Category Archives: Genres

The Restless Dark by Erica Waters

The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones. Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets. But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including violent intrusive thoughts
  • Abusive relationship
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood and gore depiction, emesis & body horror
  • Murder & attempted murder (theme)
  • Strangulation
  • Knife violence
  • Mugging recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted
  • Arson (off-page)

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

In the late 90s, five queer kids, whose parents want them “fixed,” find themselves thrown together at a secretive “tough love” camp deep in the scorching Utah desert. Tormented and worked to the point of collapse by hardline religious zealots intent on straightening them out, they slowly become aware that something in the mountains north of the camp is speaking to them in their dreams, and that the children who return home to their families have… changed.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism
  • Child abuse
  • Sexual assault
  • Deadnaming
  • Suicide & self-harm mentioned

Clique Bait by Ann Valett

Chloe Whittaker is out for revenge Last year her best friend Monica’s life was unceremoniously ruined by the most popular students at their high school, so this year Chloe plans to take each and every one of them down. She’s traded in her jeans and T-shirts for the latest designer clothes, erased anything on social media that would tie her to Monica (and blow her cover), and carefully figured out how she will befriend the members of the clique, find out their deepest and darkest secrets, and reveal them to the world. Chloe has the perfect plan… but there’s on thing she didn’t… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Emesis
  • Drowning
  • Blackmail
  • Bullying (theme)

The Old Place by Bobby Finger

Billington, Texas, is a place where nothing changes. Well, almost nothing. For the first time in nearly four decades, Mary Alice Roth is not getting ready for the first day of school at Billington High. A few months into her retirement—or, district mandated exile as she calls it—Mary Alice does not know how to fill her days. The annual picnic is coming up, but that isn’t nearly enough since the menu never changes and she had the roles mentally assigned weeks ago. At least there’s Ellie, who stops by each morning for coffee and whose reemergence in Mary Alice’s life is the one thing soothing the sting of retirement… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a husband from drowning recounted
  • Death of a son mentioned
  • Car accident

For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga

Three hundred and sixty-four days. Framed for a crime she didn’t commit, Dania counts down her days in prison until she can exact revenge on Mazin, the boy responsible for her downfall, the boy she once loved—and still can’t forget. When she discovers a fellow prisoner may have the key to exacting that vengeance–a stolen djinn treasure–they execute a daring escape together and search for the hidden treasure. Armed with dark magic and a new identity, Dania enacts a plan to bring down those who betrayed her and her family, even though Mazin stands in her way. But seeking revenge becomes a complicated game of.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusing and addiction to a magical substance (on-page & discussion)
  • Physical injury (protagonist)
  • Murder of a father
  • Murder by sword violence & fire
  • Torture during imprisonment by physical beating
  • Kidnapping mentioned

Stranger Skies by Pascale Lacelle

Opening locked doors has a price—even for those who hold a key. After going through the door that called to them both in dreams, Emory and Romie find themselves in the the same verdant world written of in Song of the Drowned Gods, albeit a twisted, rotting version of it. A sinister force has awoken with their arrival, intent on destruction as it spills across realms, and now Emory and Romie must stop it before it reaches their own shores. Meanwhile, Baz and Kai are desperate to follow their friends through the door to other worlds, but a mishap pulls them back in time instead—where they come face to face with Cornus Clover… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Knife, sword & weapon violence including decapitation (monsters)
  • Blood, injury and minor body horror (necromancy, a secondary character being reborn after being buried alive, etc.)
  • Mentions of death from choking, strangulation, drowning, stabbing & explosions
  • Loss of autonomy (demonic possession)
  • Physical beating of a child recounted

Two Sides to Every Murder by Danielle Valentine

Most people’s births aren’t immortalized in a police report—but Olivia was born during the infamous Camp Lost Lake murders. Seventeen years later, Olivia’s life looks pretty perfect . . . until she discovers the man she calls dad is not her biological father. Now she wants answers about her bloodline, and the only place she knows to look is Camp Lost Lake. Most people’s births aren’t immortalized in a police report—but Olivia was born during the infamous Camp Lost Lake murders. Seventeen years later, Olivia’s life looks pretty perfect . . . until she discovers the man she calls dad is not her biological father. Now she wants answers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Childbirth mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Mass murder discussed
  • Death of a friend

Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter

Hazel Davis is drifting: she’s stalled in her career, living in a city she hates, and less successful than her younger sister @evelyn, a lifestyle influencer. Evie came of age on the family YouTube channel after a viral video when she was five. Ten years older and spotlight-averse, Hazel managed to dodge the family business—so although she can barely afford her apartment, at least she made her own way. Evie is eighteen now, with a multimillion-dollar career, but Hazel is still protective of her little sister and skeptical of the way everyone seems to want a piece of her: Evie’s followers, her YouTuber boyfriend and influencer frenemies… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Eating disorder
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Cyberharassment

Through the Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe

The Finch sisters once spent long, hot summers exploring the dozens of abandoned properties littering their dying town―until they found an impossible home with an endless hall of doors…and three keys left waiting for them. Curious, fearless, they stepped inside their chosen rooms, and experienced horrors they never dared speak of again. Now, years later, youngest sister Claire has been discovered dead in that old, desiccated house. Haunted by their sister’s suicide and the memories of a past they’ve struggled to forget, Meg and Esther find themselves at bitter odds… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Depression (protagonist)
  • Suicide & self-harm
  • Kidnapping
  • Death of a child

A War of Swallowed Stars by Sangu Mandanna

A prince without his kingdom. A kingdom without its princess. The destruction of the stars themselves. War is destroying the galaxy. Esmae has vanished without a trace. A terrifying, ravenous beast is devouring the stars one by one. Titania is offered a gift that may well be a curse. Alexi, the exiled prince, is asked to pay a heavy price for his mistakes. And far, far away, on a dark, mysterious planet, a sleeping god stirs awake. War or family. Pride or peace. As the end of the world draws ever closer, Esmae and Alexi must decide how far they’ll go to win—and who they’ll sacrifice along the way.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic blood & injury depiction & needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother & son
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Attempted infanticide recounted
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Poisoning recounted
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Fire recounted
  • War & battle scenes (theme)