The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

What if? Why not? Could it be? When a fortuneteller’s tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller’s mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical injury
  • Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
  • Death of a father during military service recounted
  • Explosion mentioned
  • Animal illness & injury
  • Animal attack

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan. Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Fatmisia
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries, including having an ear cut off
  • Death of a child
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack
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Sir by NR Walker

Sir by N.R. Walker

Founded over four hundred years ago, Sanctus Infinitus Redemptio is a private and very elite society where dominance and submission are revered. Steeped in tradition and excellence, every Dominant and every submissive, and their pairing, are selected with great care. When Hunter Vargo is brought into the Sanctus, his need for strict dominance sees him paired with the wrong Master. But only a short time later, mistreated and his trust broken, he’s recalled, his collar removed. The Grand Master knows it will take a special kind of Dominant to restore the sub’s faith and… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Animal attack mentioned
  • Bullying mentioned
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The Castaways by Lucy Clarke

You wake on a beautiful, remote island. Sparkling blue seas, golden sunsets, barely a footprint in the sand. Yet this is no ordinary escape. Next to the wreck of a plane, a stranger paces. Another sharpens a knife, scoring a list of the dead onto a palm tree. Others watch from the shadows of a campfire – all with untold stories, and closely-guarded secrets. This is no ordinary holiday. This is no ordinary island. This is no ordinary beach read….

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Spousal & parental abandonment
  • Attempted rape (on-page)
  • Sexual assault (unwanted non-consensual kiss, on-page)
  • Spousal infidelity discussed
  • Suicidal ideation, including an on-page scene where the protagonist begins an attempt by jumping
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug use and abuse mentioned
  • Parent with alcoholism mentioned
  • Starvation and food scarcity
  • Infertility discussed
  • Blood & gore depiction including physical injuries and dead bodies
  • Death of a lover by shark attack (off-page)
  • Disappearance of a sibling (theme)
  • Murder by drowning in self-defence from attempted rape
  • Attempted murder by strangulation
  • Near-death of an infant from choking
  • Plane crash (theme)
  • Animal hunting & butchering (mostly fish)

Steadfast by Claudia Gray

Steadfast by Claudia Gray

Nadia, Mateo, and Verlaine have saved Captive’s Sound from the dark Sorceress Elizabeth…or so they thought. Despite their best efforts, a crack opened and a new, greater evil seeped through. With Mateo as her Steadfast, Nadia’s magic is magnified and she is more powerful than ever. But there is still so much she doesn’t know about the craft, leaving her open and vulnerable to a darker magic…which has begun to call Nadia’s name. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape & attempted rape by coercion (off-page)
  • Parental abandonment
  • Parental divorce
  • Nightmares
  • Suicide discussed
  • Hospitalisation
  • Coma
  • Eye-gouging mentioned
  • Death of a mother from suicide by drowning mentioned
  • Death of a mother & father from viral pneumonia mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Sinkholes, on-page
  • Animal attack
  • Animal death (birds)
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The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

On the morning of her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey… until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents’ fantastical stories-like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this world. To complicate matters, two crush-worthy princes ring her doorbell, insisting they’ve come to rescue her. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Physical child abuse
  • Death of a father in prison recounted
  • Sword violence
  • Kidnapping of children
  • Near-drowning
  • Earthquakes, fire and lightning storms
  • Animal attack (snake)
  • Bullying

Luminous by Mara Rutherford

Luminous by Mara Rutherford

Liora has spent her life in hiding, knowing discovery could mean falling prey to the king’s warlock, Darius, who uses mages’ magic to grow his own power. But when her worst nightmare comes to pass, Darius doesn’t take her. Instead, he demands that her younger sister return to the capital with him. To make matters worse, Evran, Liora’s childhood friend and the only one who knows her secret, goes missing following Darius’s visit, leaving her without anyone to turn to. To find Evran and to save her sister, Liora must embrace the power she has always feared. But the greatest danger she’ll face is yet to come, for Darius has… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Persecution for magic & witchcraft (theme)
  • Blood depiction
  • Dead body
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother in a fire recounted
  • Knife violence
  • Imprisonment mentioned
  • Blackmail
  • Animal attack
  • Animal hunting
  • Animal death, on-page
  • Animal dead bodies mentioned
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A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

You are about to read the true story of Father Christmas. It is a story that proves that nothing is impossible. If you are one of those people who believe that some things are impossible, you should put this book down right away. It is most certainly not for you.
Because this book is FULL of impossible things. Are you still reading? Good. Then let us begin . . .

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Death of a mother from an animal attack (bear)
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Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

With an iron fist, the Great Library controls the knowledge of the world, ruthlessly stamping out all rebellion and, in the name of the greater good, forbidding the personal ownership of books. Jess Brightwell has survived his introduction to the sinister, seductive world of the Library, but serving in its army is nothing like he envisioned. His life and the lives of those he cares for have been altered forever. His best friend is lost, and Morgan, the girl he loves, is locked away in the Iron Tower, doomed to a life apart from… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Terrorism
  • Involuntary breeding programs involving minors
  • Child abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Trauma (central theme)
  • Panic attacks, on-page
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Emesis
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Graphic psychological and physical torture, off-page
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Explosion
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Imprisonment
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Animal attack

Burning Roses by SL Huang

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang

Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, is done with wolves and woods. Hou Yi the Archer is tired, and knows she’s past her prime. They would both rather just be retired, but that’s not what the world has ready for them. When deadly sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, threatening everything they’ve both grown to love, the two must join forces. Now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, they begin a quest that’s a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Smoking
  • Starvation
  • Burn scars mentioned
  • Murder of a grandmother mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Fire, on-page
  • Animal attack
  • Animal death