Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Matson

Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Matson

Kat and Stevie—best friends, theater kids, polar opposites—have snuck away from the suburbs to spend a night in New York City. They have it all planned out. They’ll see a play, eat at the city’s hottest restaurant, and have the best. Night. Ever. What could go wrong?

They’re barely off the train before they’re dealing with destroyed phones, family drama, and unexpected Pomeranians. Over the next few hours, they’ll have to grapple with old flames, terrible theater, and unhelpful cab drivers. But there are also cute boys to kiss, parties to crash, dry cleaning to deliver (don’t ask), and the world’s best museum to explore.

Over the course of a wild night in the city that never sleeps, both Kat and Stevie will get a wake-up call about their friendship, their choices…and finally discover what they really want for their future.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Gun violence
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First, Become Ashes by KM Szpara

First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara

Lark spent the first twenty-four years, nine months, and three days of his life training for a righteous quest: to rid the world of monsters. Alongside his partner Kane, he wore the cage and endured the scourge in order to develop his innate magic. He never thought that when Kane left, he’d next see him in the company of FBI agents and a SWAT team. He never dreamed that the leader of the Fellowship of the Anointed would be brought up on charges of abuse and assault.

He never expected the government would tell him that the monsters aren’t real–that there is no magic, and all the pain was for nothing.

Lark isn’t ready to give up. He is determined to fulfill his quest, to defeat the monsters he was promised. Along the way he will grapple with the past, confront love, and discover his long-buried truth.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Graphic rape, including consent violations & nonconsensual BDSM (multiple scenes)
  • Self-harm (self-inflicted burns)
  • Cults
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
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An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir book cover

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
 
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
 
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
 
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
 
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Attempted rape, on-page
  • Rape threats
  • Child abuse
  • Physical abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
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Moriarty the Patriot, Vol. 1 by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Hikaru Miyoshi

Moriarty the Patriot, Vol. 1 by Ryōsuke Takeuchi & illustrated by Hikaru Miyoshi

Before he was Sherlock’s rival, Moriarty fought against the unfair class caste system in London by making sure corrupt nobility got their comeuppance. But even the most well-intentioned plans can spin out of control—will Moriarty’s dream of a more just and equal world turn him into a hero…or a monster?

In the late 19th century, Great Britain rules over a quarter of the world. Nobles sit in their fancy homes in comfort and luxury, while the working class slaves away at their jobs. When young Albert James Moriarty’s upper-class family adopts two lower-class orphans, the cruelty the boys experience at his family’s hands cements Albert’s hatred of the nobility he was born into. He asks the older of the two boys—who has a genius mind and a killer instinct—to help him rid the world of evil, starting with Albert’s own family! 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Self-harm
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning
  • Arson
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Fruits Basket, Vol. 10 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket, Vol. 10 by Natsuki Takaya

Tohru’s feelings for Kyo come to the forefront as she desperately searches for a way to break the curse. If she can’t find a cure in time, Kyo will be locked away by the Sohma for the rest of his life! Graduation is fast approaching, meaning major decisions that will affect not only Tohru and Kyo but all of the members of the Sohma Zodiac. After all of this heartbreak, is a happy ending even possible…?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Death of a parent
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Fruits Basket, Vol. 9 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket, Vol. 9 by Natsuki Takaya

Secrets of the curse revealed! Dive deep into the twisted relationship between Akito and Kureno, the most elusive member of the Sohma zodiac. Tohru tries to help, but finds herself in even deeper trouble. Good thing she has steadfast friends who will save the day!

Meanwhile, something is going on with Machi. When Yuki and Kakeru pay a visit to her house, will the secrets of her past be revealed? And trouble is on the horizon when Hatsuharu finally learns what Akito did to Rin. Will anything be able to stop his wrath, or will he do something he can’t take back?!

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
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Fruits Basket, Vol. 7 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket, Vol. 7 by Natsuki Takaya

Yuki-alongside his mother, who already has his life after high school all mapped out-confronts his future at a parent-teacher conference. To make matters worse, when Yuki recalls buried memories, he becomes speechless! Meanwhile, Tohru pays a visit to the Sohma compound in order to confirm if Kureno Sohma is really the same man with whom her best friend, Uo-chan, is in love!

Love isn’t in the air for Isuzu and Hatsuharu, however, as the two have broken up. Desperately in search of something, Isuzu visits Shigure’s house as if driven there, but collapses upon arrival. A shocked Tohru happens to be on the scene, but all she can do is comfort Isuzu in her pain. But Isuzu seems to know all about Tohru fighting the Sohma curse on her own…!?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
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Fruits Basket, Vol. 8 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket, Vol. 8 by Natsuki Takaya

Yuki’s childhood was a long period of solitary darkness. Years later, he met Tohru, but what does he want from her? Yuki reveals to Kakeru what he can tell no one else. Meanwhile, Tohru’s class is going to put on a play for the school festival, but miscasting makes it rough going for rehearsal. Will there be chaos on stage when the curtain finally rises?!

Later, Kyo recalls meeting Tohru’s mother as a child and talking to her about her experiences. Persevering through a rough adolescence, one that lacked any love from her parents, she one day encountered teacher-in-training Katsuya Honda… At long last, the moving story of Katsuya and Kyoko is revealed!! Then, it’s business as usual for Tohru and the others, but something is eating at Kyo?!

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Death of a parent
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Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal.

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism (theme)
  • Internalised lesbomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Bullying
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The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman book cover

Will is the bearer of the knife. Now, accompanied by angels, his task is to deliver that powerful, dangerous weapon to Lord Asriel – by the command of his dying father. But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he fathom the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him. The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes