Every Gift a Curse by Caroline O’Donoghue

Big things are happening for Maeve and her tight-knit coven in Kilbeg, Ireland. Fiona lands a role on a TV show, Roe’s band is poised to hit the big leagues, and Lily is embracing a new style and outlook. Then there’s Maeve, whose magic is growing stronger all the time. Yet she finds herself increasingly lashing out, doing and saying cruel things without knowing why. When her recurring dreams begin to involve her physically manifesting in other places, including enemy-turned-maybe-friend Aaron’s bedroom, Maeve realizes the power she wields might not be entirely under her… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misgendering & transphobia
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Kidnapping

The Gifts That Bind Us by Caroline O’Donoghue

Maeve and her friends have revealed their powers and banded together as a coven: Roe can pick locks, Lily sends sparks flying, Maeve can read minds and Fiona can heal any injury. And even better than their newfound talents? Roe and Maeve are officially an item. But with strange things happening at school, and old enemies appearing in new places, it soon becomes clear their powers are attracting all the wrong attention. It’s not long before Maeve’s gift start to wane, drained by someone – or something – that’s hiding even from her second sight…

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & transphobia
  • Racism
  • Self-harm
  • Fire

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue

After Maeve finds a pack of tarot cards while cleaning out a closet during her in-school suspension, she quickly becomes the most sought-after diviner at St. Bernadette’s Catholic school. But when Maeve’s ex–best friend, Lily, draws an unsettling card called The Housekeeper that Maeve has never seen before, the session devolves into a heated argument that ends with Maeve wishing aloud that Lily would disappear. When Lily isn’t at school the next Monday, Maeve learns her ex-friend has vanished without a trace… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & religious bigotry including mention of a homophobic hate crime (physical assault)
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation (on-page)
  • Suicide & attempted suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including self-harm for magic & emesis
  • Kidnapping
  • Whipping mentioned
  • Bullying

Blended by Sharon M. Draper

“You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” Eleven-year-old Isabella is used to these kinds of comments – her father is black, her mother is white – but that doesn’t mean she likes them. And now that her parents are divorced (and getting along WORSE than ever), Isabella feels more like a push-me-pull-me toy. One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighbourhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism and colourism discussed
  • Racial microaggressions (on-page)
  • Hate crime
  • Parental divorce (theme)
  • Panic attack & trauma (secondary character)
  • Lynching discussed
  • Police brutality & violence
  • Hospitalisation for a gunshot wound with minor blood & injury depiction
  • Minor bullying

Context : The protagonist’s best friend finds a noose in her school locker. It’s implied a white student put it there after their class learned about historical lynching. Later, she has a panic attack when a noose appears on the TV during a sleepover. The protagonist’s teenage step-brother is pulled over by the police and tackled to the ground by three officers. They suspect him of robbing a bank and question him. They force the protagonist, an 11-year-old Black girl, out of his car. A female officer shoots her when she reaches into her pocket to call their parents.

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Alek and Deryn are abroad the Leviathan when the ship is ordered to pick up an unusual passenger. This brilliant/maniacal inventor claims to have a weapon called Goliath that can end the war. But whose side is he really on? While on their top-secret mission, Alek finally discovers Deryn’s deeply kept secret. Two, actually. Not only is Deryn a girl disguised as a guy…she has feelings for Alek. The crown, true love with a commoner, and the destruction of a great city all hang on Alek’s next–and final–move.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Death from electrocution
  • Military violence & war themes including naval warfare, the bombing of submarines, and rocket attacks
  • Animal attack (bear)

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it’s really happening – her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she’s living in New York City, where she’s welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. That means book tours, parties with her favourite authors, and finding a place to live that won’t leave her penniless. It means sleepless nights rewriting her first draft and struggling to find the perfect ending… all while dealing with the intoxicating, terrifying experience of falling in love – with another writer.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder & mentions of the serial murder of children
  • Mass shooting (terrorist attack)

Underwater by Marisa Reichardt

Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then herself. But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school. When it seems Morgan can’t hold… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Agoraphobia & anxiety
  • Parent with Military-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • School shooting & related trauma

A Shot at Normal by Marisa Reichardt

Juniper Jade’s parents are hippies. They didn’t attend the first Woodstock, but they were there for the second one. The Jade family lives an all-organic homeschool lifestyle that means no plastics, no cell phones, and no vaccines. It isn’t exactly normal, but it’s the only thing Juniper has ever known. She doesn’t agree with her parents on everything, but she knows that to be in this family, you’ve got to stick to the rules. That is, until the unthinkable happens. Juniper contracts the measles and unknowingly passes the disease along, with tragic consequences. She is shell-shocked. June.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Discussions of antivaxxers and child neglect
  • Physical illness (measles)
  • Death of an infant

Aftershocks by Marisa Reichardt

When a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits California, Ruby is trapped in a laundromat with Charlie, a boy she had her first conversation with only moments before. She can’t see anything beyond the rubble that she’s trapped beneath, but she’s sure someone will come save them soon. As the hours and days tick by, Ruby and Charlie struggle to stay hopeful—and stay alive. Ruby has only Charlie’s voice and her memories to find the hope to keep holding on. Will the two make it out alive? And if they do, what will they have lost to the earthquake?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Earthquake (theme)
  • Death of a parent mentioned