Category Archives: Young Adult

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the chance to take the trip of a lifetime. Parting from his family and ill mother, Alexander joins his fearless grandmother, a magazine reporter for International Geographic, on an expedition to the dangerous, remote world of the Amazon. Their mission, along with the others on their team—including a celebrated anthropologist, a local guide and his young daughter Nadia, and a doctor—is to document the legendary Yeti of the Amazon known as the Beast. Under the dense canopy of the jungle, Alexander is amazed to discover much… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Drug use including the use of psychedelics in indigenous religious rites and cigar smoking
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Parent with cancer
  • Animal attack (snake)

Squire by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas

Squire by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas

Born a second-class citizen, Aiza has always dreamt of becoming a Knight. It’s the highest military honor in the once-great Bayt-Sajji Empire, and as a member of the Ornu people, her only path to full citizenship. Now, ravaged by famine, Bayt-Sajji finds itself on the brink of war once again. This means Aiza can finally enlist to the competitive Squire training program.

The camp is nothing like she imagined. Hiding her Ornu status in order to blend in, Aiza must navigate friendships, rivalries, and rigorous training under the merciless General Hende. As the pressure mounts, Aiza realizes that the “greater good” Bayt-Sajji’s military promises might not include her, and that the recruits might be in more danger than she ever imagined.”

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Amputation (arm)
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Military violence

Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth

Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth

A week can change everything. Beautiful and popular, Kez is a bully who doesn’t care who she hurts. Overweight and awkward, Jess is an easy target. But then Jess discovers someone who will stand up for her.

The problem? He’s Kez’s boyfriend.

Things are about to get nasty.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted suicide
  • Bullying

Listen, Layla by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Listen, Layla by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Layla has ended the school year on a high and can’t wait to spend the holidays hanging out with her friends and designing a prize-winning Grand Designs Tourismo invention. But Layla’s plans are interrupted when her grandmother in Sudan falls ill and the family rush to be with her.

The last time Layla went to Sudan she was only a young child. Now she feels torn between her Sudanese and Australian identities. As political tensions in Sudan erupt, so too do tensions between Layla and her family. Layla is determined not to lose her place in the invention team, but will she go against her parents’ wishes? What would a Kandaka do?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Islamomisia
  • Racism
  • Sexism discussed
  • Grandmother hospitalised due to a stroke
  • Cousin hospitalised for gunshot wounds to the shoulder & leg
  • Death of a friend mentioned
  • Bullying
  • Gun violence
  • Riots, on-page

You Must Be Layla by Randa Abdel-Fattah

You Must Be Layla by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Layla’s mind goes a million miles a minute, so does her mouth – unfortunately, her better judgement can take a while to catch up! Although she believes she was justified for doing what she did, a suspension certainly isn’t the way she would have wished to begin her time at her fancy new high school. Despite the setback, Layla’s determined to show everyone that she does deserve her scholarship and sets her sights on winning a big invention competition. But where to begin?

Looking outside and in, Layla will need to come to terms with who she is and who she wants to be if she has any chance of succeeding.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Islamophobia
  • Racism
  • Coming out themes
  • Emesis
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

This is a world divided by blood—red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince.

Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance—Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder
  • Torture
  • War themes

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the colour of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • Electrocution

Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Frostbite by Richelle Mead

It’s winter break at St. Vladimir’s, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy’s crawling with Guardians—including Rose’s hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn’t bad enough, Rose’s tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason’s got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa’s head while she’s making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy’s not taking any risks… This year, St. Vlad’s annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price..

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Child abandonment
  • Self harm mentioned
  • Blood depiction & blood-drinking

You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend, Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cell phone to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a boyfriend
  • Car accident
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Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Before the days of going toe-to-toe with the Avengers, a younger Loki is desperate to prove himself heroic and capable, while it seems everyone around him suspects him of inevitable villainy and depravity . . . except for Amora. Asgard’s resident sorceress-in-training feels like a kindred spirit-someone who values magic and knowledge, who might even see the best in him.

But when Loki and Amora cause the destruction of one of Asgard’s most prized possessions, Amora is banished to Earth, where her powers will slowly and excruciatingly fade to nothing. Without the only person who ever looked at his magic as a gift instead of a threat, Loki slips further into anguish and the shadow of his universally adored brother, Thor… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Outing
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
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