Tag Archives: Bullying & Hazing

One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake

In New York City where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan. After twelve years of tenuous coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Bullying mentioned

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog but she’s got a killer secret. Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhiannon’s life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day, her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening, she dutifully listens to her friends’ plans for marriage and babies while secretly making a list. A kill list. From the man at the grocery checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have it coming, Rhiannon is ready to get her revenge. Because the girl… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Bullying

Everybody’s Favorite by Lillian Stone

Lilian Stone—childhood evangelical, AOL girlfriend, and professional nail biter is always living on the edge of anxiety. From the pitfalls of a girl plagued by religious trauma, the incomprehensible yet unforgiving need for perfection, and a twenty-pound beagle she never meant to keep, Everybody’s Favorite is a refreshing story of what it means to pick yourself when the world is telling you otherwise. Still navigating the ins and outs of adulthood, accompanied by an obsessive-compulsive disorder that’s become an exercise in self-acceptance and thus compassion… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Religious trauma
  • Eating disorder
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Bullying

People to Follow by Olivia Worley

Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars–including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators—it’s about to turn into a nightmare… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault recounted, off-page
  • Anaphylactic allergic reaction
  • Murder
  • Bullying

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sibling abuse recounted*
  • Cheating recounted
  • Prosopagnosia
  • Brain surgery & recovery
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted

*Context: Discussions of the toxic relationship and harassment from a stepsibling including being bullied and being kicked out of school, and being framed for cheating, stealing, and tormenting a classmate resulting in attempted suicide.

Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman

Twin sisters, both on the run, but different as day and night. One, a professional rogue, searches for a fabled treasure; the other, a changeling, searches for the truth behind her origins, trying to find a place to fit in with the realm of fae who made her and the humans who shun her.  Iselia “Seelie” Graygrove looks just like her twin, Isolde… but as an autistic changeling trying to navigate her unpredictable magic, Seelie finds it more difficult to fit in with the humans around her. When Seelie and Isolde are caught up in a heist gone wrong and make some unexpected allies… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & fantastical eugenics
  • Child abuse recounted (sc)
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Loss of autonomy (magical compulsion)
  • Fire
  • Bullying

Desire or Defense by Leah Brunner

The notoriously angry, grouchy, D.C. Eagles defenseman that just can’t keep his temper in check. The temper that leads to a fifteen game suspension from the NHL. As if that’s not bad enough, I’m forced into a short term youth-hockey coaching gig. Which my manager swears will “rebuild my image.” But what I didn’t expect was for a gorgeous, spunky blonde to stomp onto the ice on day one and lecture me about being rude to her little brother. Something about this spitfire of a woman, and the boy she’s so protective of, has my defenses melting. And if I’m not careful, I’ll burst into flames, forever melting the ice I’ve carefully kept around my heart.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Incarceration of a parent
  • Death of parents in a car accident
  • Bullying

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This is how a family keeps a secret and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change and then change the world. This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transmisia
  • Homomisia
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Cancer
  • Bullying

Virals by Kathy Reichs

Tory Brennan, niece of acclaimed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (of the Bones novels and hit TV show), is the leader of a ragtag band of teenage “sci-philes” who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever. As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their newfound physical gift… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Bullying
  • Animal injury & cruelty including medical experimentation

The Packing House by G. Donald Cribbs

When 16-year-old Joel Scrivener has a raging nightmare in study hall and someone records it on their phone, he awakens to a living nightmare where everyone knows his secret, one that he’s suppressed for ten years. Reeling as the whole school finds out the truth, Joel takes to the woods, leaving the bullies and his broken home behind. However, life as a runaway isn’t easy, as Joel’s hallucinations and nightmares follow him into the wilderness. To stop them once and for all, he pieces clues together with flashes of the images that play endlessly inside his head – will he figure out the identity of the person who caused his nightmare before it’s too late?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Graphic sexual assault of a child
  • Domestic abuse
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Substance & gambling addiction
  • Bullying
  • Homelessness