Young Adult – Page 9 – Trigger Warning Database

Against All Odds by Patricia Vanasse

Seventeen-year-old Max DuPont is on the verge of becoming a ward of the state and foster kid. Contrary to expectations, Max is not from the “wrong” side of town. He’s from a good home in a nice neighborhood, but his mother left after his father lost his job and turned to drinking. Max has been struggling to keep his head above water ever since. All he wants is to survive his senior year, play hockey, and move on to college. When his dad lands himself in jail, Max has no choice but to accept an offer to live with his father’s do… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Parent in rehab for alcoholism
Depression
Cancer
Physical assault
Car accident

AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler

After her brother’s death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school–especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family’s own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers. Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Hospitalisation mentioned
Death of a brother from a congenital heart defect
School shooting massacre (aftermath, theme)

Afterlight by Rebecca Lim

Since her parents died in a freak motorbike accident, Sophie Teague’s life has fallen apart. But she’s just enrolled at a new high school, hoping for a fresh start. That’s until Eve, a beautiful ghost in black, starts making terrifying nightly appearances, wanting Sophie to be her hands, eyes and go-to girl. There are loose ends that Eve needs Sophie to tie up. But dealing with the dead might just involve the greatest sacrifice of all.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Attempted sexual assault & sexual harassment
Domestic violence
Death of parents in a motorcycle accident
Bullying

A + E 4ever by I. Merey

Asher Machnik is a teenage boy cursed with a beautiful androgynous face. Guys punch him, girls slag him and by high school he’s developed an intense fear of being touched. Art remains his only escape from an otherwise emotionally empty life. Eulalie Mason is the lonely, tough-talking dyke from school who befriends Ash. The only one to see and accept all of his sides as a loner, a fellow artist and a best friend, she’s starting to wonder if ash is ever going to see all of her….

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia & coming out themes
Statutory rape
Bullying

Three Willows by Ann Brashares

Polly has an idea that she can’t stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She’s setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it’s going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won’t have to watch her friends moving so far ahead. Jo is spending the summer at her family’s beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she’ll see at high school come September. She didn’t count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle-school friends. And she didn’t count on her family at all. Ama is not an outdoorsy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parent with alcoholism including hospitalisation for alcohol poisoning

After You Died by Dea Poirier

Bisexual teen, Asher remembers nothing from the night in 1968 that the police found him covered in his girlfriend’s blood. He knows he’d never hurt anyone, least of all her. But the only person who believes him is his twin sister. He’s sentenced to five years at the Dozier Reform School. And like Asher’s memory, Dozier hides violent secrets of its own. Juvenile boys serving time for everything from truancy to murder are hidden away in the sinister School for Boys. Those who manage to escape its bounds with broken bones and scars are the lucky ones. Asher’s afraid he may end… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child sexual abuse mentioned
Domestic abuse
Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Murder
Torture

Admission by Barry Jonsberg

Pandora Jones wakes in an infirmary – her body weak, her memory providing only flashes of horrific scenes of death. She soon discovers that her family has succumbed to a plague pandemic which almost wiped out humanity. Pan is one of the survivors who have been admitted to The School – a quarantined, heavily guarded survival-skills facility – to recover their strength, hone their skills and prepare for whatever comes next. Pandora’s skill is intuition, but how useful will it be outside the secure walls of The School? And what if it leads her to question where the truth lies…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicide
Global pandemic (theme)

The Wolves Are Waiting by Natasha Friend

Before the night of the Frat Fair, 15-year-old Nora Melchionda’s life could have been a Gen-Z John Hughes movie. She had a kind-of boyfriend, a spot on the field hockey team, good grades, and a circle of close friends. Of course there were bumps in the road: she and her lifelong BFF Cam were growing apart and her mother was trying to clone her into wearing sensible khakis instead of showy short skirts. But none of that mattered, because Nora always had her dad, Rhett Melchionda, on her side. Rhett was not only Nora’s hero, but as the Athletic Director of Faber… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexism & slut-shaming
Date rape & sexual assault (protagonist, on-page & mentioned)

Word of Mouse by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein

What makes Isaiah so unique? First, his fur is as blue as the sky—which until recently was something he’d never seen, but had read all about. That’s right: Isaiah can read and write. He can also talk to humans . . . if any of them are willing to listen! After a dramatic escape from a mysterious laboratory, Isaiah is separated from his “mischief” (which is the word for a mouse family) and has to survive in the dangerous outdoors, and hopefully find his missing family. But in a world of cruel cats, hungry owls, and terrified people, it’s… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Injections mentioned
Animal medical experimentation (theme)

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came. Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can’t see her future. Henry’s future isn’t looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction (theme)
Death of a brother from drowning recounted
Bullying mentioned