Category Archives: Disability Lit

Second Position by Katherine Locke

Second Position by Katherine Locke

Four years ago, a car accident ended Zedekiah Harrow’s ballet career and sent Philadelphia Ballet principal dancer Alyona Miller spinning toward the breakdown that suspended her own. What they lost on the side of the road that day can never be replaced, and grief is always harshest under a spotlight…

Now twenty-three, Zed teaches music and theatre at a private school in Washington, D.C. and regularly attends AA meetings to keep the pain at bay. Aly has returned to D.C. to live with her mother while trying to recover from the mental and physical breakdown that forced her to take a leave of absence from the ballet world and her adoring fans… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Eating disorder
  • Self-harm
  • Loss of limb in a car accident reconted

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar’s blood-soaked past and stand together–and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past–even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Depression
  • PTSD
  • Death of a spouse
  • Sword violence
  • War themes

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind–and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa’s orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil–and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expects. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Endometriosis

The Glass Castle by James Dashner

The Glass Castle by James Dashner

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity was both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn’t stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an “excitement addict.” Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault of a child
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Alcohol abuse

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

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R Austin

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Homophobia & slurs
  • Anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares & intrusive thoughts
  • Depression & dissociation (protagonist)
  • Disordered eating including binging and purging
  • Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide
  • Sibling with alcoholism
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis (multiple, on-page)
  • Death of a husband from cancer mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of an estranged uncle by overdose mentioned
  • Housefire
  • Car accident resulting in injury (broken arm)
  • Animal death (rabbit, recounted & discussed)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Transphobia & misgendering
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Rape & rape of a child
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Child neglect & abandonment
  • Intimate partner violence & abuse
  • Eating disorder
  • Graphic attempted suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm
  • Drug abuse
  • Graphic death of a child

Wires and Nerve, Vol 1 by Marissa Meyer

Wires & Nerve, Vol. 1 by Marissa Meyer and illustrated by Stephen Gilpin

When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers’ leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Global pandemic discussed
  • Death of a sister mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun & knife violence

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

The enchantment continues . . . The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hallucinations (protagonist)
  • Forced adoption mentioned
  • Parent with alcohol abuse issues mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction including a global pandemic, needles, surgery, non-consensual medical treatment, and non-consensual body modifications
  • Death of a father from gun violence mentioned
  • Murder including death from a snapped neck
  • Physical assault (fistfights, beating, military training)
  • Mentions of a character having a near-drowning incident in a oil vat after being hit by a crane
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control) including forced self-harm and mentions of a pregnant character dying from suicide after forced sex work
  • Fire recounted

UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir by Emily Lindin

UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir by Emily Lindin

UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir byb Emily Lindin book cover

When Emily Lindin was eleven years old, she was branded a “slut” by the rest of her classmates. For the next few years of her life, she was bullied incessantly at school, after school, and online. At the time, Emily didn’t feel comfortable confiding in her parents or in the other adults in her life. But she did keep a diary. UnSlut presents that diary, word for word, with split-page commentary to provide context and perspective. This unique diary and memoir sheds light on the important issues of sexual bullying, slut-shaming, and the murky mores of adolescent sexual development. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny, sexism & slut-shaming (theme)
  • Homophobia, body-shaming & ableist slurs
  • Sexual assault
  • Depression
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm mentioned, specifically cutting
  • Eating disorder mentioned (bulimia)
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Bullying