Home After Dark by David Small

Home After Dark by David Small

Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to sun-splashed California in search of a dream. Suddenly forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell. Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays their generosity by running away with their restaurant’s proceeds.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death
  • Animal abuse
  • Bullying
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Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Decapitation
  • Loss of limb
  • Bullying
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Stick by Andrew Smith

Stick by Andrew Smith

Fourteen-year-old Stark McClellan (nicknamed Stick because he’s tall and thin) is bullied for being “deformed” – he was born with only one ear. His older brother Bosten is always there to defend Stick. But the boys can’t defend one another from their abusive parents.

When Stick realizes Bosten is gay, he knows that to survive his father’s anger, Bosten must leave home. Stick has to find his brother, or he will never feel whole again. In his search, he will encounter good people, bad people, and people who are simply indifferent to kids from the wrong side of the tracks. But he never loses hope of finding love – and his brother. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Disfigurmisia
  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Bullying
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Winger by Andrew Smith

Winger by Andrew Smith

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bury Your Gays trope
  • Homomisia
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

*Note: The protagonist’s gay best friend is beaten to death in a brutal hate crime within the last fifty pages of the book.

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Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track. Only four come out on the other side.

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.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Nonconsensual distribution of private photographs online
  • Eating disorder
  • Abortion & miscarriage mentioned
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Fire mentioned
  • Animal attack (snake)
  • Bullying
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The Last to Let Go by Amber Smith

The Last to Let Go by Amber Smith

Junior year for Brooke Winters is supposed to be about change. She’s transferring schools, starting fresh, and making plans for college. But all of her dreams are shattered one hot summer afternoon when her mother is arrested for killing Brooke’s abusive father. No one really knows what happened that day, if it was premeditated or self-defense, whether it was right or wrong. And now Brooke and her siblings are on their own.

In a year of firsts—the first year without parents, first love, first heartbreak, and her first taste of freedom—Brooke must confront the shadow of her family’s violence and dysfunction, as she struggles to finds her true place in the world, and learns how to let go.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Overdose discussed
  • Death of a father
  • Murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Incarceration (parent)
  • Bullying
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The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Graphic rape, recounted
  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Trauma (theme)
  • Bullying
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The Betrothed by Kiera Cass

The Betrothed by Kiera Cass

When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.

But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Misogyny
  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Arranged marriage discussed
  • Domestic abuse
  • Cheating, grey-area
  • Miscarriage
  • Pregnancy discussed
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a husband
  • Death of a son
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Home invasion
  • War themes
  • Bullying, recounted
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Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies – humans with extraordinary abilities – who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew. Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice – and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Physical injury (burns)
  • Death of a mother from a fall
  • Murder of a mother, father and baby sister by gun violence recounted
  • Gun violence including fatal shootings, stun guns and tranquilizer guns with poisoned ammunition
  • Fire, poisonous gas and explosions
  • Animal death & cruelty
  • Poverty
  • Bullying
  • War themes recounted & battle scenes (on-page)

Trust by Kylie Scott

Trust by Kylie Scott

After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, seventeen-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.

While Edie’s beginning to run wild, however, John’s just starting to settle down. After years of partying and dealing drugs with his older brother, he’s going straight—getting to class on time, and thinking about the future… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Recreational drug use
  • Hostage situation recounted
  • Bullying
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