Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

One morning, Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the family taxidermy shop to find that her father has committed suicide, right there on one of the metal tables. Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to manage the failing business, while the rest of the Morton family crumbles. Her mother starts sneaking into the shop to make aggressively lewd art with the taxidermied animals. Her brother Milo withdraws, struggling to function. And Brynn, Milo’s wife—and the only person Jessa’s ever been in love with—walks out without a word. As Jessa seeks out less-than-legal ways of generating income, her mother’s art escalates—picture a figure of her dead husband and a stuffed buffalo in an uncomfortably sexual pose—and the Mortons reach a tipping point. For the first time, Jessa has no choice but to learn who these people truly are, and ultimately how she fits alongside them. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Depression
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father from suicide
  • Graphic animal death
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A Horse Called Hero by Sam Angus

A Horse Called Hero by Sam Angus

It is 1940. As the Second World War escalates and London becomes a target for German bombs, Dodo and her horse-mad little brother Wolfie are evacuated to the country, away from everything they know. After weeks of homesick loneliness, they come across an orphaned foal. They name the horse Hero for surviving against the odds and together they raise him, train him, and learn to ride. Their days are suddenly full of life and excitement again, but the shadow of war looms over their peaceful existence, and soon Hero must live up to his name…

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Explosion
  • Fire
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a pet
  • Animal hunting and poaching
  • Animal dead body (horse) described
  • World War Two, including air raids & Wormhout Massacre
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The Last by Katherine Applegate

The Last by Katherine Applegate

Byx is the youngest member of her dairne pack. Believed to possess remarkable abilities, her mythical doglike species has been hunted to near extinction in the war-torn kingdom of Nedarra.

After her pack is hunted down and killed, Byx fears she may be the last of her species. The Endling. So Byx sets out to find safe haven, and to see if the legends of other hidden dairnes are true.

Along the way, she meets new allies—both animals and humans alike—who each have their own motivations for joining her quest. And although they begin as strangers, they become their own kind of family—one that will ultimately uncover a secret that may threaten every creature in their world.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Sword & knife violence
  • Battle violence
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack
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Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson

2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in the house where she’s staying more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate.

1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.

1919: In the recovery following World War I, Lenore tries to come to terms with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail from England to America. But can she make it that far?

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of children from ‘dust pneumonia’
  • Death of a pet
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The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell

The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell and illustrated by Ian Schoenherr 

When a mysterious parcel arrives at her family’s new home, eleven-year-old Lin Rosenquist has a curious feeling she’s meant to discover what’s inside.

Much to Lin’s surprise, the ornate key contained in the parcel unlocks a spellbinding world called Sylver, hidden behind the cellar door. Sylver is an enchanting land of eternal winter, inhabited by animals that shared a special connection with children in the real world. In death, they are delivered to Sylver, where they take on a curiously human-like form and still watch over the children they cherish. While Lin is overjoyed to be reunited with her beloved pet, Rufus, she soon learns that the magic of the Petlings and Wilders is failing, and snow trolls want to claim Sylver for themselves. Lin must discover a way to stop them and save this enchanted world.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Animal death
  • Death of a pet cat by drowning
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Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre

Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre 

Amarrah Brewer is desperate and grief-stricken. For ages, the town of Bitterburn has sent tribute to the Keep at the End of the World, but a harsh winter leaves them unable to pay the toll that keeps the Beast at bay. Amarrah volunteers to brave what no one has before—to end the threat or die trying.

The Beast of Bitterburn has lost all hope. One way or another, Njål has been a prisoner for his entire life. Monstrous evil has left him trapped and lonely, and he believes that will never change. There is only darkness in his endless exile, never light. Never warmth. Until she arrives.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Illness of a child
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a fiancé
  • Torture
  • Animal pregnancy & stillbirth
  • Animal death (goat)
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Concentration camps
  • Genocide
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Torture
  • War themes
  • Animal death
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Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Animal death
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Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Panic attacks
  • Suicide
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Coma mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion mentioned
  • Strangulation
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • Death from exposure to the cold
  • Drowning
  • Hit-and-run car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Vivisepulture (buried alive)
  • Psychological torture
  • Electrocution
  • Graphic animal death & death of a pet
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The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad’s dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph’s reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy loss
  • Death of a mother
  • Sword violence
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Fire
  • Animal death
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