Category Archives: BIPOC Lit

Arab, Australian, Other edited by Randa Abdel-Fattah and Sara Saleh

Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity edited by Randa Abdel-Fattah & Sara M. Saleh

Although there are 22 separate Arab nationalities representing an enormous variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences, the portrayal of Arabs in Australia tends to range from homogenising (at best) to racist pop-culture caricatures.

This collection explores the experience of living as a member of the Arab diaspora in Australia with contributions from Paula Abood, Nokomi Achkar, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Rooan Al Kalmashi, Ryan Al-Natour, Rawah Arja, Hana Assafiri, Sarah Ayoub, Omar Bensaidi, Sara El Sayed, Asma Fahmi, Farid Farid, Ruby Hamad, Abdulrahaman Hammoud, Lamisse Hamouda, Amani Haydar, Miran Hosny, Lora Inak, Elias Jahshan, Nicola Joseph, Huna Amweero, Zainab Kadhim, Mohammad Awad, Wafa Kazal and Yassir Morsi

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Islamophobia
  • Gang rape discussed
  • Child abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & mother
  • Murder
  • Gang violence
  • War themes
  • Deportation & displacement
  • Bullying

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.

Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racist language
  • Sexism
  • Ableism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Body horror
  • Hospitalisation
  • Decapitation, on-page
  • Murder (theme)
  • Gun violence
  • Infanticide by defenestration, on-page
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Riots
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend, Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cell phone to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone. What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a boyfriend in a car accident
  • Physical assault

One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, racism, sexism & slut-shaming
  • Homophobia & coming out themes
  • Dubious consent scenarios involving minors discussed, including mentions of nonconsensual voyeurism*
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Infidelity, recounted & discussed
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Suicide & attempted suicide and self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse and recreational drug use
  • Death from anaphylaxis
  • Cancer mentioned and heart attack
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a classmate (on-page)
  • Death of an uncle mentioned
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • School shooting & gun violence discussed
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault
  • Car accident recounted
  • Blackmail
  • Bullying

*Context: Characters under the influence of alcohol recount having sex, and a protagonist recounts coerced ‘consent’ to sex with her boyfriend.

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

The Poppy War R. F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising. But… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Racism & colourism
  • Gang rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Forced marriage
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Sterilization
  • Medical experimentation
  • Dead bodies
  • Decapitation and dismemberment
  • Graphic murder & mass murder
  • Torture
  • Explosions
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Captivity & confinement
  • War themes & military violence
  • Fire
  • Flooding
  • Bullying
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Rebound by Kwame Alexander

Before Josh and Jordan Bell were streaking up and down the court, their father was learning his own moves. In this prequel, Chuck Bell takes center stage, as readers get a glimpse of his childhood and how he became the jazz music worshipping, basketball star his sons look up to.   

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father from a heart attack & stroke
  • Gun violence

You Don’t Know Me but I Know You by Rebecca Barrow

There’s a box in the back of Audrey’s closet that she rarely thinks about. Inside is a letter, seventeen years old, from a mother she’s never met, handed to her by the woman she’s called Mom her whole life. Being adopted, though, is just one piece in the puzzle of Audrey’s life—the picture painstakingly put together by Audrey herself, full of all the people and pursuits that make her who she is. But when Audrey realizes that she’s pregnant, she feels something—a tightly sealed box in the closet corners of her heart—crack open, spilling her dormant fears and unanswered questions all over the life she loves… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adoption (protagonist)
  • Teen pregnancy & abortion (protagonist)

This Is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow

It doesn’t matter what the prize for the Sun City Originals contest is this year. Who cares that’s it’s fifteen grand? Who cares about a gig opening for one of the greatest bands to ever play this town? Not Dia, that’s for sure. Because Dia knows that without a band, she hasn’t got a shot at winning Sun City. Because ever since Hanna’s drinking took over her life, Dia and Jules haven’t been in it. And ever since Hanna left — well, there hasn’t been a band. It used to be the three of them, Dia, Jules, and Hanna, messing around and making music and planning for the future… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic relationship recounted
  • Anxiety & magical thinking discussed
  • Alcoholism recovery with discussions of past alcohol abuse (protagonist)
  • Teen pregnancy & motherhood (protagonist)
  • Death of a boyfriend in a car accident recounted

Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron

After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom in shambles, and long-buried secrets about who she is. Desperate not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, Arrah must return to the tribal lands to search for help from the remnants of her parents’ people. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

Arrah is a young woman from a long line of the most powerful witch doctors in the land. But she fails at magic, fails to call upon the ancestors and can’t even cast the simplest curse. Shame and disappointment dog her. When strange premonitions befall her family and children in the kingdom begin to disappear, Arrah undergoes the dangerous and scorned process of selling years of her life for magic. This borrowed power reveals a nightmarish betrayal and a danger beyond what she could have imagined. Now Arrah must find a way to master magic, or at least buy it, in order to save herself and everything she holds dear.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Suicide
  • Graphic self-injury for blood magic (on-page)
  • Murder & mass murder of children
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Animal sacrifice mentioned (off-page)