of a wife & husband
  • Death of a fiance
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a son
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Physical assault
  • Death from a fall
  • Death from exposure to the cold
  • Drowning
  • Military service recounted

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind. There’s a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape by coercion*
  • Cheating recounted
  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Amnesia & memory loss (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug abuse discussed
  • Infertility
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including dead bodies and hospitalisation
  • Death of an ex-husband
  • Murder (off-page)
  • Gun violence (off-page)
  • Car accident
  • Disappearance of a spouse
  • Incarceration
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail
  • Stalking

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Graphic rape
  • Drug use
  • Graphic body horror
  • Torture
  • War theme
  • Animal death
  • Animal abuse

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen’s rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.

For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But Darujhistan… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emesis
  • Loss of autonomy
  • War themes