Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardians, the all-girl boarding school offers an array of studies and activities, from “Growing a Beautiful and Prosperous Garden” to “Art Appreciation” and “Interior Design.” The girls learn to be the best society has to offer. Absent is the difficult math coursework, or the unnecessary sciences or current events. They are obedient young ladies, free from arrogance or defiance. Until Mena starts to realize that their carefully controlled existence… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny, slut-shaming & victim blaming
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Rape culture (theme), including sexual harassment, sexual assault (on- & off-page) and rape of a minor, implied
  • PTSD, trauma, nightmares & flashbacks
  • Dieting & food-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction including body horror, dead bodies, consensual & non-consensual medical treatment, graphic use of needles, and human medical experimentation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Graphic torture
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (memory & mind manipulation)
  • Disappearance of a friend

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black book cover

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming and body-shaming
  • Slavery
  • Physical & psychological child abuse
  • Infidelity
  • Disownment
  • Nightmares mentioned
  • Coerced self-harm & suicide (on-page) and self-harm through mithridatism (the practice of building a tolerance to a poison by taking small, increasing amounts over time)
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug use & drugging
  • Death of a pregnant character mentioned*
  • Graphic blood, gore & injury depiction, including dead bodies, mentions of decapitation & dismemberment, & emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of mother & father (prologue, on-page)
  • Death of friend
  • Death of a sister & brother
  • Death by a fall mentioned
  • Drowning
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife and sword violence & stabbing
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Loss of autonomy (glamour magic)
  • War themes discussed
  • Bullying

*Context: A secondary character poisons his pregnant consort in an attempt to murder her and their unborn child.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Child abuse due to Munchausen by Proxy (theme)
  • Needles & medical procedures for chronic illness (on-page)
  • Hospitalisation

* Context : The plot revolves around the discovery that the protagonist does not have a chronic illness but is being abused by her mother who has Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (also known as Factitious Disorder).

Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu

Obsessive-compulsive teen Clarissa wants to get better, if only so her mother will stop asking her if she’s okay. Andrew wants to overcome his eating disorder so he can get back to his band and their dreams of becoming famous. Film aficionado Ben would rather live in the movies than in reality. Gorgeous and overly confident Mason thinks everyone is an idiot. And Stella just doesn’t want to be back for her second summer of wilderness therapy. As the five teens get to know one another and work to overcome the various disorders that have affected their lives… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Depersonalisation Disorder & dissociative episodes
  • Depression
  • Eating disorders
  • Narcissistic Personality Disorder
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Alcohol consumption

Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous book cover

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth — and ultimately her life.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug abuse, drugging & overdose (theme)

Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert

Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert

Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert book cover

Ex-military mountain man Griffin Barrett likes his solitude. It keeps him from falling back into old habits. Bad habits. He’s fought too hard for his sobriety to lose control now. However, his gig as a wildlife guide presents a new kind of temptation in superhot supermodel River Vale. Nothing the Alaskan wilderness has to offer has ever called to Griffin so badly. And that can only lead to trouble… River has his own methods for coping. Chasing adventure means always moving forward. Nobody’s ever made him want to stand still—until Griffin. The rugged bush pilot is the very best kind of distraction, but the emotions he stirs… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & homophobia
  • Coerced sexual assault
  • Eating disorder recovery & disordered eating
  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Alcoholism & substance addiction recovery
  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Grief depiction and death of mother (recounted)

Arctic Heat by Annabeth Albert

Arctic Heat by Annabeth Albert book cover

Owen Han has a fresh lease on life—he’s kicked cancer’s ass and is roaring through his bucket list. The former investment banker hopes to find his next challenge in Alaska, volunteering alongside park rangers and fulfilling his childhood dreams of snowy winters and rustic life. Of course, those dreams did tend to feature big strapping mountain men in vivid detail… Ranger Quilleran Ramsey would like to be anywhere other than dealing with newbie volunteers. And really, the only thing he needs less than a green volunteer “partner” is the flirty attentions of a buff city boy who doesn’t look ready to last a week, let alone an… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Homophobia & aphobia
  • Verbal, psychological & emotional child abuse
  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Cancer
  • Hospitalisation & medical procedures
  • Avalanche

The Project by Courtney Summers

The Project by Courtney Summers

The Project by Courtney Summers book cover

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it. When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Disfigurmisia
  • Child abuse & neglect recounted, including emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Infidelity
  • Trauma, panic attacks, nightmares & mentions of hallucinations
  • Suicide by train (on-page) & mentions of suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy & pregnancy complications (on-page), including traumatic premature childbirth (on-page)
  • Blood & injury depiction, including graphic burns, hospitalisation, comas, broken bones, and facial scars
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father in a car accident (off-page)
  • Death of a mother in a fire mentioned
  • Death of a guardian mentioned
  • Death of a sister by drowning (off-page)
  • Death of a son discussed
  • Murder
  • Torture (on-page)
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Car accident (on- & off-page)
  • Blackmail mentioned and mentions of stalking & harassment
  • Cults (theme)
  • Homelessness mentioned

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Biphobia & internalised biphobia
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised. With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Coming out themes & blackmailed forced outing
  • Homophobia & slurs
  • Bullying