BIPOC Lit – Page 45 – Trigger Warning Database

This Is My America by Kim Johnson

This Is My America by Kim Johnson

Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time—her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial profiling
Ku Klux Klan & white supremacy
Death of a parent recounted
Murder
Gun violence
Police brutality & violence
Lynching mentioned
Incarceration of a parent

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up in the 1990s as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation—following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married—Robin is devastated. Overnight, her life changes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Bullying
Death of a pet

Heart and Seoul by Jen Frederick

Heart and Seoul by Jen Frederick

As a Korean adoptee, Hara Wilson doesn’t need anyone telling her she looks different from her white parents. She knows. Every time Hara looks in the mirror, she’s reminded that she doesn’t look like anyone else in her family–not her loving mother, Ellen; not her jerk of a father, Pat; and certainly not like Pat’s new wife and new “real” son. At the age of twenty-five, she thought she had come to terms with it all, but when her father suddenly dies, an offhand comment at his funeral triggers an identity crisis… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother. Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Self-harm
Blood depiction
Body horror
Death of a parent
Murder
Kidnapping
Fire
Animal death

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

Under the cover of night, twelve-year-old Homer flees Southerland Plantation with his little sister Ada, unwillingly leaving their beloved mother behind. Much as he adores her and fears for her life, Homer knows there’s no turning back, not with the overseer on their trail. Through tangled vines, secret doorways, and over a sky bridge, the two find a secret community called Freewater, deep in the swamp. In this society created by formerly enslaved people and some freeborn children, Homer finds new friends, almost forgetting where he came from. But when… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Child abuse

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present, and herself. One hundred years earlier, a single violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self-discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Hate crime
Blood depiction
Dead bodies
Murder
Lynching
Car accident
Riots

Patience and Esther by Sarah Winifred Searle

Patience & Esther by Sarah Winifred Searle

Patience is a kindhearted country girl, eking out a living in Edwardian England as tremors of social change rock the world around her. When she starts her employment in formal service on the grounds of an opulent country manor, she has no idea that her own personal revolution is about to begin. Selfless, dutiful, and just a touch naive, she takes to both her place as a parlour maid and to her new roommate, the bookish and progressive lady’s maid, Esther. In another time, the two women would have kept one another’s company forever in their little attic bedroom, living out their days… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Death of a baby brother & sister from scarlet fever recounted
Death of an employee from illness, off-page

Forward March by Skye Quinlan

Forward March by Skye Quinlan

Harper “Band Geek” McKinley just wants to make it through her senior year of marching band—and her Republican father’s presidential campaign. That was a tall order to start, but everything was going well enough until someone made a fake gay dating profile posing as Harper. The real Harper can’t afford for anyone to find out about the Tinder profile for three very important reasons: 1. Her mom is the school dean and dating profiles for students are strictly forbidden… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Forced outing
Anxiety & panic attacks
Substance addiction mentioned
Self-harm mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Asthma attacks

Always Be My Duchess by Amalie Howard

Always Be My Duchess by Amalie Howard

Lord Lysander Blackstone, the stern Duke of Montcroix, has only one interest: increasing his considerable fortune. After a series of betrayals, he keeps his emotions buried deep. Money, after all, can’t break a man’s heart—or make promises it can’t keep. But when his reputation for being heartless jeopardizes a new business deal, he finds himself seeking a most unusual—and alluring—solution. Once an up-and-coming ballerina, Miss Geneviève Valery is now hopelessly out of work. After refusing to become a wealthy patron’s mistress, Nève was promptly shown the door to the streets. When she accidentally saves the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental abuse recounted
Sexual harassment
Fertility issues (amenorrhea)
Death of a parent

Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard

Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard

Born to a life of privilege, Lady Ravenna Huntley rues the day that she must marry. She’s refused dozens of suitors and cried off multiple betrothals, but running away—even if brash and foolhardy—is the only option left to secure her independence. Lord Courtland Chase, grandson of the Duke of Ashton, was driven from England at the behest of his cruel stepmother. Scorned and shunned, he swore never to return to the land of his birth. But when a twist of bad luck throws a rebellious heiress into his arms, at the very moment he finds out he’s the new Duke, marriage is the only… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Racism
Slavery mentioned
Blood depiction
Gun violence
Animal death recounted
Bullying