Category Archives: Young Adult

Crossed by Ally Condie

The Society chooses everything. The books you read. The music you listen to. The person you love. Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him. And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope. But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems… A rebellion is rising. And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a child from dehydration
  • Death of a friend in an explosion

Matched by Ally Condie

In the Society, officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Mentions of state-sanctioned euthanasia of Citizens on their 80th birthdays

The Swan’s Daughter by Roshani Chokshi

Prince Arris knows that marriage means murder. Thanks to a poorly worded wish to a sea witch, all one needs to rule the Isle of Malys is the heart and hand of the kingdom’s heir. Historically, this has been construed quite literally. Thus, Arris expects that the day after his marriage and murder he will wake up as a sentient tree alongside the rest of his predecessors. His only chance at a long life is finding true and lasting love. When Arris’s parents announce a tournament of brides to compete for his hand and heart, a slew of eligible, lovely and (possibly murderous) bachelorettes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Attempted murder by poisoning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Loss of autonomy discussed (magical shapeshifting curse)

The Moon Without Stars by Chanel Miller

At the end of sixth grade, Luna knows who she a small, quiet girl who loves writing and making zines with her best friend, Scott. But when one of their zines takes off, somehow Luna is swept up into the popular group and learns just how much of herself she’s going to have to compromise to stay there. Will she give up her writing? Her best friend? What about her own beliefs about who she is and what she stands for?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Vaping mentioned (on-page, secondary character)
  • Drunk-driving car accident mentioned (a teen crashes into a store & an employee’s hand is injured by broken glass)
  • Biking accident mentioned, resulting in minor nose injury
  • Bullying & vandalism discussed

Room to Breathe by Kasie West

When the walls close in, the truth comes out. When Indy’s life came crashing down, she made a no one could know. To the world, she’s still the same Indy—cool, calm, unshaken. But behind the scenes? It’s chaos. Her tight-knit crew—Beau, Caroline, and Ava—were once her everything. Now they’re strangers she can’t seem to reach—especially Beau. And the only person she talks to these days is Cody, a skater-boy she used to think was so not her type. Funny how everything changes when your world flips upside down. And then… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault mentioned (unwanted kiss, secondary character)
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Bullying mentioned (secondary character)

Endless Knight by Kresley Cole

Evie has fully come into her powers as the tarot Empress, and Jack was there to see it all. As one of twenty-two teens given powers following the apocalypse, she now knows a war is brewing, and it’s kill or be killed. When Evie meets Death, the gorgeous and dangerous Endless Knight, things get even more complicated. Though falling for Jack, she’s drawn to Death as well. Somehow the Empress and Death share a romantic history, one that Evie can’t remember—but Death can’t forget…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & mentions of sex slavery
  • Suicide
  • Drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies, decapitation & cannibalism
  • Death of a mother from illness
  • Captivity

Artifice by Sharon Cameron

Isa de Smit was raised in the vibrant, glittering world of her parents’ small art gallery in Amsterdam, a hub of beauty, creativity, and expression, until the Nazi occupation wiped the color from her city’s palette.
The “degenerate” art of the Gallery de Smit is confiscated, the artists in hiding or deported, her best friend, Truus, fled to join the shadowy Dutch resistance.
And masterpiece by masterpiece, the Nazis are buying and stealing her country’s heritage, feeding the Third Reich’s ravenous appetite for culture and art. So when the unpaid taxes threaten her beloved… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & homophobia
  • Child sexual assault (groping) & mentions of underage sex work
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Secondary character with a substance addition (morphine)
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend & child at the hands of Nazis
  • Torture
  • Murder by gun violence
  • World War Two (theme), including depiction of the Holocaust & mentions of concentration camps

Beasts of War by Ayana Gray

Once a prisoner to Fedu, the vengeful god of death, Koffi has regained her freedom, but she is far from safe. Fedu will stop at nothing to hunt her down and use her power to decimate the mortal world. Koffi knows when Fedu will during the next Bonding, a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. To survive, Koffi will have to find powerful new allies quickly, and convince them to help her in the terrible battle to come. Once a warrior-turned-runaway, Ekon has carved out a new life for himself outside Lkossa, but the shadows of his past still haunt him. Now, alongside unexpected friends, Ekon tries to focus on getting Koffi to the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Battle scenes with bow & arrow and sword violence

Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray

Koffi has saved her city and the boy she loves, but at a terrible price. Now a servant to the cunning god of death, she must use her newfound power to further his continental conquest, or risk the safety of her home and loved ones. As she reluctantly learns to survive amidst unexpected friends and foes, she will also have to choose between the life—and love—she once had, or the one she could have, if she truly embraces her dangerous gifts. Cast out from the only home he’s ever known, Ekon is forced to strike new and unconventional alliances to find and rescue Koffi before it… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Indentured servitude mentioned
  • Caning mentioned
  • Fire
  • Animal attacks (fantastical)

The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas

When Rose’s mom dies, she leaves behind a brown paper bag labeled Rose’s Survival Kit. Inside the bag, Rose finds an iPod, with a to-be-determined playlist; a picture of peonies, for growing; a crystal heart, for loving; a paper star, for making a wish; and a paper kite, for letting go. As Rose ponders the meaning of each item, she finds herself returning again and again to an unexpected source of comfort. Will is her family’s gardener, the school hockey star, and the only person who really understands what she’s going through. Can loss lead to love?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a mother from cancer