Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Tess Sharpe & Jessica Spotswood

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Tess Sharpe & Jessica Spotswood

Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe book cover

A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely–has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Abusive relationship
  • Substance addiction
  • Panic attacks
  • Drug use recounted
  • Alcohol consumption recounted
  • Childbirth
  • Dead bodies
  • Hospitalisation recounted
  • Death of an aunt
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend
  • Fire
  • Bullying
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Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language (r slur)
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Victim blaming
  • Child abuse
  • Manic depression
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Childbirth
  • Paralysis
  • Cancer
  • Epilepsy & seizures
  • Hospital
  • Life-threatening weight loss
  • Needles
  • Asphyxia (choking)
  • Poisoning mentioned
  • Drowning
  • Animal death & abuse

Saga, Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the universe. As they visit a strange new world and encounter even more adversaries, baby Hazel finally becomes a toddler, while her star-crossed parents Marko and Alana struggle to stay on their feet.

CollectingSaga 19-24

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Dubious consent scenario*
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Grey-area cheating
  • Substance addiction
  • Hallucinations mentioned
  • Drug abuse & recreational drug use
  • Graphic childbirth
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a son
  • Death of a mother & wife
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War themes & military violence (theme)
  • Animal death

*Note: Sex scene with a protagonist under the influence of recreational drugs.

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Saga, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

Searching for their literary hero, new parents Marko and Alana travel to a cosmic lighthouse on the planet Quietus, while the couple’s multiple pursuers finally close in on their targets.

CollectingSaga 13-18.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Dubious consent scenario*
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Grey-area cheating
  • Substance addiction
  • Hallucinations mentioned
  • Drug abuse & recreational drug use
  • Graphic childbirth
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a son
  • Death of a mother & wife
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War themes & military violence (theme)
  • Animal death

*Note: Sex scene with a protagonist under the influence of recreational drugs.

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Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

From bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults.

CollectingSaga 1-6

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language including r slur
  • Racism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Child sexual slavery & forced sex work
  • Rape mentioned
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Trauma & PTSD, including flashbacks
  • Recreational drug use
  • Graphic childbirth (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction, including serious injury
  • Dead bodies
  • Death of a child recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Stabbing
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • War themes & military violence (theme)
  • Animal death
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Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis book cover

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something. Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand. But wisps of smoke on the horizon… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Rape & attempted rape recounted, and forced sex work (off-page)
  • Child abuse & intimate partner violence recounted
  • Suicide (on-page) & suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy & childbirth (on-page), including stillbirth (on-page)
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies, graphic physical injuries & illness (cholera, seizures, fever), field surgery, and syringes & needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a brother
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Fire
  • Drought including death from starvation & dehydration
  • Death from exposure
  • Military deployment recounted
  • Animal death & death of a pet (on-page), including hunting & animal dead bodies
  • Animal cruelty

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden, at once feminist high fantasy and a thrilling indictment of monarchy.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Body shaming
  • Misogyny
  • Parental abandonment
  • Arranged marriage
  • Suicide discussed
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
  • Nonconsensual & consensual adoption
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a partner & wife mentioned
  • Murder
  • Exile
  • War themes, including rebellion & a political coup

Giant Days Vol. 13 by Katherine Arden

Giant Days, Vol 13 by John Allison and Max Sarin

Giant Days, Vol 13 by John Allison and Max Sarin book cover

As Esther re-evaluates the biggest decisions in her life, she enters an essay contest that could change everything for her!

LONDON CALLING!

Everything going fine for Esther – she’s only dealing with a past break up, facing her own mortality and the pressure of an essay contest that could change her life. Don’t worry, she’s got everything figured out…except for the getting everything figured out part. Otherwise she’s not racing towards imminent disaster.

But for McGraw, the tough realities of life hit hard as he learns about the loss of someone close to him and has to find a way to process this shocking news.

The Eisner Award winning team of John Allison (By Night) and Max Sarin return to Sheffield for heartbreak, muscle aches, the very special pain of going corporate…and why the love of good friends is the secret to getting through it all.

Collects Giant Days #49-52.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug-using, specifically smoking
  • Grief and loss depiction
  • Death of a mother, recounted
  • Death of a father, off-page
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The One by John Marrs

The One by John Marrs

How far would you go to find The One? A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner–the one you’re genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others… 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Suicide
  • Infertility
  • Childbirth & death during childbirth
  • Miscarriages mentioned
  • Terminal illness & cancer
  • Coma
  • Aneurysm
  • Eyeball trauma
  • Death of an infant
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder, and attempted murder of a pregnant woman
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping, including the abduction of an infant
  • Stalking
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Toffee by Sarah Crossan

Toffee by Sarah Crossan

Also known as Being Toffee.

One is trying to forget. The other is trying to remember.

After running away from an abusive home, Allison finds herself taking shelter in a shed behind an abandoned house. But the house isn’t empty after all; an elderly woman named Marla, who suffers from dementia, lives there. And rather than turn her away, Marla welcomes her – she mistakes Allison for an old friend from her past named Toffee.

Allison is used to hiding who she really is, and trying to be what other people want her to be, so she decides to play along. But as their bond grows, and Allison discovers how much Marla needs a real companion, Allison begins to waver. They both deserve a home, a safe place, and a family – but at what cost?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Slut shaming
  • Sexual harassment
  • Physical, verbal & emotional child abuse (theme)
  • Domestic violence and physical & emotional abuse
  • Elder abuse
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Depersonalisation
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use (smoking)
  • Death from childbirth & traumatic childbirth mentioned
  • Dementia (theme)
  • Minor blood depiction & physical injuries, including burns
  • Emesis
  • Hospital
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & wife recounted
  • Homelessness
  • Animal death
  • Death of a pet dog mentioned
  • Animal attack mentioned
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