Category Archives: BIPOC Lit

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

His life was like a recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that may or may not be running the world, and the upshot is another singular masterpiece from Japan’s finest novelist.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting sex worker… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Murder
  • Animal death
  • Animal cruelty

Her Land, Her Love by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie

Her Land, Her Love by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie

The first novel, in a sweeping epic of one determined Navajo family’s efforts to persevere during the Long Walk, blends history, romance, conflict, culture, and family in a finely crafted story that is a true work of passion.

The story begins in Black Mesa, Arizona in 1865 at the start of the Navajo Long Walk. The woman at the heart of the story is Ninaanibaa’ (The Woman Warrior who Came Home Once Again) and her husband, Hashke Yil Naabaah (The Warrior Who Fights with Anger). When two of their daughters are kidnapped, they set out on a journey in search of their missing children.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault

The Rise of Kyoshi by FC Yee

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee with Michael Dante DiMartino

F. C. Yee’s The Rise of Kyoshi delves into the story of Kyoshi, the Earth Kingdom–born Avatar. The longest-living Avatar in this beloved world’s history, Kyoshi established the brave and respected Kyoshi Warriors, but also founded the secretive Dai Li, which led to the corruption, decline, and fall of her own nation. The first of two novels based on Kyoshi, The Rise of Kyoshi maps her journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Child neglect
  • Starvation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

After watching her circle of friends seemingly fade away, Lora is determined to still have fun on her own, so when a tea party leads Lora to discovering Alexa, the ghost that haunts her house, they soon become best friends.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death themes
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child from illness recounted

Nineteen & Twenty-One by Yohan

Nineteen & Twenty-One, Vol. 1 by Yohan

A 19-year-old boy, Dong-hui, who still wants to stay as a kid.
A 21-year-old girl, Yuni, who became an adult still doesn’t feel like one. They met each other through street cats and share their precious things.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Death of a cat

Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama

Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama

1985. Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, runs a daily gauntlet of the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper’s doorstep, its staff is united by an unimaginable horror and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop.

2003. Seventeen years later, Yuuki remembers the adrenaline-fueled, emotionally charged seven days that changed his and his colleagues’ lives. He does so while making good on a promise he made that fateful week—one that holds the key to its last solved mystery and represents Yuuki’s final, unconquered fear.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Plane crash

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything–including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he’s only just met… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a father mentioned

Be My Valentine by Sean Young

Be My Valentine by Sean D. Young

Now that Patrice McClendon is at the helm of her mother’s aromatherapy company, she has ideas to propel Good Scents to the next level. Starting with developing a signature scent for Valentine’s Day.

She’s sure she’s found a perfumer with the training and artistry to assure the smell of success will be sweet. There’s just one problem. The best in the business is a temperamental perfectionist.

Jacques Germain is intrigued with the opportunity to work with a small-market company like Good Scents, but from his first tumultuous meeting with Patrice, her aggressive business sense overpowers the subtler notes of their underlying attraction… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence

Forever This Summer by Leslie Youngblood 

Forever This Summer by Leslie C. Youngblood

Georgie has no idea what to expect when she, Mama, and Peaches are plopped down in the middle of small-town USA–aka Bogalusa, Louisiana–where Mama grew up and Great Aunt Vie needs constant care.
 
Georgie wants to help out at the once famous family diner that served celebrities like the Jackson 5 and the Supremes, but everyone is too busy to show her the ropes and Mama is treating her like a baby, not letting her leave her sight. When she finally gets permission to leave on her own, Georgie makes friends with Markie–a foster kid who’d been under Aunt Elvie’s care–who has a limb difference and a huge attitude… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Mentions of the Ku Klux Klan