Category Archives: Genres

All That Impossible Space by Anna Morgan

All That Impossible Space by Anna Morgan

15-year-old Lara Laylor feels like a supporting character in her own life. She’s Ashley’s best friend, she’s Hannah’s sister she’s never just Lara. When new history teacher Mr Grant gives her an unusual assignment: investigating the mystery of the Somerton Man. Found dead in on an Adelaide beach in 1948, a half-smoked cigarette still in his mouth and the labels cut out of his clothes, the Somerton Man has intrigued people for years. Was he a spy? A criminal? Year 10 has plenty of mysteries of its own: boys, drama queen friends, and enigmatic new students… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Grooming behaviour & discussions of a teacher-student relationship
  • Toxic friendship (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Asthma attacks (on-page)
  • Murder & dead bodies discussed
  • Drowning recounted
  • Bullying (rumour spreading)

The Adventure Zone, Vol. 1: Here There Be Gerblins by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy & Carey Pietsch

EJoin Taako the elf wizard, Merle the dwarf cleric, and Magnus the human warrior for an adventure they are poorly equipped to handle AT BEST, guided (“guided”) by their snarky DM, in a graphic novel that, like the smash-hit podcast it’s based on, will tickle your funny bone, tug your heartstrings, and probably pants you if you give it half a chance.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-sacrifice & self-injury
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of a cousin & uncle
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Fire & explosion
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Graphic animal dead bodies

Abroad by Liz Jacobs

Nick Melnikov doesn’t know where he belongs. He was just a kid when his Russian-Jewish family immigrated to Michigan. Now he’s in London for university, overwhelmed by unexpected memories. Socially anxious, intensely private, and closeted, Nick doesn’t expect to fall in so quickly with a tight-knit group of students from his college, and it’s both exhilarating and scary. Hanging out with them is a roller coaster of serious awkward and incredible longing, especially when the most intimidating of the group, Dex, looks his way. Dex Cartwell knows exactly who he… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Coming out themes
  • Transphobia & internalised homophobia
  • Anxiety & agoraphobia
  • Alcohol consumption

All of Us With Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil

Seventeen-year-old Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past: the mother who abandoned her, the man who betrayed her. Then one day, she meets Pallas, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives with her rock-star family in one of the city’s storybook Victorians. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas’s live-in governess and quickly finds her place in their household, which is relaxed and happy despite the band’s larger-than-life fame. But on the night of the Vernal Equinox, as a concert afterparty rages in the house below, Xochi and Pallas accidentally… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Rape recounted & sexual assault
  • Child sex trafficking, implied
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use

*Context: The main characters is a seventeen-year-old girl whose love interest is her twenty-eight-year-old male employer.

Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz

As battle cries of the American Revolution echo in the distance, servants flutter about preparing for one of New York society’s biggest events: the Schuylers’ grand ball. Descended from two of the oldest and most distinguished bloodlines in New York, the Schuylers are proud to be one of their fledgling country’s founding families, and even prouder still of their three daughters—Angelica, with her razor-sharp wit; Peggy, with her dazzling looks; and Eliza, whose beauty and charm rival that of both her sisters, though she’d rather be aiding the colonists’ cause than dressing up for some silly ball. Still, she can barely contain her excite… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Victim-blaming
  • Attempted rape
  • Forced marriage
  • Medical procedures
  • War themes

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne

Darcy Barrett has undertaken a global survey of men. She’s travelled the world, and can categorically say that no one measures up to Tom Valeska, whose only flaw is that Darcy’s twin brother Jamie saw him first and claimed him forever as his best friend. Despite Darcy’s best efforts, Tom’s off limits and loyal to her brother, 99%. That’s the problem with finding her dream man at age eight and peaking in her photography career at age twenty—ever since, she’s had to learn to settle for good enough. When Darcy and Jamie inherit a tumble-down cottage from their grandmother, they’re left with strict instructions to bring it back to its former… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Alcohol abuse & alcoholism
  • Serious chronic heart condition (protagonist)
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a grandparent recounted

Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe (just maybe) pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school, a boy who’s finally falling into her orbit at school. There’s also the real world, beyond Maya’s control. In the aftermath of a horrific crime perpetrated hundreds of miles… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & Islamophobia
  • Hate crime (physical assault)
  • Disownment
  • Suicide bombing mentioned
  • Hospitalisation for physical injuries due to physical assault
  • Bullying

A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa

A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa

On the eve of Angolan independence an agoraphobic woman named Ludo bricks herself into her apartment for 30 years, living off vegetables and the pigeons she lures in with diamonds, burning her furniture and books to stay alive and writing her story on the apartment’s walls. Almost as if we’re eavesdropping, the history of Angola unfolds through the stories of those she sees from her window. As the country goes through various political upheavals from colony to socialist republic to civil war to peace and capitalism, the world outside seeps into Ludo’s life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of someone on a balcony, or a man fleeing his pursuers.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Agoraphobia
  • Burns
  • Rape & pregnancy from rape
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture mentioned
  • War themes

Out on Good Behaviour

Out on Good Behaviour by Dahlia Adler

Frankie Bellisario knows she can get anyone she sets her sights on, but just because she can doesn’t mean she should—not when the person she’s eyeing is Samara Kazarian, the daughter of a southern Republican mayor. No matter how badly Frankie wants to test her powers of persuasion, even she recognizes some lines aren’t meant to be crossed. But when Frankie learns she’s been on Samara’s mind too, the idea of hooking up with her grows too strong to resist. Only Sam’s not looking for a hookup; she wants—needs—the real thing, and she’s afraid she’ll never find it as long… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Coming out themes
  • Slut-shaming

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she’ll need assistance to take on the powerful chef. Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv’s blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He’ll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Victim-blaming
  • Sexual & workplace harassment
  • Domestic abuse & gaslighting recounted
  • Murder mentioned
  • Stalking