Category Archives: Representation

In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant

In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant

In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant

Nature abhors a straight line. The natural world is a place of curves and softened edges, of gentle mists and welcoming spirals. Nature remembers deviation; nature does not forgive.

For Harlowe Upton-Jones, life has never been a straight line. Shipped off to live with her paternal grandparents after a mysterious cult killed her mother and father, she has grown up chasing the question behind the curve, becoming part of a tight-knit teen detective agency. But “teen” is a limited time offer, and when her friends start looking for adult professions, it’s up to Harlowe to find them one last case so that they can go out in a blaze of glory.

Welcome to Spindrift House.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Necrophilia mentioned
  • Suicide

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Parental abandonment & disownment
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Domestic abuse
  • Abusive dom-sub relationship
  • Psychosis
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Attempted suicide
  • Graphic self-harm
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Death of an infant
  • Animal death & cruelty

The Pirate’s Booty by Alex Westmore

The Pirate’s Booty by Alex Westmore

The Pirate's Booty by Alex Westmore

When Quinn Gallagher’s childhood friend is abducted from a dock in Ireland, she’ll do whatever it takes to come to the rescue—even if that means dressing as a man and joining the crew of one of the most notorious pirate captains the world has ever seen.

Quinn soon finds there is much to enjoy living as a man, in particular the company of other women. When she finds herself falling hard for Lady Fiona, a woman far above her own station, she is torn between revealing her true identity and continuing the façade of being a male pirate. Love is never easy, especially in the sixteenth century and especially under false pretenses.

Can Quinn live with one foot in two different worlds, or must she consign herself to either the lusty life of a pirate or the loveless life of a noble woman? Come sail the high seas in this exciting and erotic adventure with the fierce pirate Gallagher as your guide. You’re in for a wild ride and may even score some booty along the way.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Homomisia
  • Gore
  • Slavery

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

“A castle, a killer, and prey all bound and blurred by lust and blood.”

Like many before her that have never come back, she’s made it to the Countess’ castle determined to snuff out the horror, but she could never be prepared for what hides within its turrets; what unfurls under its fluttering flags. Emily Carroll has fashioned a rich gothic horror charged with eroticism that doesn’t just make your skin crawl, it crawls into it.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Graphic body horror & blood depiction
  • Kidnapping
  • Knife violence
  • Suicide mentioned

InSEXts Vol 1: Chrysalis by Marguerite Bennett

InSEXts Vol 1: Chrysalis by Marguerite Bennett

InSEXts Vol 1: Chrysalis by Marguerite Bennett

Collecting the first seven issues of the hit series INSEXTS, from writer Marguerite Bennett and artist Ariela Kristantina. At the dusk of a century, a pair of vengeful Victorian vixens discover a horrifying power that transforms them into rich and strange new creatures. Armed with their dark, evolving forms, they descend into a world of the cultured and occult, with new senses and new sensuality, to forge a life for themselves and the child of their love

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • Sexual assault, implied
  • Body horror & gore
  • Torture

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)

The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab

Shades of Magic Vol. 3: The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab and illustrated by Andrea Olimpieri

Once just a single ship, now the pirate fleet of the Rebel Army numbers in its thousands. Made up of traitors from each of the three empires, the fleet, who once made the open waters of the Blood Coast their home, have set their sights on establishing their own land based empire with London as their capital.

The Rebel Army is a battalion made up of traitors to each of the three empires, who’ve claimed the open waters of the Blood Coast as their territory. Led by a Faroan, a Veskan, and an Arnesian (Rowan, the Antari from the Night of Knives), the RA started as a rag-tag gang, a single ship, but in the last few months, they’ve gained momentum… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide
  • Torture

The Steel Prince by V.E. Schwab

Shades of Magic, Vol. 1: The Steel Prince by V.E. Schwab and illustrated by Andrea Olimpieri

Delve into the thrilling, epic tale of the young and arrogant prince Maxim Maresh, long before he became the king of Red London and adoptive father to Kell, the lead of A Darker Shade of Magic!

The youthful Maresh is sent to a violent and unmanageable port city on the Blood Coast of Verose, on strict orders from his father, King Nokil Maresh, to cut his military teeth in this lawless landscape.

There, he encounters an unruly band of soldiers, a lawless landscape, and the intoxicatingly deadly presence of the newly returned pirate queen, Arisa…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Torture

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine. But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her newfound power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other. With Marcella’s rise, new enmities create opportunity–and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Alcoholism, alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Vivisection
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Graphic torture
  • Fire
  • Drowning

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Prince Rhy was wounded, and since the nefarious Dane twins of White London fell, and four months since the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift–back into Black London.

Now, restless after having given up his smuggling habit, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks as she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games–an extravagant international competition of magic meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighbouring countries–a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Self-harm
  • Torture