The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water. There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Graphic animal death & cruelty

Abel by Katee Robert

Abel by Katee Robert

Eight years ago, my family was betrayed by those closest to us. Now we’re back in Sabine Valley, staging our return during the feast of Lammas, where I step into the ring and ensure we’re given what we’re owed. Who we’re owed. Our enemies send their seven best warriors against me. With each victory, I win a Bride for each of my brothers. And for me? I’m saving the best for last. My Bride is Harlow, the woman claimed by the man I used to call friend—the one responsible for our exile. Eli. And if Eli has a problem with it? Well, then I’ll take him as my Bride, too. All the better to enact my revenge…and bring Sabine Valley to its knees.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Injury requiring surgery (gunshot wound)
  • Death of a mother from cancer mentioned
  • Murder of a father recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Mass death in an arson fire mentioned

16 Steps to Forever by Georgia Beers

16 Steps to Forever by Georgia Beers

If there’s one thing Brooke Sullivan knows for sure it’s that people let you down, but that hasn’t stopped her from going after the life she wants. In a new city, with a new job and a new start as a high-end real estate agent, she’s finally back on her feet. The last thing she needs is a distraction. Not her volatile neighbours, not a damn stray cat, and certainly not the flaky, infuriatingly adorkable girl-next-door property stager she has to work with. Macy Carr believes in soul mates and true love. She knows because she had it all until a freak accident took the love of her life… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Panic attack
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100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen

100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen

There are only three things that can get seventeen-year-old Molly Byrne out of bed these days: her job at FishTopia, the promise of endless episodes of Golden Girls, and some delicious lo mien. You see, for the past two years, Molly’s been struggling with something more than your usual teenage angst. Her shrink, Dr Brooks isn’t helping much, and neither is her mom who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure Molly of her depression—as if cake can magically make her rejoin the swim team, get along with her promiscuous sister, or care about the SATs… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depression
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Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

When they were kids, Fassen’s fighter spaceship crash-landed on a planet that Lu’s survey force was exploring. It was a forbidden meeting between a kid from a war-focused resistance movement and a kid whose community and planet are dedicated to peace and secrecy. Lu and Fassen are from different worlds and separate solar systems. But their friendship keeps them in each other’s orbit as they grow up. They stay in contact in secret as their communities are increasingly threatened by the omnipresent, ever-expanding empire. As the empire begins a new attack against… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent, off-page
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • War themes & colonialization
  • Animal death
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Because of You by Pip Harry

Because of You by Pip Harry

Tiny is homeless. Nola has everything she could ask for. They meet when Nola is forced into volunteer work for the writers’ group at the homeless shelter where Tiny is staying, and at first, it seems impossible that two people who are so different could ever be friends. But despite her initial prejudice, Nola quickly learns that there isn’t much separating her from the people who live on the streets. And Tiny begins to see that falling down doesn’t mean you never get back up. Because of You is a story about homelessness, prejudice and the power of words to provide a little hope… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Post-natal depression
  • Substance addiction
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a friend
  • Homelessness
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The Little Wave by Pip Harry

The Little Wave by Pip Harry

When a Manly school sets out to bring a country class to the city for a beach visit, three very different kids find each other and themselves. Noah is fearless in the surf. Being at the beach makes him feel free. So where does his courage go when his best mate pushes him around? Lottie loves collecting facts about bugs, but she wishes her dad would stop filling their lonely house with junk. She doesn’t know what to do about it. Jack wants to be a cricket star, but first he has to get to school and look after his little sister. Especially if he wants to go on the class trip and see the ocean for the first time.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parent with Hoarding Disorder
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & wife recounted
  • Near-drowning recounted
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Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein

Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein

What if you knew exactly when you’d meet the love of your life? Edie Meyer knows. When her Grandma Gloria was a young woman, she had a vision of the exact day she would meet her soul mate—and then Grandpa Ray showed up. Since then, Gloria has accurately predicted the day every single member of the family has met their match. Edie’s day arrives on June 24, 2022, when she’s twenty-nine years old. She has been waiting for it for half her life. That morning, she boards an aeroplane to her twin sister’s surprise engagement, and when a handsome musician sits beside her, she… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling recounted
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The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr Fakhri’s neighbourhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-coloured ink. Then Mr Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favourite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms and the little stationery shop remains their favourite place in all of Tehran… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Self-induced abortion mentioned
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The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

Danielle Cain is a queer punk rock traveller, jaded from a decade on the road. Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious and sudden suicide, she ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa. All is not well in Freedom, however: things went awry after the town’s residents summoned a protector spirit to serve as their judge and executioner. Danielle shows up in time to witness the spirit—a blood-red, three-antlered deer—begin to turn on its summoners. Danielle and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town—or get out alive.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Suicide
  • Death of a friend
  • Animal death
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