The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess

The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess

Victoria Parker knew her dad’s behavior toward her was a little unusual, but she convinced herself everything was fine—until she found herself locked out of the house at 3:00 a.m., surrounded by flashing police lights.

Now, dumped into a crowded, chaotic foster home, Victoria has to tiptoe around her domineering foster mother, get through senior year at a new school, and somehow salvage her college dreams . . . all while keeping her past hidden.

But some secrets won’t stay buried—especially when unwanted memories make Victoria freeze up at random moments and nightmares disrupt her sleep. Even worse, she can’t stop worrying about her stepsister Sarah, left behind with her father. All she wants is to move forward, but how do you focus on the future when the past won’t leave you alone?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Paedophilia & child sexual assault
  • Incest (father-daughter)
  • Eating disorders
  • Attempted suicide
  • Self harm
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Rebound by Kwame Alexander

Rebound by Kwame Alexander

Before Josh and Jordan Bell were streaking up and down the court, their father was learning his own moves. In this prequelChuck Bell takes center stage, as readers get a glimpse of his childhood and how he became the jazz music worshipping, basketball star his sons look up to.   

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father from a heart attack & stroke
  • Gun violence
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Nothing by Annie Barrows

Nothing by Annie Barrows

Nothing ever happens to Charlotte and Frankie. Their lives are nothing like the lives of the girls they read about in their YA novels. They don’t have flowing red hair and hot romantic encounters never happen—let alone meeting a true soul mate. They just go to high school and live at home with their parents, who are pretty normal, all things considered. But when Charlotte decides to write down everything that happens during their sophomore year to prove that nothing happens and there is no plot or character development in real life, she’s surprised to find that being… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • September 11 attacks mentioned

You Don’t Know Me but I Know You by Rebecca Barrow

You Don’t Know Me but I Know You by Rebecca Barrow

There’s a box in the back of Audrey’s closet that she rarely thinks about. Inside is a letter, seventeen years old, from a mother she’s never met, handed to her by the woman she’s called Mom her whole life. Being adopted, though, is just one piece in the puzzle of Audrey’s life—the picture painstakingly put together by Audrey herself, full of all the people and pursuits that make her who she is.

But when Audrey realizes that she’s pregnant, she feels something—a tightly sealed box in the closet corners of her heart—crack open, spilling her dormant fears and unanswered questions all over the life she loves… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abortion
  • Teen pregnancy
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This Is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow

This Is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow

It doesn’t matter what the prize for the Sun City Originals contest is this year. Who cares that’s it’s fifteen grand? Who cares about a gig opening for one of the greatest bands to ever play this town? Not Dia, that’s for sure. Because Dia knows that without a band, she hasn’t got a shot at winning Sun City. Because ever since Hanna’s drinking took over her life, Dia and Jules haven’t been in it. And ever since Hanna left — well, there hasn’t been a band.

It used to be the three of them, Dia, Jules, and Hanna, messing around and making music and planning for the future. But that was then, and this is now — and now means a baby, a failed relationship, a stint in rehab, all kinds of off beats that have interrupted the rhythm of their friendship. No contest can change that… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Car accident recounted
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Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron

Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron 

After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom in shambles, and long-buried secrets about who she is.

Desperate not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, Arrah must return to the tribal lands to search for help from the remnants of her parents’ people. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible—if it’s something she can bring herself to do at all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
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Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron 

Arrah is a young woman from a long line of the most powerful witch doctors in the land. But she fails at magic, fails to call upon the ancestors and can’t even cast the simplest curse.

Shame and disappointment dog her.

When strange premonitions befall her family and children in the kingdom begin to disappear, Arrah undergoes the dangerous and scorned process of selling years of her life for magic. This borrowed power reveals a nightmarish betrayal and a danger beyond what she could have imagined. Now Arrah must find a way to master magic, or at least buy it, in order to save herself and everything she holds dear.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abuse & neglect
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
  • Death of children
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
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The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods by Emily Barr

The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods by Emily Barr

Arty has always lived in the Clearing, a small settlement in the forests of south India. But their happy life, hidden from the rest of the world, is shattered by a terrible accident. For the first time in her sixteen years, Arty must leave the only place she’s ever known, into the outside world she’s been taught to fear.

Her only goal is to get help from a woman called Tania, who used to live in the forest, and the Uncle she knows is out there, somewhere. As she embarks on the terrifying journey, pursued by an enemy she can’t fathom, Arty soon realises that not everyone is to be trusted. She’s looking for answers, but what she’ll learn from Tania and Uncle Matthew is a shocking truth about her past.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Substance addiction
  • Plague
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Fire
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The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

I look at my hands. One of them says FLORA BE BRAVE.

Flora has anterograde amnesia. She can’t remember anything day-to-day: the joke her friend made, the instructions her parents gave her, how old she is. Then she kisses someone she shouldn’t, and the next day she remembers it. It’s the first time she’s remembered anything since she was ten.

But the boy is gone. She thinks he’s moved to the Arctic. Will following him be the key to unlocking her memory? Who can she trust?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Anterograde Amnesia
  • Nonconsensual drugging*
  • Death of a sibling

* Note: Flora’s parents are lying to her about her prescription medication, which she believes she is taking for her amnesia but is actually a form of tranquilisers designed to keep her ‘passive’. Also, Flora is involved with her best friend’s 19-year-old boyfriend, who is aware that her memory disorder makes her unable to retain memories since turning ten.

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Windfall by Shawna Barnett

Windfall by Shawna Barnett

Captain Liana Foley knows a thing or two about fights. She fights the King’s Navy. She fights to balance power in oppressive Vioria. She fights for respect as a female, bisexual, pirate captain. But she’s losing her biggest fight: to escape her secret past as a lost Princess.

With a mysterious letter and a stranger threatening to expose her, Liana is blackmailed into attending a royal ball and protecting her counterpart, sheltered Princess Rhian. The pretenses are suspicious enough, but Liana takes the risk in hopes to finally unveil the magic plot that killed her parents and forced her into hiding… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Torture
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