Category Archives: Representation

Crow Country by Kate Constable

Sadie isn’t thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But soon she starts making connections—with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the ever-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled back in time to view a terrible crime, she is pulled into a strange mystery. Can Sadie, Walter, and Lachie figure out a way to right old wrongs, or will they be condemned to repeat them? A fantasy ground in mythology, this novel has the backing of a full consultative process on the use of indigenous lore.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Murder (hate crime)
  • Destruction & theft of sacred Indigenous sites and objects

Drawing Deena by Hena Khan

Deena’s never given a name to the familiar knot in her stomach that appears when her parents argue about money, when it’s time to go to school, or when she struggles to find the right words. She manages to make it through each day with the help of her friends and the art she loves to make. While her parents’ money troubles cause more and more stress, Deena wonders if she can use her artistic talents to ease their burden. She creates a logo and social media account to promote her mom’s home-based business selling clothes from Pakistan to the local community. With her cousin and friends modeling the outfits and lending… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & panic attacks

Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros

Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren’t hers, and Vera doesn’t know if she gets—or deserves —to have a life beyond what… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Body horror
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & genocide

A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

Sixth-graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a white, Jewish girl meet when they take a South Asian cooking class taught by Sara’s mom. Sixth-graders Sara and Elizabeth could not be more different. Sara is at a new school that is huge and completely unlike the small Islamic school she used to attend. Elizabeth has her own problems: her British mum has been struggling with depression. The girls meet in an after-school South Asian cooking class, which Elizabeth takes because her mom has stopped cooking, and which Sara, who hates to cook, is… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Parent with depression

A Marriage of Lies by Amanda McKinney

Beneath the surface of every marriage there are secrets. This one is deadly. My husband is lying. The minute he came home with alcohol on his breath and unable to look me in the eyes I knew it. We used to be in love – the intense ‘I can’t be without you for a second’ kind. Where it hurts deep to be apart. But now, we’re the couple that keep secrets from each other. We hide the truth. He thought I wouldn’t find out. I’m a detective – it’s literally my job to uncover clues and solve mysteries. I know what he did. And now I’m sitting here, in a police interview, being asked the question ‘did you kill her?’ to which I utter one life-shattering ‘yes.’

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Infidelity
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Murder

Triple Threat by K. Webster

I’m a prisoner in a prestigious world. A perfect princess locked in a tower. My father will never let me go. Not that I could leave. I would never abandon my little sister. Hope comes in the form of a devilishly handsome man with dark eyes and darker secrets. With each encounter, I’m lured deeper into the labyrinth. The danger lurking beneath his surface calls to me, even as it warns me away. Except there’s a new side of him every time we meet. A different danger each time we touch. It’s as if three different men want to devour me. He’s not just one villain. He’s three.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Psychological & physical child abuse with implications of incestuous child sexual abuse (father-daughter)

The Endless War by Danielle L. Jensen

Newly crowned as king, Keris has watched powerless as his forbidden relationship with Zarrah is revealed. But when Zarrah is imprisoned by the Empress, Keris knows there is only one way to save to ally with the kingdom he nearly destroyed. Imprisoned on the dreaded Devil’s Island, Zarrah faces two prove her loyalty to the Empress who condemned her or die a traitor. Yet as she struggles to survive among violent prisoners, Zarrah uncovers a third a rebellion to overthrow tyranny entwined with a destiny she must fight to claim. While the Empress plots war with devastating… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction including cannibalism
  • Battle scenes

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who’s never met a party she couldn’t host or a charge she couldn’t lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion. But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abeism
  • Racism & colourism
  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Secondary character with cancer
  • Hospitalisation of a son for a seizure & concussion
  • Death of a parent from cervical cancer recounted (off-page)
  • Incarceration of a spouse for embezzlement

Keeping 13 by Chloe Walsh

Following a devastating injury that has left him sidelined and stripped of his beloved number 13 jersey, Johnny Kavanagh is struggling to hold onto his dreams. Lost, insecure, and desperately seeking comfort, he sets his sights on unravelling the mystery of the girl with the midnight-blue eyes, who haunts his every waking hour. Keeping secrets has never been a problem for Shannon Lynch. The life she was born into demands nothing less. She knows that demons and evil men don’t just exist in fairytales. They exist in her world, too. Traumatized beyond repair after her return from Dublin, and desperate to protect her little brothers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect by a parent with alcoholism (on-page)
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Substance addiction (secondary character)
  • Unplanned teen pregnancy & miscarriage mentioned
  • Physical injury & illness and hospitalisation for surgery recounted
  • Murder by arson
  • Attempted murder by knife
  • Drowning
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)

Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

They are from opposites sides of the track – but when their two worlds collide, nothing will ever be the same again. Johnny Kavanagh has everything going for him. On the rugby pitch, he’s a force to be reckoned with. Primed for stardom, he’s heading straight for the top. Nothing can possibly get in his way, right? Not even the shy new girl at Tommen College. The one with the sad eyes and hidden bruises. The one that distracts him like no one ever has. Life has never been easy for Shannon Lynch. Bullied and tortured, she arrives at Tommen College mid-way through the school year.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect by a parent with alcoholism (on-page)
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Sexual assault of a minor (side character, off-page)
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Teen pregnancy & miscarriage mentioned
  • Hospitalisation for surgery
  • Physical injury & illness including cyclic vomiting syndrome (on-page)
  • Physical assault
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)