Category Archives: Disability Lit

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny – in the midst of her parent’s bitter divorce – and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella’s mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help. From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental divorce & infidelity
  • Traumatic mutism
  • Drug & alcohol abuse recounted
  • Murder

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens

Edison Rooker isn’t sure what to expect when he enters the office of Antonia Hex, the powerful sorceress who runs a call center for magical emergencies. He doesn’t have much experience with hexes or curses. Heck, he doesn’t even have magic. But he does have a plan—to regain the access to the magical world he lost when his grandmother passed. Antonia is…intimidating, but she gives him a job and a new name—Rook—both of which he’s happy to accept. Now all Rook has to do is keep his Spell Binder, an illegal magical detection device, hidden from the Magical Consortium. And… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin

Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favourite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Anxiety & panic attacks including nightmare & peladophobia
  • Parent with depression
  • Self-harm & attempted suicide of a parent recounted

Context : The protagonist’s high school boyfriend cheated on his girlfriend with her. She also did not realise some of her previous lovers were married. A secondary character is divorcing his wife for infidelity

Wet Paint by Chloë Ashby

Since the death of her best friend Grace, twenty-six-year-old Eve has learned to keep everything and everyone at arm’s length. Safe in her detachment, she scrapes along waiting tables and cleaning her shared flat in exchange for cheap rent, finding solace in her small routines. But when a chance encounter at work brings her past thundering into her present, Eve becomes consumed by painful memories of Grace. And soon her precariously maintained life begins to unravel: she loses her job, gets thrown out of her flat, and risks pushing away the one decent man who… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (on-page)
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The Reindeer and the Submarine by Beverley McWilliams

An orphaned reindeer with no antlers, Pollyanna is raised by Igor, a Sámi herder, and is more at home in the company of people than other reindeer. When she discovers Igor is leaving for war, Pollyanna decides to follow, but en route, she is captured and gifted to the crew of a British submarine, the HMS Trident. Life onboard the Trident brings more than a few surprises, and Pollyanna – with her love of food – gets into all kinds of mischief. But she also makes friends, becomes part of the crew, and uses her courage and cheekiness to comfort her companions in the dark days of the war.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Naval warfare in World War Two (theme) including mentions of sunk submarines during skirmishes and on-page use of gun/torpedo.

Never Die by Rob J. Hayes

Ein is on a mission from God. A God of Death. Time is up for the Emperor of Ten Kings and it falls to a murdered eight year old boy to render the judgement of a God. Ein knows he can’t do it alone, but the empire is rife with heroes. The only problem; in order to serve, they must first die. Ein has four legendary heroes in mind, names from story books read to him by his father. Now he must find them and kill them, so he can bring them back to fight the Reaper’s war.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia and body-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption (multiple on-page scenes)
  • A secondary character is dying of leprosy with some mentions of his symptoms including loss of fingers and teeth
  • Graphic fight scenes, including battle scenes/raids, destruction and pillaging of villages, hand-to-hand combat, and gun- & sword violence (on-page)
  • Murder by gunshot, poisoning, and stabbing (on page)
  • Attempted murder by strangulation

Saha by Cho Nam-Joo

In a country called ‘Town’, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates. Town is a privatised country, controlled by a secretive organisation known as the Seven Premiers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots and those who have the very least live on the Saha Estates. Among their number is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Dok-yung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. When Dok-yung disappears, Jin Ky-ung is determined to get to the bottom of things.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & classism
  • Sexual assault
  • Pregnancy & abortion
  • Suicide
  • Death of a child
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Unethical human experimentation & medical procedures (on-page)
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality
  • Animal cruelty

Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler

For twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Williams, an American living in dreamy London, meeting Rory Hughes was like a lightning bolt out of the blue: this charming Englishman was The One she wasn’t even looking for. Is it enough? Does he respond to texts? Honour his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. But when he shines his light on her, the world makes sense, and Adelaide is convinced that, in his heart, he’s fallen just as deeply as she has. Then, when Rory is rocked by an unexpected tragedy, Adelaide does everything in her power to hold him together—even if it means losing herself… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attack
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Miscarriage
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent in a car accident

Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage

For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy” Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favoourite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape. Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
  • Anxiety & panic attacks (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent recounted (off-page)

Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage

She’s the city girl that refuses to give him the time of day. He’s the cowboy that wants her anyway. The last thing Ada Hart needs is a man to take care of her. Not anymore. After failing out of her interior design program and the disaster that was her short-lived marriage, Ada clawed her way up from her rock bottom. Now, the only person she trusts is herself, and that has gotten her further than other people ever did. She has her own business, and one of the largest ranches in Wyoming just hired her for the most important project of her career. When Ada arrives in Meadowlark, she finds herself in a dive bar where she can’t.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Depression & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent recounted (off-page)