Tag Archives: Colonialism & Colonisation

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

Princess Thia was born to be a crow rider—a warrior. In her kingdom of Rhodaire, magical elemental crows keep the city running. But when the Illucian empire invades, they kill all the crows in a horrible fire that also robs Thia of her mother and mentor. Then Thia’s sister, Caliza, becomes the new queen of Rhodaire, she is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the Illucian heir in an effort to save her people. Prince Ericen is rude and cruel and Thia can’t imagine travelling into the heart of an enemy city after so much has been taken from her. But before she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & internalised ableism
  • Racism
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Depression (theme)
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm & self-injury
  • Serious injury of a loved one
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother on-page
  • Death of an aunt, off-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Fire
  • Graphic animal death, on-page
  • War themes, including invasion & colonialism

Grenade by Alan Gratz

Grenade by Alan Gratz

It’s 1945, and the world is in the grip of war. Hideki lives on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. When WWII crashes onto his shores, Hideki is drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed a grenade and a set of instructions: Don’t come back until you’ve killed an American soldier. Ray, a young American Marine, has just landed on Okinawa. He doesn’t know what to expect — or if he’ll make it out alive. He just knows that the enemy is everywhere. Hideki and Ray each fight their way across the island, surviving heart-pounding ambushes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Explosions
  • Gun violence
  • War World Two & military violence (theme)
  • Colonialism

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kyiv, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son–but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper–a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour. Still reeling from war…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Colonialism
  • Antisemitism
  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • World War Two (theme)

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo’s quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexual assault
  • Child abandonment
  • PTSD & trauma
  • Alcoholism
  • Torture
  • War & colonisation themes

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical, verbal & emotional child abuse recounted
  • Parental abandonment
  • Panic attack
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging mentioned
  • Stillbirth recounted
  • Blood & physical injuries depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father in a fire recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Explosion
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Colonialism & slavery discussed
  • Animal death mentioned

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

Paris has survived the Great Houses War – just. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine runs black with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens continue to live, love, fight and survive in their war-torn city, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over the once grand capital. House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, lies in disarray. Its magic is alluring; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Mutilation
  • Torture
  • Colonialism

Death Knocks Twice by Robert Thorogood

Death Knocks Twice by Robert Thorogood

Reluctantly stationed on the sweltering Caribbean island of Saint-Marie, Detective Inspector Richard Poole dreams of cold winds, drizzly rain and a pint in his local pub. Just as he is feeling as fed up as can be, a mysterious vagrant is found dead in the grounds of the historic Beaumont plantation. Immediately assumed to be suicide, DI Poole is not so convinced and determined to prove otherwise. Never mind that the only fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to the victim. Or that the room was locked from the inside. Before long, death knocks twice and a second… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Domestic violence
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Colonialism mentioned

Lizard’s Tale by Weng Wai Chan

Lizard’s Tale by Weng Wai Chan

It’s Singapore in 1940, war is just around the corner—but twelve-year-old Lizard doesn’t know that. He lives in Chinatown above a tailor’s shop, surviving on his wits and hustling for odd jobs. When he steals a small teak box containing a Japanese code book from a Raffles Hotel suite, he finds himself in a dangerous world of wartime espionage. Lizard doesn’t know who to trust. How is the mysterious book inside the box connected to his friend Lili, a girl full of secrets and fighting skills? Can he trust her, or will she betray him in the end?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of a relative
  • War World Two
  • Colonialism
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The White Girl by Tony Birch

The White Girl by Tony Birch

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism including the Stolen Generations
  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Rape
  • Graphic suicide
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a spouse
  • Disappearance of a relative
  • Explosion
  • Colonialism
  • Animal death
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The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels, The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it ‘the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels’. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the ‘Scotland Yard bungler’ and the skilled, professional detective. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Substance addiction
  • Suicide
  • Recreational drug use
  • Murder
  • Colonialism
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