The Comeback by EL Shen

The Comeback by E.L. Shen

Twelve-year-old Maxine Chen is just trying to nail that perfect landing: on the ice, in middle school, and at home, where her parents worry that competitive skating is too much pressure for a budding tween. Maxine isn’t concerned, however–she’s determined to glide to victory. But then a bully at school starts teasing Maxine for her Chinese heritage, leaving her stunned and speechless. And at the rink, she finds herself up against a stellar new skater named Hollie, whose grace and skill threaten to edge Maxine out of the competition. With everything she knows on uneven ice, will Maxine crash under the pressure? Or can she power her way to a comeback?

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Bullying
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About a Boy by Nick Hornby

About a Boy by Nick Hornby

Too cool! At thirty-six, he’s as hip as a teenager. He’s single, child-free, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He’s also found a great way to score with women: attend single parents’ groups full of available (and grateful) mothers, all hoping to meet a Nice Guy. Which is how Will meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old on the planet. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, looks after his mum and has never owned a pair of trainers. But Marcus latches on to Will – and won’t let go. Can Will teach Marcus how to grow up cool? And can Marcus help Will just to grow up?

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Recreational drug use
  • Bullying

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba’s high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country’s growing political unrest–until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary…

Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother. Elisa’s last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. Arriving in Havana, Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she’ll need the lessons of her grandmother’s past to help her understand the true meaning of courage

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Murder
  • Imprisonment
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes
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Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Adult-minor relationship discussed
  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Nightmares & night terrors
  • Murder-suicide mentioned
  • Suicide by asphyxia mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Prescription pill use
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a husband
  • Death of a sister
  • Death of a child
  • Murder mentioned
  • Home invasion
  • Strangulation
  • Disappearance of a child recounted
  • Bullying recounted
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The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Fifteen years ago, summer camper Emma Davis watched sleepily as her three cabin mates snuck out of their cabin in the dead of night. The last she–and anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the NYC art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings.. They catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of the very same Camp Nightingale–and when Francesca implores Emma to return to the camp as a painting counselor, Emma sees an opportunity to find closure and move on… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Slut shaming
  • Statutory rape
  • Nonconsensual voyeurism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Substance addiction
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Schizophreniform Disorder
  • Blood & physical depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Hospital & forced institutionalization
  • Terminal cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Drowning
  • Car accident recounted
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Graphic animal death recounted
  • Bullying
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Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town’s residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Abusive relationship
  • Suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • School shooting (theme)
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion (car bomb)
  • Car accident
  • Imprisonment
  • Bullying
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The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn’t know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa told him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn’t ring any bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth.

Hazel is supposed to be dead.  When she lived before, she didn’t do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem—when the Voice took over her mother and commanded Hazel to use her “gift” for an evil purpose, Hazel couldn’t say no… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Racism & racist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Amnesia
  • Flashbacks & blackouts
  • Nightmares
  • Suicide recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death of a mother by gun violence mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping
  • Train accident
  • Animal attack
  • Bullying
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The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper, and his best friend is a guy named Leo. They’re all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids,” as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn’t know anything—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out, whether she wants to or not… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Amnesia
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Physical injuries
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Death of a grandfather mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Bullying
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The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson—a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any “normal” friends. But things don’t stay quiet for long…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Child abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Nightmares
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Explosion
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning mentioned
  • War themes
  • Animal death
  • Bullying
  • Homelessness
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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse – Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena – Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating
  • Nightmares
  • Hallucinations discussed
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Physical injuries
  • Emesis
  • Terminal cancer mentioned
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of an uncle mentioned
  • Explosion
  • Knife violence
  • Hurricane, lightning & storms
  • Earthquake
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Car accident
  • Incarceration
  • War themes
  • Animal cruelty
  • Bullying
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