Tag Archives: Alcoholism

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, LaPointe explores themes ranging from indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty. Unapologetically punk, the essays segue between the miraculous and the mundane, the spiritual and the physical, as they examine the role of art and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Parent with substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Abortion & miscarriage
  • COVID-19 pandemic discussed

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons. In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Parental divorce
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from cancer
  • Death of a parent in a car accident mentioned
  • Near-drowning incident

This Is Why They Hate Us by Aaron H. Aceves

Enrique “Quique” Luna has one goal this summer—get over his crush on Saleem Kanazi by pursuing his other romantic prospects. Never mind that he’s only out to his best friend, Fabiola. Never mind that he has absolutely zero game. And definitely forget the fact that good and kind and, not to mention, beautiful Saleem is leaving L.A. for the summer to meet a girl his parents are trying to set him up with. Enrique “Quique” Luna has one goal this summer—get over his crush on Saleem Kanazi by pursuing his other romantic prospects. Never mind that he’s only out to his best friend, Fabiola. N…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hate crime recounted (off-page)
  • Coming out
  • Homophobia & slurs
  • Anxiety, intrusive thoughts & depression
  • Suicidal ideation & mentions of suicide
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Gambling
  • Mass shooting mentioned
  • Bullying

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter

When David quit his band, he missed his shot at fame. For the past two years, he’s been trapped in an ordinary Seattle high school life, working summers for his dad’s construction business while his former best friends Chance and Eli became the hottest teen pop act in America. Then Eli dies. Suddenly David and Chance are thrown back into contact, forcing David to rediscover all the little things that once made the two of them so close, even as he continues to despise the singer’s posturing and attention-hogging. As old wounds break open, an unexpected kiss leads the boys to trade frenemy status for a confusing, tentative… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Death of a friend from alcohol poisoning (teenager)

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is. Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe, a notorious and unforgive….Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Persecution for witchcraft including mass murder of witches recounted
  • Enslavement recounted
  • Rape recounted (multiple, forced sexual relationship)
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism recovery (laudanum, opium)
  • Murder by gun violence and explosion
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence

We Can Be Heroes by Kyrie McCauley

Beck and Vivian never could stand each other, but they always tried their best for their mutual friend, Cassie. After the town moves on from Cassie’s murder too fast, Beck and Vivian finally find common ground: vengeance. They memorialize Cassie by secretly painting murals of her around town, a message to the world that Cassie won’t be forgotten. But Beck and Vivian are keeping secrets, like the third passenger riding in Beck’s VW bus with them—Cassie’s ghost. When their murals catch the attention of a podcaster covering Cassie’s case, they become the catalyst,,, Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Statutory rape mentioned
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Lung cancer
  • Gun violence
  • School shooting
  • Car accident mentioned

Wrath by Ella James

Josh Miller. That’s his name, but I just call him DG for Do Gooder. This guy is relentless. All-American, baby-faced, blue-eyed band dork who’s not a band dork at all, because you can’t be a dork when you’re getting scouted to play college soccer. When he’s not doing music or sports, DG is counting up his Boy Scout badges or front-rowing it at the First Baptist church. DG is my new stepbrother. Little brother. I’m a whole year older, not that he knows. I don’t think he knows I’m starting senior year a whole year late. And he definitely doesn’t know why. I’ve got secrets I’m taking with me to the grave. Everyone thinks I came into… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Rape recounted, on-page
  • Conversion therapy recounted
  • Amnesia
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Overdose, on-page
  • Car accident

Final Offer by Lauren Asher

Callahan. I’m the Kane brother everyone gossips about behind closed doors. Trust fund brat. Washed-up athlete. High-functioning alcoholic. No one knows the real me but her. Lana Castillo—my childhood best friend and the only woman I ever loved. When I broke her heart six years ago, I promised to never return to Lake Wisteria. I kept my word until my grandfather’s will changed everything. To receive my inheritance, I was tasked with spending a summer at the family lake house before selling it. The request was simple in theory until my entire plan blew up on the very first day. Turns out Lana doesn’t just live at the house, but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Emotional & verbal child abuse
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Drug use (smoking)
  • Overdose recounted
  • Infertility
  • Cancer
  • Death of a grandfather
  • Animal abuse

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare — poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world’s top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him “The Fittest (Real) Man in America.”

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Military enlistment & deployment (theme)

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

Bast knows how to bargain. The give-and-take of a negotiation is as familiar to him as the in-and-out of breathing; to watch him trade is to watch an artist at work. But even a master’s brush can slip. When he accepts a gift, taking something for nothing, Bast’s whole world is knocked askew, for he knows how to bargain—but not how to owe. From dawn to midnight over the course of a single day, follow the Kingkiller Chronicle’s most charming fae as he schemes and sneaks, dancing into trouble and back out again with uncanny grace.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & domestic abuse, off-page
  • Alcoholism discussed
  • Self-harm for magic
  • Blood depiction