The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero. Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Classism
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Child abuse
  • Poverty
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This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

Like any other teenager, Jess Flynn is just trying to get through her junior year without drama … but drama seems to keep finding her. Between a new crush on her childhood best friend, overprotective parents cramping her social life, and her younger sister’s worsening health, the only constant is change–and her hometown of Swickley, which feels smaller by the day.

Swickley is getting weirder by the day, too. Half the population has been struck down by … Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Animal death
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We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Darling is only ten years old, yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen. Before the school closed before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.

But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Rape
  • Abortion
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death
  • Animal cruelty
  • War themes
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Kneel by Candace Buford

Kneel by Candace Buford

For guys like Russell Boudreaux, football is the only way out of their small town. As the team’s varsity tight end, Rus has a singular goal: to get a scholarship and play on the national stage. But when his best friend is unfairly arrested and kicked off the team, Rus faces an impossible choice: speak up or live in fear.

Desperate for change, Rus kneels during the national anthem. In one instant, he falls from local…. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Hate crime
  • Police brutality
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One True Loves by Elise Bryant 

One True Loves by Elise Bryant 

Lenore Bennett has always been a force. A star artist and style icon at her high school, she’s a master in the subtle art of not giving a . . . well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she’s a little less sure.

She’s heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for “undeclared”) written across her chest. Her parents always remind her that Black kids don’t have the luxury of figuring it out as they go—they have to be 110 percent… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emesis

sourced from michelle

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Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant 

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant 

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She’s rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she’s a true leading lady is in her own writing—in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.

When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Racism
  • Anxiety & panic attacks

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A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne Brown 

A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown

Karina lost everything after a violent coup left her without her kingdom or her throne. Now the most wanted person in Sonande, her only hope of reclaiming what is rightfully hers lies in a divine power hidden in the long-lost city of her ancestors.

Meanwhile, the resurrection of Karina’s sister has spiralled the world into chaos, with disaster after disaster threatening the hard-won peace Malik has found as Farid’s apprentice. When they discover that Karina….. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child physical abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Torture

sourced from starr

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The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

The members of a university mystery club decide to visit an island that was the site of a grisly, unsolved multiple murder the year before. They’re looking forward to investigating the crime, putting their passion for solving mysteries to practical use, but before long there is a fresh murder, and soon the club members realise they are being picked off one by one. The remaining amateur sleuths will have to use all of their murder-mystery expertise to find the killer before they end up dead too.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Grief depiction
  • Murder

sourced from chelsea kelly and eule luftscholss

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The Tradition by Jaye Robin Brown 

The Tradition by Jaye Robin Brown

Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown’s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie? Brown makes mythical pastorals question the terrors to which we’ve become accustomed and celebrate how we survive. Poems of fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma are … Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Rape
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Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

DiscriminationRacism, sexism
Sexual ViolenceRape
Paedophilia & child sexual assault
Abuse
Mental HealthDepressive episode
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Alcohol & DrugsDrug & alcohol abuse
Overdose
Fertility
Medical
DeathDeath of a parent
ViolenceMurder
Car accident
Natural Disasters
Animal