Category Archives: Genres

Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Attempted suicide & self-harm
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of an infant

Missing Molly by Natalie Barelli

Everyone has secrets, and Rachel Holloway is no exception. She’s worked hard to keep the past where it belongs: dead and buried. And so far, she’s been very successful. But now the small newspaper where she works wants to produce a podcast on a cold case: the disappearance twelve years ago of little Molly Forster. Some secrets should never see the light of day, and as far as Rachel is concerned, whatever happened to little Molly is one of them. Rachel has a life now, a boyfriend she loves and a three-year-old daughter she adores, and she will do anything to protect them. But to do that, no one can ever know that she is Molly Forster.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Murder
  • Disappearance of a loved one

Queen of Ruin by Tracy Banghart

Nomi and Malachi find themselves powerless and headed towards their all-but-certain deaths. Now that Asa sits on the throne, he will stop at nothing to make sure Malachi never sets foot in the palace again. Nomi’s sister, Serina, is far away on the prison island of Mount Ruin – but it is in the grip of revolution and Serina leads. The women there have their sights set on revenge beyond the confines of their island prison. They will stop at nothing to gain freedom for the entire kingdom. But first they’ll have to get rid of Asa, and only Nomi knows how. Separated once again, this time by… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & sexual assault

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

In a world where women have no rights, sisters Serina and Nomi face two very different fates: one in the palace, the other on an island prison where women must fight to survive. Serina has spent her whole life preparing to become a Grace – selected to stand by the heir to the throne as a shining example of the perfect woman. But her headstrong and rebellious younger sister has a dangerous secret, and one wrong move could cost both sisters everything. Can Serina fight? And will Nomi win? 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Attempted rape
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Needles
  • Murder
  • Animal abuse

Detention by Tristan Bancks

Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one. When they make their escape, a guard raises the alarm. Shouting, smoke bombs, people tackled to the ground. In the chaos Sima loses her parents. Dad told her to run, so she does, hiding in a school and triggering a lockdown. A boy, Dan, finds her hiding in the toilet block. What should he do? Help her? Dob her in? She’s breaking the law, but is it right to lock kids up? And if he helps, should Sima trust him? Or run?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Refugee experiences in detention centres (theme)
  • Animal cruelty

Mammoth by Jill Baguchinsky

The summer before her junior year, paleontology geek Natalie Page lands a coveted internship at an Ice Age dig site near Austin. Natalie, who’s also a plus-size fashion blogger, depends on the retro style she developed to shield herself from her former bullies, but vintage dresses and perfect lipstick aren’t compatible with prospecting for fossils in the Texas heat. But nothing is going to dampen Natalie’s spirit — she’s exactly where she wants to be, and she gets to work with her hero, a rock-star paleontologist who hosts the most popular paleo podcast in the world. And then there’s Chase the intern, who’s serious… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body shaming
  • Self-harm
  • Bullying

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R Austin

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Homophobia & slurs
  • Anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares & intrusive thoughts
  • Depression & dissociation (protagonist)
  • Disordered eating including binging and purging
  • Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide
  • Sibling with alcoholism
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis (multiple, on-page)
  • Death of a husband from cancer mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of an estranged uncle by overdose mentioned
  • Housefire
  • Car accident resulting in injury (broken arm)
  • Animal death (rabbit, recounted & discussed)

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favourite people are there: Susannah, her mother’s best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad’s brother, Jeremiah, Belly’s heart belongs to Conrad. Will this be the summer that changes everything?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with terminal cancer (secondary character)

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer, who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning literary author who, to everyone’s surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York’s Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can’t deny their chemistry-or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce recounted
  • Sexual harassment of a minor mentioned
  • Child neglect recounted
  • Chronic migraines (protagonist)
  • Alcoholism recovery (protagonist)
  • Self-harm recounted
  • Alcohol consumption (secondary characters)
  • Incarceration recounted (off-page)

Context : The protagonist has chronic migraines and her ex-husband divorced her because he didn’t want to be her caregiver. The protagonist was also harassed by her mother’s partner when she was a teenager.

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throw downs and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but the sixteen-year-old grows weary of the life. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city’s benevolent founder and cross the border in a search for a mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders. Led by a reluctant guide, Nalah battles other crews and her own doubts, but the closer she gets to her goal, the more she loses sight of everything—and everyone— she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm
  • Substance addiction (theme), including addiction recovery, withdrawal, recreational drug use & abuse, prescription drug abuse & overdose
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Dead bodies mentioned
  • Physical injury
  • Car accident