Category Archives: BIPOC Lit

Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron

Meka is used to death. After all, it’s the family business. As a newly certified mortician’s assistant at her parents’ funeral home, her days are not for the faint of heart. Luckily her boyfriend Noah isn’t squeamish, and Meka is finally feeling ready to say the three little words that will change everything. But then tragedy strikes, and Meka’s world is torn apart. Nothing makes sense, especially the strange things start happening. Ravens are circling her home. Strangers are following her. Someone is leaving mysterious items at her door. And worst of all. The dead don’t seem to be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Night terrors
  • Graphic blood, gore & injury depiction, including emesis & dead bodies
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
  • Animal death

Strange Familiars by Keshe Chow

Gwendolynne Chan just needs to get through her final year. At Seamere College of Magical Veterinary Sciences, she spends her days using her powers to heal companion animals while her nights are spent studying for exams. As the top student in the magical familiars stream, she is on track to be awarded Dux of the entire school – as long as the pretentious twat Harrisford Briggs doesn’t beat her to it. Harrisford Briggs was born into privilege. His father, the Chief Financial Officer of Magecorp, a major global distributor of magic, expects him to come top of the year. Harrisford… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & classism
  • Self-harm
  • Animal death

The Missed Connection by Tia Williams

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Sasha Cruz knows types. As a booked-and-busy casting agent, she’s always casting — at happy hour, the post office, the grocery store, everywhere. She’s all about finding the perfect person to slot into the perfect role. What she doesn’t do, however, are relationships. Too much energy, not enough time. Men find her intimidating, and she likes it that way. But when Sasha’s seated next to a mysterious, broodingly handsome Italian man on the way to a work trip in Paris, sparks fly – but they miss the chance to exchange contact information. Now, convinced that she’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Stalking

The Crustacean by Jang Jinyeong

Chichirim is a plain 13-year-old girl. An ordinary, misunderstood, lonely seventh-grader. A girl with a terrible secret. Her dad is worse than useless. And her mum spends all her days tattooing thick ugly eyebrows on old women. Her parents forget her birthday and her sister hates them so much she wishes they were dead. Chichirim does bad things at school. And still, no one cares. Until, one day, an older man picks her up on the side of the road. He tells her she is pretty. Her tells her what to do. Underneath her hard outer shell, her softness is being exploited and destroyed by the people she trusts and loves the most.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child neglect
  • Child sexual assault & grooming (on-page)

Strikeout by Millie Perez

Mateo Martínez is many things. The starting pitcher of the New York Monarchs, a devoted single father, and most recently, my new boss. When the opportunity to finally move out of my parent’s cramped apartment and into his swanky home to nanny for his daughter arose, I simply couldn’t pass it up. Until I made the silly suggestion for him to keep me on a three strikes system, and I’m racking them up at lightning speed. I should know better than to fantasize about silly things like love, but curiosity is getting the best of me, and our stolen touches don’t feel so innocent anymore. When the three strikes are up, I wonder… will I… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Image-based sexual assault recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy (epilogue)
  • Death of a parents recounted

A Taste Of Magic by J. Elle

Twelve-year-old Kyana has just discovered she’s a witch! This means classes every Saturday at Park Row Magic Academy, a learning center hidden in the back of the local beauty shop, and Kyana can’t wait to learn spells to help out at home. The only downside is having to keep her magic a secret from her BFF, Nae. But when the magic school loses funding, the students must pay huge fees at the fancy school across town or lose their magic! Determined to help, Kyana enters a baking contest with a big cash prize. Will she be able to keep up her grades while preparing for the competition and without revealing her magic? What about… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grandparent with Alzheimer’s Disease

Ashes of Gold by J. Elle

Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the East Row break themselves out. But reuniting with her friends is only half the battle. When she finds them again, Rue makes a vow: she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit—with half a foot back in Houston and half a heart… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm for ritual
  • Blood depiction
  • Poisoning
  • Torture
  • Battle scenes with physical assault & stabbings

Shadows of Perl by J. Elle

Quell Marionne’s explosive final Rite of Induction to House Marionne sent shockwaves through the magical world, unearthing long buried secrets and her own deadly power. But she paid a steep price: her family and her love. Fleeing Chateau Soleil for House of Perl, for once Quell is celebrated instead of shunned. She has finally found somewhere to belong. But secrets lurk in every House, and Quell’s quest to find her mom threatens to lead her deeper into the shadows. Assassin Jordan Wexton, second-in command of the Dragun brotherhood, must protect the source of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide for magic (stabbing oneself in the heart during a ritual)
  • Amputation mentioned (secondary character)

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders. Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Hate crime
  • Physical child abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction and emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality

This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi

Rinn Olivera is finally going to tell her longtime crush AJ that she’s in love with him. Daniella Korres writes poetry for her own account, but nobody knows it’s her. Imogen Azar is just trying to make it through the day. When Rinn, Daniella, and Imogen clock into work at Wild Nights Bookstore on the first day of summer, they’re expecting the hours to drift by the way they always do. Instead, they have to deal with the news that the bookstore is closing. Before the day is out, there’ll be shaved heads, a diva author, and a very large shipment of Air Jordans to contend with. And it will… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Suicidal ideation