Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.

They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Slavery
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Self-harm
  • Suicidal ideation

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage.

Now, as new technological discoveries begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Slavery
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Self-harm
  • Suicidal ideation

Legion by Brandon Sanderson

Legion by Brandon Sanderson

“Stephen Leeds, AKA ‘Legion,’ is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills. As the story begins, Leeds and his ‘aspects’ are drawn into the search for the missing Balubal Razon, inventor of a camera whose astonishing properties could alter our understanding of human history and change the very structure of society”–From publisher’s description

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Schizophrenia mentioned
  • Torture
  • Gun violence

Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson

Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson

Stephen Leeds, AKA “Legion,” is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills. As the new story begins, Leeds and his “aspects” are hired by I3 (Innovative Information Incorporated) to recover a corpse stolen from the local morgue. But there’s a catch. The corpse is that of a pioneer in the field of experimental biotechnology, a man whose work concerned the use of the human body as a massive storage device. He may have embedded something in the cells of his now dead body. And that something might be dangerous…

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Kidnapping

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she’s a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing.

Spensa is sure there’s more to the story. And she’s sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars–and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie.

But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself–and she’ll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Genocide discussed
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • War themes

Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

When a ghost ship is discovered, its crew presumed dead after trying to reach the storm-shrouded island Akinah, Navani Kholin must send an expedition to make sure the island hasn’t fallen into enemy hands. Knights Radiant who fly too near find their Stormlight suddenly drained, so the voyage must be by sea.

Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn’s pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani’s quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive. If the crew cannot uncover the secrets of the hidden island city before the wrath of its ancient guardians falls upon them, the fate of Roshar and the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism discussed
  • Paraplegia

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

They told David it was impossible – that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet, Steelheart – invincible, immortal, unconquerable – is dead. And he died by David’s hand.

Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life more simple. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And there’s no one in Newcago who can give him the answers he needs.

He found some of those answers in FIREFIGHT. Now, he has to decide what to do with them . . . Calamity is about what you do to fill your heart once you have vengeance.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Gun violence

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older–a wish she believed was granted.

Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can’t help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers.

The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia
  • Death of a parent

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

They told David it was impossible – that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet, Steelheart – invincible, immortal, unconquerable – is dead. And he died by David’s hand.

Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life more simple. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And there’s no one in Newcago who can give him the answers he needs.

Babylon Restored, the old borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic, Regalia, David is sure Babylon Restored will lead him to what he needs to find… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Genocide discussed
  • Death of a child
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal hunting
  • Bullying