Tag Archives: Cancer

Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido

Self preservation. That’s Bobby’s motto for surviving his notoriously violent high school unscathed. Being out and queer would put an unavoidable target on his back, especially in a Filipino community that frowns on homosexuality. It’s best to keep his head down, get good grades, and stay out of trouble. But when Bobby is unwillingly outed in a terrible way, he no longer has the luxury of being invisible. A vicious encounter has him scrambling for a new way to survive–by fighting back. Bobby is inspired by champion Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao to take up boxing and challenge his tormentor. Then Pacquiao publicly… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & slurs
  • Hate crime
  • Coming out & forced outing
  • Child abuse (on-page, secondary chracter)
  • Death of a parent from cancer
  • Physical assault with knife
  • Bullying

The Stalker by Sarah Alderson

Newly-weds Liam and Laura are spending their honeymoon in paradise: just the two of them on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. But they soon discover that all is not as it seems, and the island has a tragic past. And they can’t shake the feeling of being watched… When one morning, they wake to find a message scratched into the window, their worst fears are confirmed. They aren’t alone on the island. And this stranger wants them dead.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia and body shaming (on-page)
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Domestic violence and intimate partner abuse including food deprivation, captivity, physical & sexual assault (on-page)
  • Rape by a spouse/partner (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Mentions of a parent recovering from cancer
  • Physical injury and amateur medical treatment (on-page, glass shard stuck in foot)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a fiance
  • Death of a mother from a fall down the stairs (later revealed to be murder)
  • Murder of a husband by gun violence (on-page, self-defence for abuse)
  • Stalking
  • Animal injury (crow)
  • Kidnapping of a pet dog
  • Murder of a kitten (abusive partner kills the cat off-page by the body is found on-page)

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

London, 2019. It’s the hottest June on record, and a whale is stuck in the Thames River. In the streets of the city, four old acquaintances want more from life than they’ve been given. On the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, their paths will intersect at a party that will change their lives forever. Maggie, a once-hopeful artist turned waitress, is pregnant and preparing to move back to her hometown with her boyfriend and father-to-be Ed, leaving the city she loves and the life she imagined for herself. Ed, coasting through life as a barely competent bike courier, is ready for…Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Sexual assault
  • Panic attacks & suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy (protagonist)
  • Abortion
  • Cancer

Bellies by Nicola Dinan

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition. From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia & gender dysphoria
  • Infidelity
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Panic attacks
  • Bulimia (secondary character)
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Death of a parent from cancer recounted
  • Fatal car accident (off-page)

Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand

The Carmichaels and Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a wedding. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride s late mother, who left behind the notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter s future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event but in reality, things are far from perfect. While the couple-to-be are quite happy, their loved ones find their own lives crumbling. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken and healed.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother. Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother from cancer

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

When Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait? A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, ‘Even though you’ve done your travelling, you’re starting a new journey too.’ Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospice care for terminal cancer (protagonist) including mentions of previous surgery and medical procedures

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again follows the blunt, contradictory yet deeply loveable Olive Kitteridge as she grows older, navigating the second half of her life as she comes to terms with the changes – sometimes welcome, sometimes not – in her own existence and in those around her. Olive adjusts to her new life with her second husband, challenges her estranged son and his family to accept him, experiences loss and loneliness, witnesses the triumphs and heartbreaks of her friends and neighbours in the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine – and, finally, opens herself to new lessons about life

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Suicide
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who’s never met a party she couldn’t host or a charge she couldn’t lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion. But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abeism
  • Racism & colourism
  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Secondary character with cancer
  • Hospitalisation of a son for a seizure & concussion
  • Death of a parent from cervical cancer recounted (off-page)
  • Incarceration of a spouse for embezzlement

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor—but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue. In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead. And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before. Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging & drug use
  • Organised crime
  • Death of a father from cancer recounted
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Animal death