The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck.

Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.

Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia, homomisia & bimisia
  • Coming out themes
  • Body shaming
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Abusive relationship
  • Anxiety
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Minor blood depiction and physical injuries
  • Hospital
  • Emesis
  • (Tattoo) needles
  • Car accident
  • Online harassment
  • Stalking from paparazzi and invasions of privacy
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Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake book cover

“I need Owen to explain this. Because yes, I do know that Owen would never do that, but I also know Hannah would never lie about something like that.”

Mara and Owen are about as close as twins can get. So when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn’t know what to think. Can the brother she loves really be guilty of such a violent crime? Torn between the family she loves and her own sense of right and wrong, Mara is feeling lost, and it doesn’t help that things have been strained with her ex-girlfriend and best friend since childhood, Charlie.

As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie navigate this new terrain, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits in her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Coming out themes
  • Bimisia
  • Internalised enbymisia
  • Slut-shaming
  • Victim blaming, discussed
  • Misogyny
  • Racist microaggressions
  • Rape, central theme
  • Sexual assault
  • Paedophillia*
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Panic attacks, multiple occurrences on-page
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Minor injury, mentioned
  • Hospital visit, mentioned
  • Medical procedure including a rape kit, recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

*Main character, who is a minor, is sexually abused by her teacher

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The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk

The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk

Autumn always knew exactly who she was—a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan always turned to writing love songs when his love life was a little less than perfect.

But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan can’t stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered.

Despite the odds, one band’s music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bimisia
  • Suicide recounted
  • Panic attacks
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Recreational drug use, & drug abuse mentioned
  • Terminal cancer (leukemia)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a best friend recounted
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death of an ex-boyfriend recounted
  • Car accident recounted
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Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Biphobia & internalised biphobia
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption

Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala

Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala

Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala book cover

Raffy has a passion for bedazzling. Not just bedazzling, but sewing, stitching, draping, pattern making–for creation. He’s always chosen his art over everything–and everyone–else and is determined to make his mark at this year’s biggest cosplay competition. If he can wow there, it could lead to sponsorship, then art school, and finally earning real respect for his work. There’s only one small problem… Raffy’s ex-boyfriend, Luca, is his main competition.

Raffy tried to make it work with Luca. They almost made the perfect team last year after serendipitously meeting in the rhinestone aisle at the local craft store–or at least Raffy thought they did… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bimisia
  • Coming out themes
  • Outing
  • Emotional abuse
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks
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Cruel Summer by Juno Dawson

Cruel Summer by Juno Dawson

A year after Janey’s suicide, her friends reunite at a remote Spanish villa, desperate to put the past behind them. However, an unwelcome guest arrives claiming to have evidence that Janey was murdered. When she is found floating in the pool, it becomes clear one of them is a killer. Only one thing is for certain, surviving this holiday is going to be murder…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bimisia
  • Suicide
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
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About a Girl by Joanne Horniman

About a Girl by Joanne Horniman

Anna is afraid she must be unlovable—until she meets Flynn. Together, the girls swim, eat banana cake, laugh, and love. Some days Flynn is unreachable; other days she’s at Anna’s door—but when Anna discovers Flynn’s secret, she wonders if she knows her at all. This beautifully crafted novel explores the tension between the tender moments that pull people together and the secrets that push them apart.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Biphobia
  • Depression
  • Car accident

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Queerphobia & mentions of disownment from queerphobic parents
  • Transphobia, internalised transphobia, misgendering & deadnaming
  • Biphobia & internalised biphobia
  • Coming out themes
  • Racism & racist microaggressions
  • Parental abandonment
  • Emotional parental & domestic abuse mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Top surgery recounted & Hormone Replacement Therapy
  • Needles & injections (on-page)
  • Scars
  • Bullying
  • Cyberbullying, cyberharassment, catfishing & doxxing