Category Archives: Kidlit

The Gay Best Friend by Nicolas DiDomizio

He’s always been the token gay best friend. Now, stuck between a warring bride and groom hurtling toward their one perfect day, he’s finally ready to focus on something new: himself. Domenic Marino has become an expert at code-switching between the hypermasculine and ultrafeminine worlds of his two soon-to-be-wed best friends. But this summer—reeling from his own failed engagement and tasked with attending their bachelor and bachelorette parties—he’s anxious over having to play both sides. The pressure is on. The bride wants Dom to keep things… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Coming out & outing
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Gun violence

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

Hallie Piper is turning over a new leaf. After belly-crawling out of a hotel room (hello, rock bottom), she decides it’s time to become a full-on adult. She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe, but when she logs into the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she’d snuck out of. Through the app, and after the joint agreement that they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie become partners in their respective searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anaphylaxis recounted
  • Death of a uncle recounted, off-page

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter

After living through a dumpster fire of a Valentine’s Day, Emilie Hornby escapes to her grandmother’s house for some comfort and a consolation pint of Ben & Jerry’s. She passes out on the couch, but when she wakes up, she’s back home in her own bed—and it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. And the next day? Another nightmare V-Day. Emilie is stuck in some sort of time loop nightmare that she can’t wake up from as she re-watches her boyfriend, Josh, cheat on her day after day. In addition to Josh’s recurring infidelity, Emilie can’t get away from the enigmatic Nick, who she keeps running into—sometimes literally—in unfortunate ways… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental divorce
  • Death of a sibling recounted, off-page
  • Car accident

The Chaos Curse by Sayantani DasGupta

Kiranmala must leave the Kingdom Beyond and travel to her hometown of Parsippany to save Prince Lal, who has been spirited to the unlikeliest of places — a tree in the yard of her best-enemy-for-life. She also faces evil serpents (of course!), plus a frightening prophecy about her role in the coming conflict between good and evil. Most troubling of all, though, is the way reality all around her seems to waver and flicker at odd moments. Could it be that the Anti-Chaos Committee’s efforts are causing a dangerous disruption in the multiverse? Kiran must grapple with the increasingly tangled threads that threaten to ensnare her…and everyone in the world and the Kingdom Beyond.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Internalised racism & colourism
  • Arrow violence

The Poison Waves by Sayantani DasGupta

Kiya and Kinjal have succeeded in their first quest in the magical world of the Kingdom Beyond, but it quickly becomes obvious that whatever good they achieved might not be enough. Their faithful flying horses Snowy and Raat reappear and whisk them back to the Kingdom at the behest of the magical Princess Pakkhiraj. There, she tells them the water pari–winged merpeople–are slowly being poisoned and it is up to the twins to figure it out and put a stop to it. Fortunately Kiya has the know how to solve this mystery…if only she can put the pieces together before the evil serpent king Sesha knows they’ve reentered the Kingdom!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Arrow violence
  • Fire
  • Earthquakes & mud slides
  • Animal illness & death (horse, fish)

Between Love and Loathing by Shain Rose

Dominic Hardy might be an award-winning architectural engineer with fancy degrees and considerable accolades, but he doesn’t know a thing about baking. He doesn’t even like sugar. So when my late stepfather’s will states that Dominic Hardy is set to inherit the Pacific Coast Resort he’d painstakingly designed, as long as my bakery can be plopped in the middle of it, it’s no surprise he balks. Yet, my jaw drops when the will further requires us to mutually approve plans for my bakery’s design. His stuffy taste will never mix with my whimsical vibe. But then Dominic comes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Chronic illness

Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis

Fritzi is a witch. A survivor of a brutal attack on her coven, she’s determined to find her only surviving family member and bring the hexenjägers—zealot witch hunters—to justice for the lives they ended. To do this, she will need to take down their leader—Kommandant Dieter Kirch. Otto is a hexenjäger and a captain, the second in command to Dieter Kirch—but that’s just his cover. Years ago, the hexenjagers burned his innocent mother alive and since then, he has been planning a move against the witch hunters that tore his family apart. And now the time has come for… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic & child abuse recounted
  • Murder
  • Physical & psychological torture
  • Imprisonment
  • Loss of autonomy (magical coercion)
  • Animal abuse recounted

A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber

Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-injury for magic
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging (protagonist)
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder by stabbing & knife violence
  • Torture mentioned
  • Protagonist is kidnapped, bound, pushed into a well, magically stripped of her memories, and nearly killed with a knife
  • Animal death (fox by arrow)

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here. If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood… it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back. And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it… Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds. And stepping through those doors exacts a price.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual abuse of a child & grooming
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Panic attack
  • Minor self-injury for magic
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted

Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon

I went up the hill, the hill was muddy, stomped my toe and made it bloody, should I wash it? Justin knows that something is wrong with his best friend. Zee went missing for a year. And when he came back, he was . . . different. Nobody knows what happened to him. At Zee’s welcome home party, Justin and the neighborhood crew play Hide and Seek. But it goes wrong. Very wrong. One by one, everyone who plays the game disappears, pulled into a world of nightmares come to life. Justin and his friends realize this horrible place is where Zee had been trapped. All they can do now is hide from the Seeker.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Phobias
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Disappearance of a friend
  • Animal attack
  • Poverty