Temple by Matthew Reilly

Temple by Matthew Reilly

Deep in the jungle of Peru, the hunt for a legendary Incan idol is underway – an idol that in the present day could be used as the basis for a terrifying new weapon. Guiding a US Army team is Professor William Race, a young linguist who must translate an ancient manuscript that contains the location of the idol. What they find is an ominous stone temple, sealed tight. They open it – and soon discover that some doors are meant to remain unopened…

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Rape mentioned
  • Cheating
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Decapitation
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Animal death
  • Nazism & the Holocaust
  • Colonisalism
  • Medical experiments in concentration camps mentioned
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The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the fences is all he has ever known. But as he grows, his imagination gets bigger too, until it is bursting at the limits of his world. The night sea brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie, a scruffy, impatient girl who appears from the other side of the wires and brings a notebook written by the mother she lost… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm
  • Murder
  • Hunger strike
  • Refugee experiences

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Death of a child
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Murder
  • Animal death
  • Holocaust concentration camps mentioned
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Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labour camp on charges of having helped the Nazis–with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Paedophilia & sexual assault
  • Childbirth
  • Starvation
  • Physical illness
  • Torture
  • Word War Two (theme)
  • Concentration camps
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Stephen King

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Stephen King

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism
  • Antisemitism
  • Nazism
  • Rape
  • Genital mutilation
  • Gun violence
  • Chemical gassing (gas chambers)
  • World War Two & the Holocaust (theme)
  • Concentration camps (theme)
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The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make…

It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio — a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Death of a child
  • Gun violence
  • Labour camps mentioned
  • World War Two & the Holocaust
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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard manual labour and freezing cold – and participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature and the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Wrongful imprisonment
  • Gulag

Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne

Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne

The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield’s father promised he wouldn’t go away to fight – but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn’t know where his father might be, other than that he’s away on a special, secret mission.

Then, while shining shoes at King’s Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father’s name – on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. Bewildered and confused, Alfie realises his father is in a hospital close by – a hospital treating soldiers with an unusual condition. Alfie is determined to rescue his father from this strange, unnerving place . . .

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Smoking
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation of a parent for PTSD
  • World War One
  • Refugee camps mentioned

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbr ck, the notorious women’s concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape mentioned
  • Torture
  • Explosions
  • Physical assault
  • Genocide
  • War themes & the Holocaust
  • Concentration camps

Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai

Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai

One night. No one will know. That was the deal. Every year, Livvy Kane and Nicholas Chandler would share one perfect night of illicit pleasure. The forbidden hours let them forget the tragedy that haunted their pasts—and the last names that made them enemies. Until the night she didn’t show up.

Now Nicholas has an empire to run. He doesn’t have time for distractions and Livvy’s sudden reappearance in town is a major distraction. She’s the one woman he shouldn’t want… so why can’t he forget how right she feels in his bed?

Livvy didn’t come home for Nicholas, but fate seems determined to remind her of his presence—and their past. Although the passion between them might have once run hot and deep, not even love can overcome the scandal that divided their families. Being together might be against all the rules . . . but being apart is impossible.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Emotional parental abuse
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attack
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Car accident recounted
  • Japanese internment camps mentioned