Category Archives: Young Adult

Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Sixteen-year-old Iris itches constantly for the strike of a match. But when she’s caught setting one too many fires, she’s whisked away to London before she can get arrested—at least that’s the story her mother tells. Mounting debt actually drove them out of LA, and it’s greed that brings them to a home Iris doesn’t recognize, where her millionaire father—a man she’s never met—lives. Though not for much longer. Iris’s father is dying, and her mother is determined to claim his life’s fortune, including his priceless art collection. Forced to live with him as part of an exploitive scheme, Iris soon realizes her father is far different… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape (on-page)
  • Pyromania & fire (theme, protagonist)
  • Parent with terminal ilness

Crimson Reign by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Red Tigress, Ana Mikhailov, has returned to Cyrilia, but the country she once called home has fallen under a dark rule. Across the land, the Empress Morganya is tightening her grip on Affinites and non-Affinites alike. Ana dealt a blow to the Empress when she and her allies turned back Morganya’s troops in Bregon, but she couldn’t stop Morganya from gaining possession of the last remaining Bregonian siphon: a dangerous new weapon with the power to steal Affinities. Ana’s forces are scattered, and her tenuous alliance with the Cyrilian rebel group, the Red Cloaks, is becoming… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Torture
  • War themes & battle scenes

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao

Fate brought them together. The gods will tear them apart. The demon gods have risen. Skies’s End has fallen to the colonizers. And Lan and Zen have chosen sides. But they will not fight together. Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil. Worse, she knows that if the Elatians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sex work mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Minor blood & gore depiction
  • Torture
  • Knife, sword, bow & arrow & weapon violence
  • Physical assault

The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amélie Wen Zhao

Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls. Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction (on-page)
  • Knife, sword, bow & arrow & weapon violence
  • Torture including public whippings & water torture

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died.

The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Colonialism
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Death of parents
  • Genocide
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

The Dire King by William Ritter

The fate of the world is in the hands of detective of the supernatural R. F. Jackaby and his intrepid assistant, Abigail Rook. An evil king is turning ancient tensions into modern strife, using a blend of magic and technology to push Earth and the Otherworld into a mortal competition. Jackaby and Abigail are caught in the middle as they continue to solve the daily mysteries of New Fiddleham, New England — like who’s created the rend between the worlds, how to close it, and why zombies are appearing around. At the same time, the romance between Abigail and the shape… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Sword & knife violence
  • Animal attack

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Detective R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all, and her killer may be far more dangerous than they… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia
  • Murder
  • Sword violence
  • Physical assault of a trans woman mentioned

Beastly Bones by William Ritter

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural. First, members of a particularly vicious species of shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens. A day later, their owner is found murdered, with a single mysterious puncture wound to her neck. Then, in nearby Gad’s Valley, dinosaur bones from a recent dig go missing, and an unidentifiable beast attacks animals… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death

Jackaby by William Ritter

Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary–including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby’s assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it’s an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain it’s a nonhuman creature, whose existence the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

The Stolen Throne by Abigail Owen

My twin sister is the true queen of Aryd. She survives, hiding and clinging to life in the desert, while I reign as the false queen alongside the monstrous King Eidolon. There’s only one escape from this gilded prison: Reven. My Shadowraith. My heart. Only the shadows that he struggles to control are growing more sinister, more powerful. It’s just a matter of time before they turn on him…and on me. Even escape doesn’t mean true freedom, though, when we’re still on the run from Eidolon’s unstoppable armies. And when we discover there’s a traitor among us, I have no… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • War themes & battle scenes