Category Archives: Representation

A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel

Sixteen-year-old Manisha is no stranger to monsters—she’s been running from them for years, from beasts who roam the jungle to the King’s army, who forced her people, the naga, to scatter to the ends of the earth. You might think that the kingdom’s famed holy temples atop the floating mountains, where Manisha is now a priestess, would be safe—but you would be wrong. Seventeen-year-old Pratyush is a famed slayer of monsters, one of the King’s most prized warriors and a frequent visitor to the floating temples. For every monster the slayer kills, years are added to his life. You might think such a powerful warrior could… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape discussed
  • Blood, gore & body horror including mutilation in which women have their mouths sewn shut and tongues cut out

All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi

As the long-lost heir to the Jinn throne, Alizeh has finally found her people—and she might’ve found her crown. Cyrus, the mercurial ruler of Tulan, has offered her his kingdom in a twisted exchange: one that would begin with their marriage and end with his murder. Cyrus’s dark reputation precedes him; all the world knows of his blood-soaked past. Killing him should be easy—and accepting his offer might be the only way to fulfill her destiny and save her people. But the more Alizeh learns of him, the more she questions whether the terrible stories about him are true… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm & self-sacrifice
  • Blood & injury depiction including loss of an eye
  • Torture
  • Knife & sword violence

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father’s beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start. And for just a short while, these new beginnings… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia & deadnaming
  • Physical & emotional domestic violence
  • Child abuse
  • Self-harm
  • Attempted suicide discussed
  • Abortion
  • Murder of a trans woman (theme)
  • Physical assault
  • Drunk driving car accident
  • Police brutality
  • Bullying

Valley Verified by Kyla Zhao

On paper, Zoe Zeng has made it in New York’s fashion world. After a string of unpaid internships, she’s now a fashion columnist at Chic, lives in a quaint apartment in Manhattan, and gets invited to exclusive industry events. But life in New York City isn’t as chic as Zoe imagined. Her editor wants her to censor her opinions to please the big brands; she shares her “quaint” ( small) apartment with two roommates who never let her store kimchi in the fridge; and how is she supposed to afford the designer clothes expected for those parties on her meager salary? Then one… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Sexual harassment

Sweet Vengeance by Viano Oniomoh

Joy needs a deal with a demon to bring an end to the man who’d ruined her life. Malachi needs a deal with a human so he can remain in the mortal realm, far from the sentries looking to drag him back to his sect in hell. It’s a match seemingly made in heaven. Except, Malachi doesn’t expect Joy’s thirst for vengeance to taste so sweet, and Joy doesn’t expect a freaking demon to revive everything in her she’d thought long-dead. After the deal is struck, and their contract had some to an end, they both realise that one contract will not nearly be enough.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Victim-blaming recounted
  • Rape & incestuous childhood sexual abuse recounted
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Nightmares & panic attacks
  • Self-harm
  • Murder
  • Stalking

The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau

One year ago, a tragic car accident killed 22-year-old Laine’s parents and left her 18-year-old sister, Alyssa, paralyzed and nonverbal. Now—instead of studying animal nutrition or competing as one of the few equestrians of color—Laine is struggling with predatory banks, unscrupulous health care organizations, and rude customers at the coffee shop where she works. That’s why when Lake Forest Adult Day Center offers to take care of Alyssa, free of charge, Laine is relieved. Alyssa isn’t relieved, though. After all, in her mind, there was never a car accident. Instead, she and her parents—the king and queen of Mirendal—were attacked one year ago in the forest, her parents kidnapped… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault of a disabled person
  • Anxiety & panic attack
  • Death of both parents in a car accident
  • Car accident resulting in traumatic mutism & paralysis

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj

Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is limited to a few hours a day and the communal taps have long lines. Lately, though, even that access is threatened by severe water shortages and thieves who are stealing this precious commodity—an act that Minni accidentally witnesses one night. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where she just started to work, she discovers that water streams out of every faucet and there’s even a rooftop swimming pool. What Minni also discovers there is one of the water mafia bosses. Now she must decide whether to expose him and risk her job and maybe her life… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Water scarcity (theme)
  • Poverty

Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir and illustrated by Myisha Haynes

When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert decide to foster a teenage girl for the first time, their lives are changed forever. Their redheaded foster daughter, Anne Shirley, is in search of an exciting life and has decided that West Philly is where she’s going to find it. Armed with a big personality and unstoppable creativity, Anne takes her new home by storm as she joins the robotics club, makes new friends in Diana and Gilbert, experiences first love, and turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. But as Anne starts to get comfortable, she discovers one thing she wasn’t looking for: a family.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism discussed
  • Experiences in & trauma from the foster care system discussed
  • Hospitalisation for a medical emergency
  • Bullying

The Dark Place by Britney S. Lewis

Seventeen-year-old Hylee Williams didn’t ask to disappear. But she did disappear, and not only that, but when she vanished from our world, she materialized in a dark, twisted version of the night that changed her life forever: the night her older brother went missing. Just as Hylee realizes this moment could be the key to unraveling the truth about her brother, she’s yanked away from the dark place back to our world. Craving a sense of normalcy, she goes to a party with her best friend–where she meets Eilam Roads. Tall, handsome, and undeniably, inexplicably familiar, Hylee can’t help the pull she feels towards him. It’s a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Disappearance & presumed death of a brother

Death and Night by Roshani Chokshi

He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a chance meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. But danger crouches in their paths, and the choices they make will set them on a journey that will span lifetimes.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Death during childbirth mentioned
  • Death of a husband