The Education of Margot Sánchez by Lilliam Rivera

The Education of Margot Sánchez by Lilliam Rivera

Things/people Margot hates: Mami, for destroying my social life; Papi, for allowing Junior to become a Neanderthal; Junior, for becoming a Neanderthal; this supermarket; everyone else.

After “borrowing” her father’s credit card to finance a more stylish wardrobe, Margot Sánchez suddenly finds herself grounded. And by grounded, she means working in her family’s struggling grocery store to pay off her debts.

With each order of deli meat she slices, Margot can feel her carefully cultivated prep school reputation slipping through her fingers, and she’s willing to do anything to get out of this punishment. Lie, cheat, and maybe even steal… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Physical assault
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XL by Scott Brown

XL by Scott Brown

Will Daughtry is a late bloomer–at least that’s what everyone tells the high school sophomore, who is just shy of five feet. By his sixteenth birthday, Will is resigned, bitterly, to being tiny forever. His only comfort is his best friend and stepbrother, Drew (6’3″), and their pal Monica (5’10”), the girl Will’s secretly pined for since fifth grade. With them, he feels whole; everyone else sees him as a half man. But when Will stumbles onto Drew and Monica kissing, he realizes he’s on his own.

That’s when he starts to grow. And grow fast. Astonishingly fast… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying
  • Cyberharassment
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Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throw downs and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but the sixteen-year-old grows weary of the life. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city’s benevolent founder and cross the border in a search for a mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders. Led by a reluctant guide, Nalah battles other crews and her own doubts, but the closer she gets to her goal, the more she loses sight of everything—and everyone— she cares about… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Self harm
  • Substance addiction (theme)
  • Addiction recovery, including withdrawal
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Prescription drug abuse
  • Overdose
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Dead bodies mentioned
  • Physical injury
  • Car accident
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When Jeff Comes Home by Catherine Atkins

When Jeff Comes Home by Catherine Atkins

It’s been two years since Jeff Hart was kidnapped. Now, his abductor is releasing him to return home. When Jeff finds his family, he feels shell-shocked and unable to tell anyone what happened. He can’t believe any of his family or friends will understand what he has been through.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Child pornography
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Knife violence
  • Whipping
  • Kidnapping and captivity
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Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault

Adèle has only one goal: catch the purple-haired thief who broke into her home and stole her exocore, thus proving herself to her new police team. Little does she know, her thief is also the local baker.

Claire owns the Croissant-toi, but while her days are filled with pastries and customers, her nights are dedicated to stealing exocores. These new red gems are heralded as the energy of the future, but she knows the truth: they are made of witches’ souls. When her twin—a powerful witch and prime exocore material—disappears, Claire redoubles in her efforts to investigate. She keeps running into Adèle, however, and whether or not she can save her sister might depend on their conflicted, unstable, but deepening relationship.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misgendering
  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Asthma
  • Human trafficking
  • Human experimentation
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
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The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, meeting others along the way, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted rape
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pandemic
  • Coma
  • Physical illness
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Car accident
  • Animal death
  • Animal injury
  • Hunting mentioned
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope and joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume of her autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evoker her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother’s lover. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • White supremacy & mentions of the Klu Klux Klan
  • Sexism
  • Rape of a child
  • Sexual assault
  • Chronic bronchitis
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Dead body
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
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Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel

Forty years after her death, Janis Joplin remains among the most compelling and influential figures in rock-and-roll history. Her story is one of a girl who struggled against rules and limitations, yet worked diligently to improve as a singer. It’s the story of an outrageous rebel who wanted to be loved, and of a wild woman who wrote long, loving letters to her mom. And finally, it’s the story of one of the most iconic female musicians in American history, who died at twenty-seven.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose
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The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D Jackson

The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz & Tiffany D. Jackson

No one can be at peace until he has his freedom.

In Charlestown Prison, Malcolm Little struggles with the weight of his past. Plagued by nightmares, Malcolm drifts through days unsure of his future. Slowly, he befriends other prisoners and writes to his family. He reads all the books in the prison library, joins the debate team and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm grapples with race, politics, religion, and justice in the 1940s. And as his time in jail comes to an end, he begins to awaken — emerging from prison more than just Malcolm Little: Now, he is Malcolm X.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & white supremacy
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Police brutality
  • Death row executions mentioned
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Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood

Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood

In Life of the Party, Olivia Gatwood she weaves together her own coming of age with an investigation into our culture’s romanticization of violence against women. In precise, searing language—at times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant—she explores the boundary between what is real and what is imagined in a life saturated with fear. How does one grow from a girl to a woman in a world wracked by violence? Where is the line between perpetrator and victim? What is the meaning of bravery? Visceral and haunting, this multifaceted collection illustrates that what happens to our bodies makes us who we are

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Cancer
  • Murder
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