Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen 

Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen

High school junior Gigi Wong strives to be the best: the top student, the perfect friend, and the ideal daughter. But it’s tough when there’s always someone who is just a little bit better. With college applications looming, she can’t help but worry that she won’t make the cut. Thankfully, her best friend Kyle never fails to find the right words–and the perfect bowl of ramen–to cheer her up. After her teacher, Ms. Harris, announces she’ll be nominating students for an app writing contest, Gigi is determined to be picked… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
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The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young 

The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young 

I am Comet Caldwell. And I sort of, kind of, absolutely hate my name. People expect extraordinary things from a girl named Comet. That she’ll be effortlessly cool and light up a room the way a comet blazes across the sky.
But from the shyness that makes her book-character friends more appealing than real people to the parents whose indifference hurts more than an open wound, Comet has never wanted to be the centre of attention. She can’t wait to graduate from her high school in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the only place… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment & threats of rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Drug use
  • Overdose
  • Parent with cancer
  • Bullying

Falling Under by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Falling Under by Danielle Younge-Ullman

After surviving a turbulent childhood, Mara Foster has finally gained independence and success as a painter. Now in her late twenties, she lives alone, still burdened by a troubled past involving a teenage affair with an older man and the tragic loss of her college boyfriend. But when Mara meets Hugo, the walls she has built around herself begin to crumble. Despite herself, she starts to fall in love and realizes she must either confront her dark secrets or be consumed by them. And either way, she risks losing Hugo and her second chance at happiness

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a boyfriend recounted

The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn

The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn

For Fin, it’s just like any other day – racing for the school bus, bluffing his way through class, and trying to remain cool in front of the most sophisticated girl in his universe, Lucy. Only it’s not like any other day because, on the other side of the world, nuclear missiles are being detonated. When Fin wakes up the next morning, it’s dark, bitterly cold, and snow is falling. There’s no internet, no phone, no TV, no power, and no parents. Nothing Fin’s learned in school could have prepared him for this. With his parents missing and dwindling food and water supplies, Fin and his younger brother Max must find a way to survive all on their own.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nuclear disaster

When We Are Invisible by Claire Zorn

When We Are Invisible by Claire Zorn

In the midst of a nuclear winter, Lucy, Fin and Max flee the chaos of Sydney with blood on their clothes, a gun and handwritten directions to safety. When they reach Wattlewood, it seems like their struggle to survive might be over. There is food, warmth and adults in charge. So why can’t Lucy shake the feeling they’re still in danger? Lucy’s survived the apocalypse, but can she escape a more insidious threat?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape, off-page
  • Eating disorders
  • Nuclear disaster

Darling by K Ancrum

Darling by K. Ancrum

On Wendy Darling’s first night in Chicago, a boy called Peter appears at her window. He’s dizzying, captivating, beautiful—so she agrees to join him for a night on the town.

Wendy thinks they’re heading to a party, but instead they’re soon running in the city’s underground. She makes friends—a punk girl named Tinkerbelle and the lost boys Peter watches over. And she makes enemies—the terrifying Detective Hook, and maybe Peter himself, as his sinister secrets start coming to light. Can Wendy find the courage to survive this night—and make sure everyone else does, too?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationships
  • Grooming
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • PTSD & trauma
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a child
  • Murder, off-page
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality
  • Stalking
  • Kidnapping
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One Carefree Day by Whitney Amazeen

One Carefree Day by Whitney Amazeen

For eighteen-year-old Willow Bates, anxiety is just a part of life. With her every decision ruled by intrusive thoughts, she’s worried she sometimes seems a little odd. Despite Willow’s efforts to hide her OCD from those around her, it isn’t always possible. Her rituals are her coping mechanism, and Willow’s past has left her with a lot to cope with.

But when Willow takes things too far, her mother breaks and gives her an ultimatum: Willow must finally start taking meds to treat her obsessive-compulsive disorder, or she’ll have to move out within three months… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Pregnancy loss mentioned
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Lies Like Wildfire by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Lies Like Wildfire by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

In Gap Mountain, California, everyone knows about fire season. And no one is more vigilant than 18-year-old Hannah Warner, the sheriff’s daughter and aspiring FBI agent. That is until this summer. When Hannah and her best friends accidentally spark an enormous and deadly wildfire, their instinct is to lie to the police and the fire investigators.

But as the blaze roars through their rural town and towards Yosemite National Park, Hannah’s friends begin to crack and she finds herself going to extreme lengths to protect their secret. Because sometimes good people do bad things. And if there’s one thing people hate, it’s liars.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Stalking
  • Wildfires
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Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert

Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert

In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District—a thriving, affluent neighbourhood known as America’s Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives.

In a few short hours, they’d razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass? What exactly happened? And why are the events unknown to so many of us today?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother in a gang shooting recounted
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The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert 

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert

Dove “Birdie” Randolph works hard to be the perfect daughter and follow the path her parents have laid out for her: She quit playing her beloved soccer, she keeps her nose buried in textbooks, and she’s on track to finish high school at the top of her class. But then Birdie falls hard for Booker, a sweet boy with a troubled past…whom she knows her parents will never approve of.

When her estranged aunt Carlene returns to Chicago and moves into the family’s apartment above their hair salon, Birdie notices the tension building at home. Carlene is sweet, friendly, and open-minded–she’s also spent decades in and out of treatment facilities for addiction. As Birdie becomes closer to both Booker and Carlene, she yearns to spread her wings. But when long-buried secrets rise to the surface, everything she’s known to be true is turned upside down.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Familial estrangement
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Death of a parent from cancer mentioned
  • Physical assault recounted
  • Bullying mentioned
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