Category Archives: Young Adult

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she’s the only Indian American student, and home, with her family’s traditions and holidays. But Reha’s parents don’t understand why she’s conflicted—they only notice when Reha doesn’t meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means “star” and Punam means “moon”—but they are a universe apart. Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick. Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can’t stomach the sight of blood, is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Displacement (theme)
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from leukemia

You, Me, and Our Heartstrings by Melissa See

Daisy and Noah have the same plan: use the holiday concert to land a Julliard audition. But when they’re chosen to play a duet for the concert, they worry that their differences will sink their chances. Noah, a cello prodigy from a long line of musicians, wants to stick to tradition. Daisy, a fiercely independent disabled violinist, is used to fighting for what she wants and likes to take risks. But the two surprise each other when they play. They fall perfectly in tune. After their performance goes viral, the rest of the country falls for them just as surely as they’re falling for each other… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist slur
  • Anxiety & panic attacks

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Zara Hossain, has been leading a fairly typical life in Corpus Christi, Texas, since her family moved there for her father to work as a paediatrician. While dealing with the Islamophobia that she faces at school, Zara has to lay low, trying not to stir up any trouble and jeopardize their family’s dependent visa status while they await their green card approval, which has been in process for almost nine years. But one day her tormentor, star football player Tyler Benson, takes things too far, leaving a threatening note in her locker… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Islamophobia
  • Biphobia
  • Hospitalisation
  • Gun violence
  • Bullying & hate crime

Zenith Dream by FT Lukens

When Ren wakes from his life-threatening injury on the Star Stream, he learns that Asher has left with the Phoenix Corps and that the Corps believes Ren to be dead. Despite the opportunity to disappear, Ren is determined to fix his mistakes. He convinces the crew to join him for one last mission—find Asher, free Liam, and escape from the Corps’ reach. But a war is brewing between two formidable armies, and, despite his wish to flee, Ren is drawn into the conflict. With his friends by his side, Ren must make a choice, and it will affect the future of his found family and the cluster forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & transphobia
  • Panic attacks
  • Auditory hallucinations
  • Kidnapping & captivity

You Say It First by Katie Cotugno

Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: her boyfriend Mason is sweet and supportive, she and her best friend Emily plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she even finds time to clock shifts phone banking at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio, who gets under her skin from the moment he picks up the phone. Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Anxiety
  • Death of a father from suicide by hanging recounted

Libby Lawrence Is Good at Pretending by Jodi McAlister

Nineteen-year-old Libby Lawrence is good at pretending. Problem is, she’s not entirely sure how to stop. Which is good for her role in the campus production of Much Ado About Nothing … but poses problems in her personal life. Especially when the list of things she can’t admit to, even to her best friend Ella, starts to build. Losing her virginity to the too-charming director of her uni theatre group (just before he ran off with the group’s money) is only the start. There’s also an uncomfortable encounter with her broody on-stage love interest Roarke, and her crackling offstage chemistry with nerdy-but-sweetl… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Stalking

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland. Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Self-harm (blood magic) & self-sacrifice
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including broken bones, seizures (secondary character) and needles for piercing/tattooing
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture & physical assault
  • Imprisonment
  • Volcanic eruption
  • Explosion
  • Animal death, abuse & injury

Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

Raised in a small village near the spirit-wood, Liska Radost knows that Magic is monstrous, and its practitioners, monsters. After Liska unleashes her own powers with devastating consequences, she is caught by the demon warden of the wood – the Leszy – who offers her a bargain: one year of servitude in exchange for a wish.Whisked away to his crumbling manor, Liska soon discovers the sinister roots of their bargain. And if she wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts of his past. Those who enter the wood do not always return…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship (17-year old and an ancient being)
  • Domestic violence & child abuse mentioned
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction and body horror
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Fire

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

Avery West’s newfound family can shut down Prada when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war. Part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle, they believe Avery is the key to an ancient prophecy. Some want to use her as a pawn. Some want her dead. To unravel the mystery putting her life in danger, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the monuments of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul with two boys who work for the Circle — beautiful, volatile Stellan and mysterious, magnetic Jack. But as the clues expose a stunning… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism & homophobia mentioned
  • Attempted rape recounted
  • Forced breeding (implied)
  • Child abuse & parental abandonment
  • Panic attack (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife & gun violence
  • Explosions mentioned
  • Kidnapping, captivity & being held hostage situation at knifepoint
  • Stalking & blackmail
  • Car accident (off-page)
  • Bullying recounted

Perfect Little Monsters by Cindy R.X. He

Ella Moore was the most popular girl in school…and also the most hated. When she’s murdered at her own party, there are too many suspects to count–and too many people who think she deserved it. The police’s prime suspect is the new girl, Dawn Foster. She was the last to hand Ella a drink on the night Ella died. Plus, all of Ella’s friends with a motive for wanting her dead are more than willing to implicate Dawn. But Dawn refuses to go down without a fight. She’s determined to clear her name. As she delves deeper into the past, she discovers that Ella and her friends had… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Adult-minor relationship & toxic friendships
  • Disordered eating
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Car accident
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping & stalking
  • Bullying & cyberbullying