Meet Me in the Middle by Alex Light

Eden had her best friend Katie—she didn’t need anyone else. But then there was Truman. Katie’s older brother, the artist. The recluse. The boy with the innocent smile and the dangerous eyes. Eden had never really known Truman—not until the night of Katie’s accident. That was the night they’d finally let each other into their orbits—only to have the sky come crashing down on them. With Katie in the hospital and Truman fleeing from his grief without a word, Eden is left alone to grapple with her own pain. But when Truman returns to the city, can Eden let him back into her life knowing that their first kiss is what tore their world apart?

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Secondary character in a coma after a hit-and-run, drunk-driving car accident

Sparrow by Sarah Moon

Sparrow has always had a difficult time making friends. She would always rather have stayed home on the weekends with her mother, an affluent IT Executive at a Brooklyn bank, reading, or watching the birds, than playing with other kids. And that’s made school a lonely experience for her. It’s made LIFE a lonely experience. But when the one teacher who really understood her — Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian, a woman who let her eat her lunch in the library office rather than hide in a bathroom stall, a woman who shared her passion for novels and knew just the ones she’d love… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Protagonist with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation for attempted suicide by fall discussed
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a teacher in a car accident discussed

You’ll Never Know by Caleb Stephens

Grant Wilson has never been happier. He has a wife he loves, a home in the country, and a brand-new baby on the way. But all of that shatters when two masked men abduct his wife, Avery, in broad daylight. The instructions Grant receives are bizarre: If he wants Avery back, he must solve a series of riddles that arrive one after another—and the clock is ticking. With every piece of the puzzle more outrageous and complex than the last, Grant knows he’s playing a dangerous game. But he’s determined to do whatever it takes to save Avery’s life … even if it kills him.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Heart attack mentioned
  • Death of a child & partner
  • Gun violence
  • Fatal car accident
  • Kidnapping of a pregnant wife (theme)

Dead in the Water by John Marrs

When Damon survives a near-drowning, his life flashes before his eyes. Every memory is crystal clear—except one. A dead boy. A face he can’t place. A moment he doesn’t remember living. At first he tells himself it’s a trick of the mind. But everything else he saw was real. So why not this? With his waking life stalked by the disturbing scene, confusion quickly turns to obsession. Desperate for answers, Damon digs into his fractured past, and becomes convinced that the only way to remember…is to die again. And again. And again. When he meets a perfect stranger who’s all too… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Depression mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Fatal hit-and-run car accident
  • Near-drowning incident

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater. Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won’t take her aunt’s advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic racist & anti-Asian hate crimes
  • Parental abandonment & nglect
  • Health anxiety & intrusive thoughts
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore dpeiction and body horror
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Murder
  • Police brutality mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Car accient
  • Fire
  • Animal cruelty & dead bodies

Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Izzy Chen is dreading her family’s annual Chinese New Year celebration, where they all come together at a Michelin-starred restaurant to flaunt their status and successes in hopes to one up each other. So when her seventy-three-year-old glamorous and formidable grandmother walks in with a stunning woman on her arm and kisses her in front of everyone, it shakes Izzy to her core. She’d always considered herself the black sheep of the family for harboring similar feelings to the ones her Nainai just displayed. Seeing herself in her teenage granddaughter’s struggles with… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & coming out themes
  • Domestic abuse
  • Death of a grandfather recounted
  • Car accident mentioned

Wicked Darlings by Jordyn Taylor

Aspiring journalist Noa has a secret she’s been keeping. Ever since her sister’s tragic death, she’s felt almost…relieved. Noa and Leah had been locked in competition with one another since childhood, and things came to a head when her sister scored a glitzy internship at a New York society newspaper. Noa can’t help but revel in her new found autonomy. But when she gets a lead about the sketchy circumstances surrounding her sister’s untimely death, she knows she needs to investigate−she owes it to Leah… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Death of a sister, presumed suicide from overdose
  • Car accident (drink driving accident)

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Halfway through sixth grade, Noah’s best friend and the only other trans boy in his school, Lewis, passed away in a car accident. Adventurous and curious, Lewis was always bringing a new paranormal story to share with Noah. Together they daydreamed about cryptids and shared discovering their genders and names. After Lewis’s death, lonely and yearning for someone who could understand him like Lewis once did, Noah starts writing letters to Mothman, wondering if he would understand how Noah feels and also looking for evidence of Mothman’s existence in the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia mentioned, including accidental deadnaming and misgendering
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a friend in a car accident (off-page)
  • Bullying

Perfect Little Monsters by Cindy R.X. He

SElla Moore was the most popular girl in school…and also the most hated. When she’s murdered at her own party, there are too many suspects to count–and too many people who think she deserved it. The police’s prime suspect is the new girl, Dawn Foster. She was the last to hand Ella a drink on the night Ella died. Plus, all of Ella’s friends with a motive for wanting her dead are more than willing to implicate Dawn. But Dawn refuses to go down without a fight. She’s determined to clear her name. As she delves deeper into th… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Lesbophobia, disfiguremisia, ableism and fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Adult-minor relationship and statutoray rape
  • Image-based sexual assault (‘revenge porn’)
  • Infidelity
  • Disordered eating & body image issues
  • Panic attacks
  • Attempted suicide by overdose and stepping in front of a vehicle & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Car accident recounted & discussed
  • Poisoning
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail & stalking
  • Fire
  • Bullying & cyberbullying

Beauty and the Baller by Ilsa Madden-Mills

An NFL quarterback turned small-town coach gets sacked by a Texas beauty queen in this swoony, passionate romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills. Gorgeous, talented, and brilliant, NFL quarterback Ronan Smith has the world in his hands. But after losing his career and his fiancée in a car accident, he falls into a pit of grief and bad choices. When a mysterious girl shows up to his party, he feels drawn to her and makes her his…for one night. Former beauty queen Nova Morgan is on a mission. Scantily clad as a princess from a… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a fiancé in a car accident