Chemistry by Weike Wang

Chemistry by Weike Wang

At first glance, the quirky, overworked narrator of this novel seems to be on the cusp of a perfect life: she is studying for a prestigious PhD in chemistry that will make her Chinese parents proud (or at least satisfied), and her successful, supportive boyfriend has just proposed to her. But instead of feeling hopeful, she is wracked with ambivalence. The long demanding hours at the lab have created an exquisite pressure cooker, and she doesn’t know how to answer the marriage question. When it all becomes too much and her life plan veers off course, she finds herself on a new path of discoveries about everything she thought she knew.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Cheating
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The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson

The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson

Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a “mudlark,” he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. He’s being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. And he’s got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe. But even for Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fateful August day in 1854—the day the deadly cholera (“blue death”) comes to Broad Street… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Cholera epidemic
  • Dead bodies mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal abuse
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Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

When Brontë starts dating Brewster “Bruiser” Rawlins – the guy voted “Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty” her twin brother, Tennyson, isn’t surprised. But then strange things begin to occur. Tennyson and Brontë’s scrapes heal unnaturally fast, and cuts disappear before their eyes. What at first seems like their good fortune turns out to be more than they bargained for…much more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
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The Half-Orc’s Maiden Bride by Ruby Dixon

The Half-Orc’s Maiden Bride by Ruby Dixon

Lady Iolanthe of Rockmourn Keep expects to be a spinster all her days. She is very tall. She is very poor. And she is thirty. What lord could possibly want her? But then her father returns with news that he has found a bridegroom for her – one that is impressively tall. One that is strong, and bold, and wealthy. And best of all? He wants Iolanthe. It seems too good to be true. And when Iolanthe gets her first look at her husband-to-be, she realizes why. No one mentioned the ‘orc’ part of things… 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental neglect
  • Domestic abuse mentioned, off-page
  • Forced breeding
  • Attempted kidnapping
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That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert

That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert

If there’s one thing Rae can’t stand, it’s pity. She’s forty, frazzled, and fed up—so attending an awards ceremony alone while her ex swans about with his new wife? Not an option. To avoid total humiliation, Rae needs a date of her own. And her young, hot-as-hell new best friend is the perfect candidate. Zach Davis, king of casual hookups, has a secret: the notorious womaniser craves emotional connection, and anonymous encounters leave him feeling hollow. After years of performance, Zach’s desperate to be himself. So why does he agree to play Rae’s fake… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Disfigurmisia
  • Cheating recounted
  • Emotional parental abuse & gaslighting
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a father from a heart attack mentioned
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Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard

Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard

In one week, Maude will be dead. At least, that’s what she wants everyone to think. After years of research, Maude has decided to fake her own death. She’s figured out the how, the when, the where, and who will help her unsuspectingly. The why is complex: revenge, partly. Her terrible parents deserve this. But there’s also l’appel du vide, the call of the void, that beckons her toward a new life where she will be tied to no one, free and adrift. Then Frankie, a step-cousin she barely knows, figures out what she’s plotting, and the plan seems like it’s ruined. Except Frankie… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Lesbomisia
  • Outing
  • Dysphoria
  • Sexual harassment
  • Abandonment
  • Child abuse
  • Drug use
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Fire
  • Explosion
  • Kidnapping
  • Bullying
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She’s Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard

She’s Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard

The summer is winding down in San Diego. Veronica is bored, caustically charismatic, and uninspired in her photography. Nico is insatiable, subversive, and obsessed with chaotic performance art. They’re artists first, best friends second. But that was before Mick. Delicate, lonely, magnetic Mick: the perfect subject, and Veronica’s dream girl. The days are long and hot―full of adventure―and soon they are falling in love. Falling so hard, they never imagine what comes next. One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse
  • Toxic mother-daughter relationship
  • Panic attack
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Strangulation
  • Car accident
  • Drowning
  • Vivisepulture (buried alive)
  • Animal death
  • Animal cruelty
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The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

Thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright is tasked with the evacuation and safekeeping of the natural history museum’s collection of mammals. Once she and her exhibits arrive at Lockwood Manor, however, where they are to stay for the duration of the war, Hetty soon realizes that she’s taken on more than she’d bargained for. Protecting her charges from the irascible Lord Lockwood and resentful servants is work enough, but when some of the animals go missing, and worse, Hetty begins to suspect someone – or something – is stalking her through the darkened corridors of… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Child abuse recounted
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We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

It’s been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, her brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Loss of limb & vision
  • Murder
  • Car accident
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When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumours say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumoured to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Transmisia
  • Misgendering
  • Child abuse
  • Attempted suicide by drowning
  • Blood depiction & body horror
  • Death of a parent
  • Torture
  • Blackmail
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