Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow 

Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Hazel knows a lot about the world. That’s because when she’s not hanging with her best friend or helping her two moms care for the goats on their farm, she loves reading through dusty encyclopedias. But even Hazel doesn’t have answers for the questions awaiting her as she enters eighth grade. How can she make friends in a new school where no one seems to understand her? What’s going to happen to one of her moms who’s pregnant again after having two miscarriages? Why does everything have to change when life was already perfectly fine?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Self-harm recounted
  • Miscarriage
  • Hospital
  • Bullying
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Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow 

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Melly only joined the school band because her best friend, Olivia, begged her to. But to her surprise, quiet Melly loves playing the drums. It’s the only time she doesn’t feel like a mouse. Now, she and Olivia are about to spend the next two weeks at Camp Rockaway, jamming under the stars in the Michigan woods.

But this summer brings big changes for Melly: her parents split up, her best friend ditches her, and Melly finds herself falling for a girl at camp named Adeline. To top it off, Melly’s not sure she has what it takes to be a real rock ‘n’ roll drummer. Will she be able to make music from all the noise in her heart?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableist language
  • Sexism
  • Toxic friendship
  • Parent with Multiple Sclerosis
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Starting from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow 

Starting from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Sixteen-year-old Colby Bingham’s heart has been broken too many times. Her mother has been dead for almost two years, her truck driver father is always away, her almost girlfriend just dumped her for a guy, and now she’s failing chemistry.

When a stray dog lands literally at her feet, bleeding and broken on a busy road, it seems like the Universe has it in for Colby. But the incident also knocks a chink in the walls she’s built around her heart… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Bimisia
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned
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A Show for Two by Tashie Bhuiyan

A Show for Two by Tashie Bhuiyan

Mina’s ticket to winning the competition falls into her lap when indie film star—and known heartbreaker—Emmitt Ramos enrols in her high school under a secret identity to research his next role. When Mina sets out to persuade Emmitt to join her cause, he offers her a deal instead: he’ll be in her short film…if she acts as a tour guide to help him with a photography contest.

As Mina ventures across the five boroughs with Emmitt by her side, the city she grew up in starts to look different and more like home than it ever has before.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emotional parental abuse
  • Depression
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father mentioned
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Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything: Karina is my girlfriend.

Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question…. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Verbal & emotional parental abuse
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks, on-page
  • Emesis mentioned
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The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena 

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena

Susan is the new girl—she’s sharp and driven, and strives to meet her parents’ expectations of excellence. Malcolm is the bad boy—he started raising hell at age fifteen, after his mom died of cancer, and has had a reputation ever since.

Susan’s parents are on the verge of divorce. Malcolm’s dad is a known adulterer. Susan hasn’t told anyone, but she wants to be an artist. Malcolm doesn’t know what he wants—until he meets her.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Death of a mother from cancer
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Rising Like a Storm by Tanaz Bhathena 

Rising Like a Storm by Tanaz Bhathena

With King Lohar dead and a usurper queen in power, Gul and Cavas face a new tyrannical government that is bent on killing them both. Their roles in King Lohar’s death have not gone unnoticed, and the new queen is out for blood. What she doesn’t know is that Gul and Cavas have a connection that runs deeper than romance, and together, they just might have the strength and magic to end her for good… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Torture
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Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena 

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

Gul has spent her life running. She has a star-shaped birthmark on her arm, and in the kingdom of Ambar, girls with such birthmarks have been disappearing for years. Gul’s mark is what caused her parents’ murder at the hand of King Lohar’s ruthless soldiers and forced her into hiding to protect her own life. So when a group of rebel women called the Sisters of the Golden Lotus rescue her, take her in, and train her in warrior magic, Gul wants only one thing: revenge… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Sex slavery, implied
  • Chronic illness
  • Death of parents
  • Murder
  • Animal cruelty
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A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena 

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk-taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school.  You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Victim blaming
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Physical & psychological child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Depression
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Death of a parent
  • Graphic car accident
  • Death of a pet
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Lovely War by Julie Berry

Lovely War by Julie Berry

It’s 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party. She’s a shy and talented pianist; he’s a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it’s immediate and deep–and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.

Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who’s played Carnegie Hall, he’s a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Racism
  • Hate crimes
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Gun violence
  • Lynching
  • War themes & battle scenes
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