Tag Archives: Bullying & Hazing

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Mutism (protagonist)
  • Nightmares
  • Alcoholism, implied
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a brother by knife violence recounted
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Death of a cousin (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Strangulation
  • Bullying
  • Graphic animal death (crow, cat)

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Family death, due to natural causes
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Bullying

The Helheim Princess by Tiana Warner

The Helheim Princess by Tiana Warner

For as long as Sigrid could remember, she’s wanted to become a mighty, fearless valkyrie. But without a winged mare, she’s a mere stable hand, left wondering who her parents were and why she’s so different. So when the Eye shows her a vision where she’s leading a valkyrie charge on the legendary eight-legged horse Sleipnir, she grabs the possibility of this greater destiny with both hands, refusing to let go.

Too bad that the only one who can help her get there is Mariam, an enemy valkyrie who begrudgingly agrees to lead her to Helheim but who certainly can’t be trusted―even if she does make Sigrid more than a little flustered. As they cross the nine worlds, battling night elves, riding sea serpents, and hurtling into fire… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Fire
  • Bullying
  • Animal death

The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

As a member of the Jade Society, twelve-year-old Faryn Liu dreams of honouring her family and the gods by becoming a warrior. But the Society has shunned Faryn and her brother Alex ever since their father disappeared years ago, forcing them to train in secret.

Then, during an errand into San Francisco, Faryn stumbles into a battle with a demon–and helps defeat it. She just might be the fabled Heaven Breaker, a powerful warrior meant to work for the all-mighty deity, the Jade Emperor, by commanding an army of dragons to defeat the demons. That is, if she can prove her worth and find the island of the immortals before the Lunar New Year… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Bullying

Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin

Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin

Meet Nevo: girl, boy, he, she, him, her, they, them, daughter, son, teacher, student, friend, gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, homosexual, Jew, dyke, masculine, feminine, androgynous, queer. Nevo was not born in the wrong body. Nevo just wants everyone to catch up with all that Nevo is.

Personal, political and passionate, Finding Nevo is an autobiography about gender and everything that comes with it.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Bimisia
  • Sexism
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Bullying

Cape by Kate Hannigan 

Cape by Kate Hannigan and illustrated by Patrick Spaziante

Josie O’Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more—like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can’t fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government.

After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she’s a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Fantomah to Zenobia to the Black Cat. But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Death of father mentioned
  • Fire
  • Bullying
  • Japanese internment camps
  • World War Two

Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin

Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin

When her best friend Billie is found murdered, eleven-year-old Thera – fearless and forthright – considers it her duty to find the killer.

Aided by an Ouija board, Billie’s ghost, and the spirits of four other dead girls, she’s determined to succeed. The trouble with Thera, though, is that she doesn’t always know when to stop – and sometimes there’s a fine line between doing the right thing and doing something very, very bad indeed.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Paedophilia
  • Child abuse
  • Death of child
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Bullying

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Genocide discussed
  • Death of a child
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal hunting
  • Bullying

First Moon by Richard Amos

First Moon by Richard Amos

Need someone, or something, hunted down? Akira Murakami is your man! No target is too small for him to get his energy-sucking blades swinging, and all jobs are welcome at the right price. The bills have to be paid after all.

Living in a world where the apocalypse almost happened can be complicated, as is being the hybrid son of the High Werewolf of, well, everything. But Akira likes to live a relatively simpler life than dear old papa would like, shunning all the political crap, living by the sword and perfecting that recipe for dark chocolate and raspberry brownies. Killing is easy. Brownies are easy. Too easy. To hell with the simple life!

There’s a werewolf killer stalking the city, and Akira is about to be caught in the middle of everything.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Bullying mentioned

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf 

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.

Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable.

But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive . . . before they are both lost to the darkness.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a child
  • Bullying