Tag Archives: Cancer

The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win. Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & misogyny
  • Terminal illness

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Infidelity
  • Death of a spouse from cancer
  • Drowning
  • Wildfire
  • Animal cruelty recounted

Glimmers of You by Catherine Cowles

He hadn’t always just been my brother’s best friend. There was a time when he was mine, too. Until he disappeared from our small town when I needed him the most. Now, Caden’s back. With his cocky smirk and infuriating nicknames. And I’m struggling to ignore his presence. When my ex refuses to leave me alone, Caden steps in, suggesting that it will get my ex and Caden’s calculating father off both our backs if we just pretend to be madly in love. There’s just one problem… Nothing I feel for Caden Shaw is fake—even when I thought I hated him. And there’s no denying how the touch of his lips sparks a flame I’ll never be able to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Toxic parental relationship
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister from cancer recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping & stalking
  • Arson

Just Like That by Lena Hendrix

He’s my sister’s ex, a stubborn jerk, and completely off-limits. Getting a man to give up custody of a son he didn’t know existed should have been easy. Trouble is, nothing with JP King is ever easy. Suave, grumpy billionaires aren’t supposed to have strong hands or filthy mouths, and I never expected our snippy banter to be so much fun. JP regards me as something he scraped off the bottom of his dress shoe, but when this reluctant single dad looks at my nephew, there’s a softness there he struggles to keep hidden. He may be gruff and uptight, but something simmers beneath his controlled, polished exterior. Sure, I’m…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment discussed
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Ovarian cancer cidusccsed
  • Death of a parent & sibling mentioned (off-page)
  • Murder discussed

Do You Remember? by Freida McFadden

Tess Strebel can’t recognize her own face. She can’t recognize her home. Her bedroom is unfamiliar. And she can’t remember the handsome stranger lying next to her in bed. A stranger who claims he’s her husband. Tess reads a letter in her own handwriting, composed during a rare lucid day, explaining her life as it now exists: She was in a terrible car accident one year ago. Every morning, she wakes up unable to remember most of the last decade. Including her own wedding. Tess has no choice but to accept her new life and hope her memory will return. After all, why should she doubt the letter she wrote to herself? Or the kind… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Cancer & medical treatment (injections)
  • Hospitalisation recounted
  • Confinement

Mirror to Mirror by Rajani LaRocca

Maya is the pragmatic twin. But when her sister threatens to reveal her secret anxiety to their parents, she feels completely betrayed. Chaya is the outgoing twin. With Maya shutting her out, she decides to make a drastic change to give her twin the space she seems to need. The once-close sisters can’t seem to find their rhythm, but they know that something has to give. So they make a bet: they’ll switch places at summer camp, and whoever can keep the ruse going longer will get to decide where they both attend high school—the source of frequent arguments. But stepping into each other’s shoes isn’t as easy as it sounds. Will the twins’ relationship recover?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety (protagonist)
  • Self-harm
  • Blood & injury depiction

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she’s the only Indian American student, and home, with her family’s traditions and holidays. But Reha’s parents don’t understand why she’s conflicted—they only notice when Reha doesn’t meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means “star” and Punam means “moon”—but they are a universe apart. Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick. Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can’t stomach the sight of blood, is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Displacement (theme)
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from leukemia

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by Eric LaRocca

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship
  • Elder abuse
  • Incest
  • Cheating
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Death of a parent & spouse
  • Murder & torture
  • Kidnapping

You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood. You’ve lost a lot of blood . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Paedophilia mentioned
  • Body horror (theme)
  • Desecration of a corpse
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child & parent
  • Murder & torture

Passing Through by Katia Rose

Emily Rivers does not have time for love. Or dating. Or even a one night stand. As the eldest of the Rivers sisters, she’s too focused on keeping her family’s campground running in the wake of a devastating tragedy to even think about romance. When Kim Jefferies shows up at the local small town bar looking like a lesbian snack on a stick, Emily writes her off as yet another tourist just passing through—no matter how much the butterflies in her stomach try to tell her otherwise. Only Kim’s plans of ‘passing through’ fade the second she sees Emily Rivers, despite… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Panic attack
  • Parent with depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from breast cancer recounted
  • Hiking accident resulting in serious injury