Category Archives: Disability Lit

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything. 

Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Bullying

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Frances has been a study machine with one goal. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. Then Frances meets Aled, and for the first time she’s unafraid to be herself.

So when the fragile trust between them is broken, Frances is caught between who she was and who she longs to be. Now Frances knows that she has to confront her past. To confess why Carys disappeared…

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a pet

Heartstopper: Volume Four by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 4 by Alice Oseman

Charlie didn’t think Nick could ever like him back, but now they’re officially boyfriends. Charlie’s beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.

Nick’s been feeling the same, but he’s got a lot on his mind – not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.

As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Bimisia
  • Coming out & outing mentioned
  • Eating disorder (anorexia)
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  • Self-harm
  • Voluntary psychiatric hospitalisation
  • Bullying mentioned

Heartstopper: Volume Three by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 3 by Alice Oseman

In this volume, we’ll see the Heartstopper gang go on a school trip to Paris! Not only are Nick and Charlie navigating a new city, but also telling more people about their relationship and learning more about the challenges each other are facing in private…

Meanwhile, Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem… rather close…?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Outing mentioned
  • Homomisia
  • Bimisia
  • Disordered eating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Self-harm recounted, off-page

Heartstopper: Volume Two by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 2 by Alice Oseman

Nick and Charlie are best friends. Nick knows Charlie’s gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn’t.

But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family … and himself.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Disordered eating
  • Bullying

Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman

Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn’t been too great, but at least he’s not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He’s heard a little about Charlie – the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months – but he’s never had the opportunity to talk to him.

They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Outing recounted
  • Homomisia
  • Sexual assault, on-page
  • Bullying

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Overstory by Richard Powers

An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another.

These four, and five other strangers – each summoned in different ways by trees – are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Suicide
  • Police brutality
  • Torture
  • Asphyxiation
  • Eco-terrorism

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford’s campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral–viewed by eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time.

Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Medical examination
  • Trauma (theme)
  • Gun violence

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Mutism (protagonist)
  • Nightmares
  • Alcoholism, implied
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a brother by knife violence recounted
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Death of a cousin (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Strangulation
  • Bullying
  • Graphic animal death (crow, cat)

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller

Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power. Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims’ secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault (unwanted kiss)
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks (on-page)
  • Agoraphobia & claustrophobia
  • Self-harm for magic
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction & emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder (on-page)