Category Archives: Young Adult

The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez

Tansy didn’t even want to go to the party. It’s hard enough living in one of your best friend’s shadows and secretly in love with your other best friend. And now she’s leaving it a vampire. Now her best friend Skyler is stuck on the road trip from hell, on tour as a groupie with a literal band of vamps. Tansy sets out with Vaughn, her other BFF turned maybe more, to save Skylar’s life and take down the band. But when they find themselves in the middle of a vampire war, will Tansy be able to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Sexual harassment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Emesis
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Animal death

Zodiac Starforce, Vol. 2: Cries of the Fire Prince by Kevin Panetta, Paulina Ganucheau and Sarah Stern

After defeating a former Zodiac Member and her mean-girl minions, the girls thought they’d catch a break! But once a mean magical girl, always a mean magical girl and Libra’s former best friend wants that power back! Determined to bring the goddess Cimmeria into our dimension, her coven opens a portal to the dark dimension Nephos, only they don’t get what they bargained for. A new big-bad has come out to play and demons begin to overrun the town! Zodiac Starforce discovers they aren’t the only Zodiac team in the game and together they form a tenuous alliance to find out who’s behind the demon infestation.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Knife violence
  • Murder (human sacrifice)

Zodiac Starforce, Vol. 1: The Power of Astra by Kevin Panetta

They’re an elite group of teenage girls with magical powers who have sworn to protect our planet against dark creatures . . . as long as they can get out of class! Known as the Zodiac Starforce, these high-school girls aren’t just combating math tests. They’re also battling monsters–not your typical afterschool activity! But when an evil force from another dimension infects team leader Emma, she must work with her team of magically powered friends to save herself–and the world–from the evil Diana and her mean-girl minions!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Injury & blood depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a friend
  • Kidnapping
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

Nate Plus One by Kevin van Whye

Nate Hargraves – stage-shy singer-songwriter – is totally stoked for his cousin’s wedding in South Africa, an all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime. Until he finds out his sleazeball ex-boyfriend is also on the guest list. Jai Patel – hot-as-hell high school rock-god – has troubles too. His band’s lead singer has quit, just weeks before the gig that was meant to be their big break. When Nate saves the day by agreeing to sing with Jai’s band, Jai volunteers to be Nate’s plus-one to the wedding, and the stage is set for a summer of music, self-discovery, and simmering romantic tension. What could possibly go wrong . . . ?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Racism & mentions of apartheid
  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Animal death

Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes

Milo Connolly has managed to survive the first three years of high school without any major disasters, so by his calculations, he’s well past due for some sort of Epic Teenage Catastrophe. Even so, all he wants his senior year is to keep his head down and fly under the radar like the quiet, well-behaved, churchgoing boy that everyone thinks he is. Everything is going exactly as planned until the dreamy and charismatic Marcos Price saunters back into his life after a three-year absence and turns his world upside-down. Suddenly Milo is forced to confront the long-buried feelings that he’s kept hidden not only from himself but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hate crime
  • Racism
  • Internalised religious homophobia & threats of conversion therapy
  • Fire
  • Hurricane
  • Sinkhole
  • Bullying

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easy going guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Fire & related loss of property and business

Away With Words by Sophie Cameron

Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi’s boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn’t speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. The two girls find their own ways to communicate, which includes collecting other people’s discarded words. They use the words to write anonymous supportive poems for their classmates, but then someone begins leaving nasty messages using the same method – and the girls are blamed. Gala has finally started adapting to her new life in Scotland and is determined to find the culprit. Can she and Natalie show the school who they really are?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Selective mutism (secondary character)

Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker

Rora is a shifter, as magical as all those born in the wilderness–and as feared. She uses her abilities to spy for the king, traveling under different guises and listening for signs of trouble. When a magical illness surfaces across the kingdom, Rora uncovers a devastating truth: Finley, the young prince and her best friend, has caught it, too. His only hope is stardust, the rarest of magical elements, found deep in the wilderness where Rora grew up–and to which she swore never to return. But for her only friend, Rora will face her past and brave the dark, magic… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Physical assault

Crow Country by Kate Constable

Sadie isn’t thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But soon she starts making connections—with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the ever-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled back in time to view a terrible crime, she is pulled into a strange mystery. Can Sadie, Walter, and Lachie figure out a way to right old wrongs, or will they be condemned to repeat them? A fantasy ground in mythology, this novel has the backing of a full consultative process on the use of indigenous lore.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Murder (hate crime)
  • Destruction & theft of sacred Indigenous sites and objects

Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros

Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren’t hers, and Vera doesn’t know if she gets—or deserves —to have a life beyond what… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Body horror
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & genocide