Toffee by Sarah Crossan

Toffee by Sarah Crossan

Also known as Being Toffee.

One is trying to forget. The other is trying to remember.

After running away from an abusive home, Allison finds herself taking shelter in a shed behind an abandoned house. But the house isn’t empty after all; an elderly woman named Marla, who suffers from dementia, lives there. And rather than turn her away, Marla welcomes her – she mistakes Allison for an old friend from her past named Toffee.

Allison is used to hiding who she really is, and trying to be what other people want her to be, so she decides to play along. But as their bond grows, and Allison discovers how much Marla needs a real companion, Allison begins to waver. They both deserve a home, a safe place, and a family – but at what cost?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Slut shaming
  • Sexual harassment
  • Physical, verbal & emotional child abuse (theme)
  • Domestic violence and physical & emotional abuse
  • Elder abuse
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Depersonalisation
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use (smoking)
  • Death from childbirth & traumatic childbirth mentioned
  • Dementia (theme)
  • Minor blood depiction & physical injuries, including burns
  • Emesis
  • Hospital
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & wife recounted
  • Homelessness
  • Animal death
  • Death of a pet dog mentioned
  • Animal attack mentioned
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A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Eyeball trauma recounted
  • Death of an aunt
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Home invasion
  • Attempted kidnapping
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Animal attack recounted
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Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

In order to protect Prince Lucien d’Malvane’s heart, Zera had to betray him. Now, he hates the sight of her. Trapped in Cavanos as a prisoner of the king, she awaits the inevitable moment her witch severs their magical connection and finally ends her life. But fate isn’t ready to give her up just yet.

With freedom coming from the most unlikely of sources, Zera is given a second chance at life as a Heartless. But it comes with a terrible price. As the king mobilizes his army to march against the witches, Zera must tame an elusive and deadly valkerax trapped in the tunnels underneath the city if she wants to regain her humanity.

Winning over a bloodthirsty valkerax? Hard. Winning back her friends before war breaks out? A little harder. But a Heartless winning back Prince Lucien’s heart? The hardest thing she’s ever done.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Persecution for witchcraft (theme)
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Self-harm (on-page)
  • Self-sacrifice discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a grandfather mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Imprisonment
  • War themes (central theme)
  • Animal cruelty & torture
  • Animal injury, blood & body parts
  • Animal attack
  • Hunting mentioned
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Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett book cover

Ever since last year’s homecoming dance, best friends-turned-best enemies Zorie and Lennon have made an art of avoiding each other. It doesn’t hurt that their families are the modern-day Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets. But when a group camping trip goes south, Zorie and Lennon find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Alone. Together. What could go wrong?

With no one but each other for company, Zorie and Lennon have no choice but to hash out their issues via witty jabs and insults as they try to make their way to safety. But fighting each other while also fighting off the forces of nature makes getting out of the woods in one piece less and less likely.

And as the two travel deeper into Northern California’s rugged backcountry, secrets and hidden feelings surface. But can Zorie and Lennon’s rekindled connection survive out in the real world? Or was it just a result of the fresh forest air and the magic of the twinkling stars?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableist language
  • Lesbomisia
  • Racism
  • Islamophobia
  • Cheating
  • Anxiety attacks (on-page)
  • Depression mentioned
  • Suicide of a parent
  • Blood depiction & physical injury
  • Chronic illness (main character, specifically hives)
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & mother recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Plane crash mentioned
  • Animal attacks, specifically snake and bear attacks
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The Golden Tower by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

The Golden Tower by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

A generation ago, powerful mage Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn’t succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt.

Facing up to what he is, Callum has battled chaos and evil across four years of magical training at the Magisterium, eventually defeating the armies of chaos in an epic battle.

It came at a cost.

Now, triumphant and heartbroken, Callum Hunt has just about had enough, and is ready to complete his training. But the evil Callum faced has not given up just yet…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism, internalised ableism & ableist language
  • Nightmares
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend discussed
  • Death of a mother, wife and son recounted
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Kidnapping recounted & hostage situation
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • Fire
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Bullying
  • Animal attack
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Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti

Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti

Anna by Niccolo Ammaniti book cover

When everything is gone, and the future abandoned, what remains for us?

It is four years since the virus came, killing every adult in its path. Not long after that the electricity failed. Food and water started running out. Fires raged uncontrolled across the country.

Now Anna cares for her brother alone in a house hidden in the woods, keeping him safe from ‘the Outside’, scavenging for food amid the packs of wild dogs that roam their ruined, blackened world.

Before their mother died, she told them to love each other and never part. She told them that, when they reach adulthood, the sickness will claim them too. But she also told them that someone, somewhere, will have a cure. When the time comes, Anna knows, they must leave their world and find another.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape (mentioned)
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Animal death and animal attack
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The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

Callum Hunt’s summer break isn’t like other kids’. His closest companion is a Chaos-ridden wolf, Havoc. His father suspects him of being secretly evil. And, of course, most kids aren’t heading back to the magical world of the Magisterium in the fall.

It’s not easy for Call . . . and it gets even harder after he checks out his basement and discovers that his dad might be trying to destroy both him and Havoc.

Call escapes to the Magisterium — but things only intensify there. The Alkahest — a copper gauntlet capable of separating certain magicians from their magic — has been stolen. And in their search to discover the culprit, Call and his friends Aaron and Tamara awaken the attention of some very dangerous foes — and get closer to an even more dangerous truth.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism, internalised ableism & ableist language
  • Child abuse
  • Physical injuries, scars & surgery mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & wife recounted
  • Murder & mass murder (off-page)
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes
  • Animal experiments mentioned
  • Bullying
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The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

Most people would do anything to get into the Magisterium and pass the Iron Trial. Not Callum Hunt.

Call has been told his whole life that he should never trust a magician. And so he tries his best to do his worst — but fails at failing. Now he must enter the Magisterium. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister. And Call realizes it has dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . . 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism, internalised ableism & ableist language
  • Physical injuries, scars & surgery mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & wife recounted
  • Murder & mass murder (off-page)
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death and animal attack
  • Bullying
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Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power book cover

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror (theme)
  • Human experimentation
  • Physical injuries, including loss of limb & eyeball trauma
  • Needles
  • Hospital
  • Emesis
  • Nonconensualmedical treatment
  • Starvation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted mass murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Hanging
  • Bombing mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Chemical gassing
  • Animal death & dead bodies
  • Animal illness
  • Animal hunting
  • Death by an animal attack

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Persecution for ‘witchcraft’ (theme)
  • Indentured servitude and slavery
  • Forced underaged sex work recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Disownment
  • Substance and gambling addiction
  • Nightmares
  • Coerced suicide (implied)
  • Alcohol consumption, recreational drug use & non-consensual drugging including forced and coerced drug dependency
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including dead bodies, emesis, medical experimentation, plague, eyeball trauma, and non-consensual body modifications
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & brother recounted
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Knife and gun violence
  • Torture
  • Strangulation
  • Explosions
  • Kidnapping and captivity
  • Incarceration
  • Drowning
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack & death by an animal attack
  • Bullying