Category Archives: BIPOC Lit

My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips as she entered her freshman year of high school as the number one student. But suddenly, Elizabeth’s own country took away the most important right a child has: a right to have a family. As her parents’ visas expired, they were forced to return to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being “a statistic,” she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism

The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna

Mere weeks after confronting the Gilded Ones—the false beings she once believed to be her family—Deka is on the hunt. In order to kill the gods, whose ravenous competition for power is bleeding Otera dry, she must uncover the source of her divinity. But with her mortal body on the verge of ruin, Deka is running out of time—to save herself and an empire that’s tearing itself apart at its seams. When Deka’s search leads her and her friends to the edge of the world as they know it, they discover an astonishing new realm, one which holds the key to Deka’s past. Yet it also illuminates a devastating decision she must soon make…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Torture
  • Fire
  • Animal cruelty

Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury

With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.” The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfil her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Terminal cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Car accident
  • Stalking

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Attempted suicide & self-harm
  • Discussion of residential schools

Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu’s village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile—her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalogue / organize an enchanted library that hasn’t been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors. She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & sexual assault mentioned
  • Forced pregnancy, implied
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping mentioned

The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest

To Violet Greene, fashion is everything. As a successful celebrity stylist, she travels all over the world, living out her dreams. Professionally, she’s thriving, but her personal life is in shambles. After surviving a very public breakup with her ex-fiancé six months ago, Violet is now determined to focus on her career. But life hands her something—or rather, someone—that might derail everything… Xavier Wright did not expect to run into his high school girlfriend Violet—the girl he once thought he’d marry—on a birthday trip to Vegas. As a high school teacher and basketball coach, he rarely leaves his New Jersey hometown, so… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis

Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy

As fireworks pop off at a rowdy Fourth of July bonfire party, an explosion off the California coast levels an oil rig—resulting in chaos and worse, murder. At the center are six Muslim teens – six patriots, six strangers, and six suspects. An old soul caught in the wrong place. An aspiring doctor. An influencer with a reputation to protect. A perfect daughter with secrets to hide. A soccer star headed for Stanford. An immigrant in love. Each with something to hide and everything to lose. Faced with accusations of terrorism, The Six are caught in a political game that will pit them against each other in exchange for exoneration…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & Islamophobia (theme)

James by Percival Everett

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Enslavement & human trafficking (protagonist)
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Murder
  • Animal death & attack (snake)

Icarus by K. Ancrum

Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target, revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught. Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black, but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & domestic violence
  • Alcohol consumption & drug abuse
  • Substance addiction discussed
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Death of a loved one from terminal cancer
  • False imprisonment
  • Religious self-flagellation mentioned

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

It’s 2015, and Tatum Vega feels that her life is finally falling into place. Living in sunny Chile with her partner, Vera, she spends her days surrounded by art at the museum where she works. More than anything else, she loves this new life for helping her forget the decade she spent in New York City orbiting the brilliant and famous author M. Domínguez. When a reporter calls from the US asking for an interview, the careful separation Tatum has constructed between her past and present begins to crumble. Domínguez has been accused of assault, and the reporter is looking for corrobora… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny & racism
  • Sexual assault
  • Toxic relationship
  • Drug use