BIPOC Lit – Page 30 – Trigger Warning Database

This is How We Fly by Anna Meriano

This is How We Fly by Anna Meriano

17-year-old vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke has one muggy Houston summer left before college. She plans to spend every last moment with her two best friends before they go off to the opposite ends of Texas for school. But when Ellen is grounded for the entire summer by her (sometimes) evil stepmother, all her plans are thrown out the window. Determined to do something with her time, Ellen (with the help of BFF Melissa) convinces her parents to let her join the local muggle Quidditch team. An all-gender, full-contact game, Quidditch isn’t quite what Ellen expects. There’s no flying, no magic, just a bunch of scrap… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Toxic parent-child relationship
Physical injury
Death of a parent

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Her sister’s bachelorette party is the highlight of a miserable year for Alexis Chambers, but once her bridesmaid’s dress is packed away, she’s back to coping with her life as a once popular athlete and violinist turned loner and the focus of her parents’ disappointment. She isn’t expecting much from her freshman year of college until she finds herself sharing a class with Treasure, the gorgeous stripper from her sister’s party. Trisha Hamilton has finally gotten the credits and the money together to transfer to a four-year university. Between classes, studying… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Amisia
Coming out themes
Underage sex work
Depression
Anxiety
Attempted suicide recounted
Death of a father
Death of a grandmother

Soul Lanterns by Shaw Kuzki

Soul Lanterns by Shaw Kuzki

Twelve-year-old Nozomi lives in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. She wasn’t even born when the bombing of Hiroshima took place. Every year Nozomi joins her family at the lantern-floating ceremony to honour those lost in the bombing. People write the names of their deceased loved ones along with messages of peace, on paper lanterns and set them afloat on the river. This year Nozomi realizes that her mother always releases one lantern with no name. She begins to ask questions, and when complicated stories of loss and loneliness unfold, Nozomi and her friends come up with a creative way to share their loved ones’ experiences… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide
War themes

Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams

Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams

Divorce attorney RJ would never describe herself as romantic. But when she ends up officiating an unplanned wedding for a newly engaged couple in a park, her life is turned upside down. The video of the ceremony goes viral, and she finds herself in the unlikely position of being a sought-after local wedding officiant. Spending her free time overseeing “I dos” isn’t her most strategic career move, but she enjoys it, except for the type A dude-bro wedding planner she’s forced to work with. Former pro-football event manager Lear is a people person, but after his longtime girlfriend betrayed him, he isn’t looking for love. He… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Cheating recounted
Death of parents mentioned

The New Girl by Jesse Sutanto

The New Girl by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Lia Setiawan has never really fit in. When she wins a full ride to the prestigious Draycott Academy on a track scholarship, she’s determined to make it work even though she’s never felt more out of place. But on her first day there she witnesses a girl being forcefully carried away by campus security. Her new schoolmates and teachers seem unfazed, but it leaves her unsure of what she’s gotten herself into. As she uncovers the secrets of Draycott, complete with a corrupt teacher, a golden boy who isn’t what he seems, and a blackmailer determined to get her thrown out, she’s not sure if she can trust anyone–especially when the threats against her take a deadly turn.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Classism
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Overdose
Blood & gore depiction
Eye trauma
Strangulation

The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri Smith

The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith

Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country . . . until he meets Hana. Hana hasn’t been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day . . . until she meets Taro. A song will bring them together. The war will tear them apart. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bombing
Vivisepulture (buried alive)
World War Two

When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai

When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai

When Fox is a Thousand is a lyrical, magical novel, rich with poetry and folklore and elements of the fairytale. Larissa Lai interweaves three narrative voices and their attendant cultures: an elusive fox growing toward wisdom and her 1000 birthday, the ninth-century Taoist poet/nun Yu Hsuan-Chi (a real person executed in China for murder), and the oddly named Artemis, a young Asian-American woman living in contemporary Vancouver.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Rape
Incest
Parental abuse
Abusive relationships

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters—Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina—were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. Rajni, a school principal is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a thirty-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking “good” sister married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life. On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Abortion discussed

Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody

Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody

Best friends since they were kids, Grayson, Mike, and Ian were hoping for another epic summer on “The Locks”, filled with clam bakes, bonfires, and late-night swims in the ocean. But that was before Ian’s dad never returned home from his last deployment. Before Mike had to take on more responsibility in order to help provide for his family. Before Grayson’s accident left him with an injured throwing arm and an uncertain future. It’s clear this summer on the island is shaping up to be very different from those Grayson, Mike, and Ian have come to rely on. And when the sacred code of dating a friend’s sister or ex is broken, it will push… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Slut-shaming
Grief & loss depiction

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long-lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God. Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all. As hidden… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical ableism, classism, misogyny, racism and antisemitism
Colonialism discussed
Sex work shaming
Attempted rape by coercion
Child abuse recounted
Self harm for magic
Suicide mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Stillbirth & infertility mentioned
Blood & injury depiction
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a brother recounted
Death of a friend recounted
Murder
Poisoning
Psychological torture
Explosion
Vivisepulture (being buried alive) mentioned
Kidnapping
Animal death mentioned

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings