Category Archives: Disability Lit

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

Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard

Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She’s back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they’re about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you’re the one left behind?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Hospitalisation for attempted suicide mentioned
  • Depression

What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again.She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size-zero obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Protagonist admitted to an in-patient treatment program at an eating disorder clinic for recovery & related medical issues (theme)
  • Anxiety & self-harm
  • Bullying

Borderline by Mishell Baker

A year ago Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales. For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star, who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted suicied & self-harm

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

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows. While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment (theme)
  • Cheating recounted
  • Nightmares & hallucinations
  • Self-sacrifice (on-page) & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend & boyfriend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Explosions
  • Fire
  • Death from a fall
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • War themes & battle scenes (on-page)
  • Animal death

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical. In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Cheating recounted
  • Nightmares & hallucinations
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death of a brother (on-page)
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Explosion
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Fire
  • Death from a fall recounted
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Imprisonment
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal cruelty