Tag Archives: Bullying & Hazing

Force of Nature by Jane Harper 

Force of Nature by Jane Harper

The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that’s what the corporate retreat website advertises.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.

The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Cheating, on-page
  • Revenge pornography of a minor discussed
  • Alcohol consumption, on-page
  • Alcoholism & substance addiction discussed
  • Drug use & abuse recounted
  • Graphic smoking, on-page
  • Eating disorder and disordered food & weight thoughts, on-page
  • Abortion & miscarriage mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction, including a fractured wrist, head wounds, burn scars, and hospitalisation for an infected snakebite
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder
  • Animal attack (snake)
  • Bullying

Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia

Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia

Cat lives in her high school. She never leaves, and for a long time her school has provided her with everything she needs. But now things are changing. The hallways contract and expand along with the school’s breathing, and the showers in the bathroom run a bloody red. Cat’s best friend is slowly turning into cardboard, and instead of a face, Cat has a cat mask made of her own hardened flesh.

Cat doesn’t remember why she is trapped in her school or why half of them—Cat included—are slowly transforming. Escaping has always been the one impossibility in her school’s upside-down world. But to save herself from the eventual self-destruction all the students face, Cat must find the way out. And to do that, she’ll have to remember what put her there in the first place.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Eating disorders mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Bullying

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang 

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road. Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? The nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child neglect
  • Depression
  • Eating disorders mentioned
  • Suicide
  • Death of a parent
  • Bullying

The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake

The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake

Miss Saunders, who’s skin is blotched with a rare skin condition, serves as a mirror to Maleeka Madison’s struggle against the burden of low self-esteem that many black girls face when they’re darker skinned. Miss Saunder’s is tough and through this, Maleeka learns to stand up to tough-talking Charlese. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Attemped rape
  • Bullying

Hunger by Roxane Gay

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slut shaming
  • Fatmisia & body shaming (theme)
  • Graphic gang rape of a child recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Smoking discussed
  • Graphic medical procedures, including surgery
  • Bullying

Angry God by LJ Shen

Angry God by L.J. Shen

Vaughn Spencer. They call him an angry god. To me, he is nothing but a heartless prince. His parents rule this town. All I own is a grudge against him for that time he almost killed me. Between breaking hearts, noses and rules, Vaughn also finds the time to bully little ole’ me. I fight back, never expecting him to chase me across the ocean after we graduate high school. But here he is, living with me in a dark, looming castle on the outskirts of London. A fellow intern. A prodigal sculptor. A bloody genius. They say this place is haunted, and it is. Carlisle Castle hides two of our most awful secrets. Vaughn thinks he can kill the ghosts of his past, but what he doesn’t know? It’s my heart he’s slaying.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia
  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide & self-harm mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Bullying

Vicious by LJ Shen

Vicious by L.J. Shen

They say love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances, and it’s true. The man who comes to me in my dreams also haunts me in my nightmares. He is a brilliant lawyer. A skilled criminal. A bully. A saviour. Ten years ago, he made me run away from the small town where we lived. Now, he came for me, and he isn’t leaving until he takes me with him. She is a starving artist. Ten years ago, she barged into my life unannounced and turned everything upside down. She paid the price. Emilia LeBlanc is completely off-limits, my best friend’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Chronic illness
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Bullying

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik 

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Bullying

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat. Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened. Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn’t know where to find it… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drug use
  • Murder
  • Gun violence mentioned
  • Explosion
  • Plane crash
  • Bullying

The Anti-Book by Raphael Simon

The Anti-Book by Raphael Simon

Mickey is angry all the time: at his divorced parents, at his sister, and at his two new stepmoms, both named Charlie. And so he can’t resist the ad inside his pack of gum: “Do you ever wish everyone would go away? Buy The Anti-Book! Satisfaction guaranteed.” He orders the book, but when it arrives, it’s blank–except for one line of instruction: To erase it, write it. He fills the pages with all the things and people he dislikes . . .

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Bullying