BIPOC Lit – Page 61 – Trigger Warning Database

Can’t Resist Her by Kianna Alexander

Can’t Resist Her by Kianna Alexander

After years away from home, Summer Graves is back in Austin, Texas, to accept a new teaching position. Of all the changes to the old neighbourhood, the most dispiriting one is the slated demolition of the high school her grandmother founded. There’s no way she can let developers destroy her memories and her family legacy. But the challenge stirs memories of another kind.

On the architectural team revitalizing the neighbourhood, hometown girl Aiko Holt is all about progress… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Familial estrangement
Gentrification

The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.

When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Racism
Blood & gore depiction
Dismemberment & decapitation
Cannibalism mentioned
Death of a mother
Murder & attempted murder
Knife violence & stabbing
Death from exposure to the cold
Drowning
Exile
Bullying

Dark Waters by Katherine Arden

Dark Waters by Katherine Arden

Until next time. That was chilling promise made to Ollie, Coco and Brian after they outsmarted the smiling man at Mount Hemlock Resort. And as the trio knows, the smiling man always keeps his promises. So when the lights flicker on and off at Brian’s family’s inn and a boom sounds at the door, there’s just one visitor it could be. Only, there’s no one there, just a cryptic note left outside signed simply as –S.

The smiling man loves his games and it seems a new one is under way. But first, the three friends will have to survive a group trip to Lake Champlain…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Graphic snakebite
Serious physical illness of a parent
Dead body
Death of an uncle
Death of a mother in a plane crash recounted
Shipwreck, on-page
Graphic animal attack (theme)
Bullying recounted

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden

Ollie, Coco, and Brian are determined to make the best of being snowed in, but odd things keep happening. Coco is convinced she has seen a ghost, and Ollie is having nightmares about frostbitten girls pleading for help. Then Mr. Voland, a mysterious ghost hunter, arrives in the midst of the storm to investigate the hauntings at Hemlock Lodge. Ollie, Coco, and Brian want to trust him, but Ollie’s watch, which once saved them from the smiling man, has a new cautionary message: BEWARE.

With Mr. Voland’s help, Ollie, Coco, and Brian reach out to the dead voices at Mount Hemlock. Maybe the ghosts need their help–or maybe not all ghosts can or should be trusted…… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Death of a mother recounted

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone.

As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another….. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Graphic rape
Murder
War themes

Juliet Takes a Breath: The Graphic Novel by Gabby Rivera and Celia Moscote

Juliet Takes a Breath: The Graphic Novel by Gabby Rivera and Celia Moscote

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But don’t worry, Juliet has something kinda resembling a plan that’ll help her figure out what it means to be Puerto Rican, lesbian and out. See, she’s going to intern with Harlowe Brisbane – her favorite feminist author, someone’s who’s the last work on feminism, self-love and lots of of ther things that will help Juliet find her ever elusive epiphany.

There’s just one problem – Harlowe’s white, not from the Bronx and doesn’t have the answers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Bimisia
Lesbomisia
Fatmisia & body shaming
Cheating
Sexual assault
Sexual harassment

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

“You’re gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine” is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling novel. Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living.

Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the “rez,” and his former life… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Homomisia

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her black-and-white speckled goat, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape & rape of a child
Child sexual slavery (theme)
Child & sex trafficking
Alcoholism mentioned
Suicide
Drugging

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

For Angel, life is only about one thing: The Ark – a pop-rock trio of teenage boys who are currently taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything – her friend Juliet, her dreams, her place in the world. Jimmy owes everything to The Ark. He’s their frontman – and playing in a band with his mates is all he ever dreamed of doing. But dreams don’t always turn out the way you think, and when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together they find out just how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Transmisia
Outing recounted
Parental abandonment
Disownment
Alcoholism
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Depression
Suicidal ideation
Blood & injury depiction (broken leg)
Hospitalisation
Knife violence & stabbing

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

Aware of the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain blissfully focused on her job, her close friendship with the camp foreman’s daughter, and telling stories about Paul Bunyan–reinvented as Po Pan Yin (Auntie Po), an elderly Chinese matriarch. Anchoring herself with stories of Auntie Po, Mei navigates the difficulty and politics of lumber camp work and her growing romantic feelings for her friend Bee.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Hate crime, off-page