The Cruelty by Scott Bergstrom

The Cruelty by Scott Bergstrom

When Gwendolyn Bloom’s father vanishes, she sets off on a journey she never bargained for. Traveling under a new identity in a world of assassins, spies, and criminal masterminds, she uncovers a disturbing truth. To bring her father back alive, she must become every bit as cruel as the men holding him captive.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Attempted rape
  • Sex work mentioned
  • Murder
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The XY by Virginia Bergin

The XY by Virginia Bergin

Also known as Who Runs the World?.

Sixty years ago, a virus wiped out almost all men on Earth. Now women run the world, and men are kept in repopulation facilties, safe from the deadly virus. At least, that’s what everyone has been led to believe…until River discovers a young man on a country road—injured but alive. Mason has been outside for five days since escaping from his facility, and no one can understand how he has survived. Hiding the boy violates the rules of their world, but as the women of the town band together to try to save him, River begins to suspect that the truth behind Mason’s existence is darker than she could have imagined.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape
  • Murder
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The Rain by Virginia Bergin

The Rain by Virginia Bergin

Also known as H2O.

They don’t believe it at first. Crowded in Zach’s kitchen, Ruby and the rest of the partygoers laugh at Zach’s parents’ frenzied push to get them all inside as it starts to drizzle. But then the radio comes on with the warning, “It’s in the rain! It’s fatal, it’s contagious, and there’s no cure.” Two weeks later, Ruby is alone. Anyone who’s been touched by rain or washed their hands with tap water is dead. The only drinkable water is quickly running out. Ruby’s only chance for survival is a treacherous hike across the country to find her father-if he’s even still alive. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Global pandemic
  • Food & water scarcity
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Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett 

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Classic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.

Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being…Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental divorce
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Colon cancer
  • Attempted armed robbery
  • Animal attack resulting in an amputated arm (shark)
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Everything Within and In Between by Nikki Barthelmess

Everything Within and In Between by Nikki Barthelmess

For Ri Fernández’s entire life, she’s been told, “We live in America and we speak English.” Raised by her strict Mexican grandma, Ri has never been allowed to learn Spanish. What’s more, her grandma has always pushed Ri away from the neighbourhood they call home and toward her best friend’s world of mansions and country clubs in the hopes that it’ll bring Ri closer to achieving the “American Dream.” In her most private thoughts, Ri has always believed that her mother, who disappeared… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Slut shaming
  • Child abandonment
  • Recreational drug use
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Teen pregnancy mentioned
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Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard 

Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard

After five years at secondary school spent without any friends, Peyton King starts sixth form college determined that things will be different. Whatever happens, she will make friends at any cost.. When she finds the friends she’s always dreamed of, including an actual boyfriend, she’s happier than she’s ever been. But when they let her down in the worst way, Peyton is left no better off than when she started. Now Peyton knows the only chance she has of finding happiness is to look for it somewhere else. Her life may… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Anxiety
  • Drug use
  • Overdose
  • Bullying
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In the Skin of a Monster by Kathryn Barker 

In the Skin of a Monster by Kathryn Barker

Three years ago, Alice’s identical twin sister took a gun to school and killed seven innocent kids; now Alice wears the same face as a monster. She’s struggling with her identity, and with life in the small Australian town where everyone was touched by the tragedy. Just as Alice thinks things can’t get much worse, she encounters her sister on a deserted highway. But all is not what it seems, and Alice soon discovers that she has stepped into a different reality, a dream world, where she’s trapped with the nightmares… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Death of a child
  • Gun violence
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Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

Parvin has just had her heart broken when she meets the cutest boy at her new high school, Matty Fumero–with an emphasis on fumero, because he might be the smoking hot cure to all of her boy troubles. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to homecoming, she’s positive it will erase all the awful and embarrassing feelings He Who Will Not Be Named left her with after the summer. The only problem is Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself has not worked for her in the past (see aforementioned relationship), she… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Islamophobia
  • Deportation
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Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner

Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner

Brynn Haper’s life has one steadying force–Rachel Maddow. She watches her daily, and after writing to Rachel for a school project–and actually getting a response–Brynn starts drafting e-mails to Rachel but never sending them. Brynn tells Rachel about breaking up with her first serious girlfriend, about her brother Nick’s death, about her passive mother and even worse stepfather, about how she’s stuck in remedial courses at school and is considering dropping out… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Death of a brother from a drug overdose
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The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Fourteen years ago, Delphine abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg––taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now 36 years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career––and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she’s been away…and some secrets can’t stay buried… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Revenge porn, including revenge porn involving minors
  • Infidelity
  • Eating disorder
  • Discussions of weight & body image
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage
  • Abortion
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
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