Arab, Australian, Other edited by Randa Abdel-Fattah and Sara Saleh

Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity edited by Randa Abdel-Fattah & Sara M. Saleh

Although there are 22 separate Arab nationalities representing an enormous variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences, the portrayal of Arabs in Australia tends to range from homogenising (at best) to racist pop-culture caricatures.

This collection explores the experience of living as a member of the Arab diaspora in Australia with contributions from Paula Abood, Nokomi Achkar, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Rooan Al Kalmashi, Ryan Al-Natour, Rawah Arja, Hana Assafiri, Sarah Ayoub, Omar Bensaidi, Sara El Sayed, Asma Fahmi, Farid Farid, Ruby Hamad, Abdulrahaman Hammoud, Lamisse Hamouda, Amani Haydar, Miran Hosny, Lora Inak, Elias Jahshan, Nicola Joseph, Huna Amweero, Zainab Kadhim, Mohammad Awad, Wafa Kazal and Yassir Morsi

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Islamophobia
  • Gang rape discussed
  • Child abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & mother
  • Murder
  • Gang violence
  • War themes
  • Deportation & displacement
  • Bullying

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.

Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racist language
  • Sexism
  • Ableism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Body horror
  • Hospitalisation
  • Decapitation, on-page
  • Murder (theme)
  • Gun violence
  • Infanticide by defenestration, on-page
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Riots
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape, paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Infidelity
  • Death of a parent

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed? … Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Student-teacher relationship
  • Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse
  • Rape, including statutory rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Child pornography
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Dissociation
  • Suicide
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Recreational drug use
  • Disordered eating
  • Death of a dog
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Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister, Scarlett, from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name. The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister’s. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape mentioned
  • Parental abandonment & child abuse discussed
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page, protagonist) & mentions of smoking
  • Blood & injury depiction, including magical healing by drinking blood after a near-fatal fall into freezing water
  • Death of a fiancé mentioned
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Murder
  • Physical assault & assault with a knife
  • Imprisonment

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over. But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse discussed
  • Blood-drinking
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Suicide from a fall off a balcony discussed (on-page)
  • Self-injury
  • Torture
  • Murder from stabbing
  • Kidnapping

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Dinner by Herman Koch

A summer’s evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness – the banality of work, the triviality of holidays. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. Together, the boys have committed a horrifying act, caught on camera; despite a police manhunt, the boys remain unidentified – by everyone except their parents.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Misogyny
  • Mental illness
  • Drug use
  • Miscarriage
  • Chronic illness
  • Murder
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The Golden Sheep, Vol. 1 by Kaori Ozaki

The Golden Sheep, Vol. 1 by Kaori Ozaki

The Golden Sheep Vol. 1 by Kaori Ozaki

Tsugu Miikura, a high schooler who loves to play guitar, due to family circumstances, moved away from the rural town where she had spent her childhood. After several years, she’s back in her old hometown. She reunites with her childhood friends—Sora, Yuushin, and Asari—the friends she’d buried a time capsule with back in elementary school. Tsugu is overjoyed to be with her friends once more, but the bonds that she thought would never change have in fact started to grow major cracks…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Paedophilia mentioned
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Bullying
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Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

 It is 1974 and the summer of love is finally drawing to a close. Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the secondary school social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the ‘coolest girl in the world’, Tully Hart – the girl all the boys want to know – moves in across the street and wants to be her best friend. Tully and Kate by summer’s end they made a pact to be ‘best friends forever’.

For thirty years Tully and Kate buoy each other through life. Tully will follow her ambition to find fame and success. Kate knows that all she wants is to fall in love and have a family. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and a mother will change her. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart. But when tragedy strikes, can the bonds of friendship survive?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Drug use
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer
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Too Late by Colleen Hoover

Too Late by Colleen Hoover

Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does, every single day. After finding herself stuck in a relationship with the dangerous and morally corrupt Asa Jackson, Sloan will do whatever it takes to get by until she’s able to find a way out. Nothing will get in her way. Nothing except Carter.

Sloan is the best thing to ever happen to Asa. And if you ask Asa he’d say he’s the best thing to ever… Read more

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape, on-page
  • Abusive relationship (theme)
  • Intimate partner abuse & violence
  • Substance addiction
  • Schizophrenia
  • Murder
  • Drug use & abuse
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