BIPOC Lit – Page 54 – Trigger Warning Database

Follow the River by CE Ricci

Follow the River by C.E. Ricci

I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.
Rather than shy away, I grit my teeth and use it as an opportunity to prove myself. Not just in football, but also in life. Even when I was thrown through a loop in discovering I was bisexual, I embraced it. Owning it so no one can use it as ammunition against me. But when Ciaráin Grady comes barreling into my life with his venomous tongue and amber eyes brimming with disdain, I realize every test of my character and strength could never have prepared me for the trial he holds. One that toes the line of love and … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bimisia
Graphic rape of a child, on-page
Child sexual abuse by a step-parent

You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P by Alex Gino

You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino

Jilly thinks she’s figured out how life works. But when her sister Emma is born Deaf, she realizes how much she still has to learn. A big fantasy reader, Jilly connects with another fan, Derek, who is a Deaf Black ASL user. She goes to Derek for advice but doesn’t always know the best way to ask for it and makes some mistakes along the way. Jilly has to step back to learn to be an ally, a sister, and a friend, understanding that life works in different ways for different people, and that being open to change can make you change in the best possible ways.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Racism
Police brutality

Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Six months after Paola Santiago confronted the legendary La Llorona, life is nothing like she’d expected it to be. She is barely speaking to her best friends, Dante and Emma, and what’s worse, her mom has a totally annoying boyfriend. Even with her chupacabra puppy, Bruto, around, Pao can’t escape the feeling that she’s all alone in the world. Pao has no one to tell that she’s having nightmares again, this time set in a terrifying forest. Even more troubling? At their centre is her estranged father, an enigma of a man she barely remembers. And when Dante’s abuela falls… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Hospitalisation
Death of a parent
Murder
Fire

Boys Run the Riot, Volume One by Keito Gaku

Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1 by Keito Gaku

High schooler Ryo knows he’s transgender, but he doesn’t have anyone to confide in about the confusion he feels. He can’t tell his best friend, who he’s secretly got a crush on, and he can’t tell his mom, who’s constantly asking why Ryo “dresses like a boy.” He certainly can’t tell Jin, the new transfer student who looks like just another bully… The only time Ryo feels at ease is when he’s wearing his favourite clothes. Then, and only then, the world melts away, and he can be his true self. One day, while out shopping, Ryo sees someone he didn’t expect: Jin. The kid… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Transmisia
Misgendering
Gender dysphoria
Misogyny
Drug use
Blood depiction
Bullying

Tacos for Two by Betsy St Amant

Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant

Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can’t cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red–and an upcoming contest during Modest’s annual food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she’s been talking to via an anonymous online dating site. Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father’s law firm, and the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & colourism
Cancer

Before Takeoff by Adi Alsaid

Before Takeoff by Adi Alsaid

James and Michelle find themselves in the Atlanta airport on a layover. They couldn’t be more different, but seemingly interminable delays draw them both to a mysterious flashing green light–and each other. Where James is passive, Michelle is anything but. And she quickly discovers that the flashing green light is actually… a button. Which she presses. Which may or may not unwittingly break the rules of the universe–at least as those rules apply to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. Before they can figure up from down, strange, impossible things start happening… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Panic attack, on-page
Cancer

Like Home by Louisa Onomé

From Little Tokyo, with Love by Sarah Kuhn

If Rika’s life seems like the beginning of a familiar fairy tale–being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in her aunts’ business–she would be the first to reject that foolish notion. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney characters), and with her biracial background, amazing judo skills and red-hot temper, she doesn’t quite fit the princess mold. All that changes the instant she locks eyes with Grace Kimura, America’s reigning rom-com sweetheart, during the Nikkei Week Festival. From there, Rika embarks on a madcap adventure of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism, on-page & discussed
Colourism
Sexism
Ableism, off-page
Lesbomisia
Parental abandonment
Anxiety
Panic attack, on-page
Teen pregnancy recounted
Invasions of privacy (paparazzi)

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

Why did a Hercules C130, the world’s sturdiest plane, carrying Pakistan’s military dictator General Zia ul Haq, go down on 17 August, 1988? Was it because of: Mechanical failure, human error, the CIA’s impatience, a blind woman’s curse, generals not happy with their pension plans and the mango season. Or could it be your narrator, Ali Shigri?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Torture

Like Home by Louisa Onomé

Like Home by Louisa Onomé

Chinelo, or Nelo as her best friend Kate calls her, is all about her neighbourhood Ginger East. She loves its chill vibe, ride-or-die sense of community, and her memories of growing up there. Ginger East isn’t what it used to be, though. After a deadly incident at the local arcade, all her closest friends moved away, except for Kate. But as long as they have each other, Nelo’s good. Only, Kate’s parents’ corner store is vandalized, leaving Nelo shaken to her core. The police and the media are quick to point fingers, and soon more… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Gentrification
Police violence

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England’s first African Sorcerer Royal. And that’s only the first of his problems. He must juggle the conflicting demands of a wayward Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, where a faction schemes to remove him from his position by fair means or foul. He must cope with the Fairy Court refusing to grant Britain the magical resources it needs. And now the British Government is avid to deploy this increasingly scare magic in its war with France. He must also contend with rumours that he murdered his predecessor and guardian… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Colourism
Misogyny
Classism
Slavery & indentured servitude
Hallucinations mentioned
Suicide recounted
Alcohol consumption
Burns
Dead bodies
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a husband
Death of a father
Murder discussed
Fire
Death by drowning recounted
War & colonialism themes
Workplace bullying