Mattimeo by Brian Jacques

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques

Slagar the Fox is determined to vanquish peaceable Redwall. Gathering his mercenary band of rats, stoats, and weasels, he advances upon the abbey with a cunning scheme-rather than making courageous battle plans, he will steal the children of Redwall from under their parents’ very noses. And his prize captive will be Mattimeo, the headstrong young son of Matthias, the fearless mouse warrior!

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Child abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

The clever and greedy wildcat Tsarmina becomes ruler of all Mossflower Woods and is determined to govern the peaceful woodlanders with an iron paw. The brave mouse Martin and quick-talking mouse thief Gonff meet in the depths of Kotir Castle’s dungeon. The two escape and resolve to end Tsarmina’s tyrannical rule. Joined by Kinny the mole, Martin and Gonff set off on a dangerous quest for Salamandastron, where they are convinced that their only hope, Boar the Fighter, still lives

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Animal death

Redwall by Brian Jacques

Redwall by Brian Jacques

A quest to recover a legendary lost weapon by bumbling young apprentice monk, mouse Matthias.

Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice, is threatened by Cluny the Scourge savage bilge rat warlord and his battle-hardened horde. But the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends combine their courage and strength.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antiziganism
  • Animal death
  • Blood depiction

Caliban’s War by James Corey

Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape of children mentioned
  • Kidnapping

The City We Became by NK Jemisin

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Antisemitism
  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence discussed
  • Drug use mentioned
  • Alcoholism mentioned

Wool by Hugh Howey

Wool by Hugh Howey

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide
  • Miscarriage

The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

When sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum accidentally time-travels via red balloon to 1988 East Berlin, she’s caught up in a conspiracy of history and magic. She meets members of an underground guild in East Berlin who use balloons and magic to help people escape over the Wall—but even to the balloon makers, Ellie’s time travel is a mystery. When it becomes clear that someone is using dark magic to change history, Ellie must risk everything—including her only way home—to stop the process.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antiziganism
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • The Holocaust & war themes
  • Interment & concentration camps

Cape by Kate Hannigan 

Cape by Kate Hannigan and illustrated by Patrick Spaziante

Josie O’Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more—like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can’t fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government.

After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she’s a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Fantomah to Zenobia to the Black Cat. But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Death of father mentioned
  • Fire
  • Bullying
  • Japanese internment camps
  • World War Two

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