Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac

Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac

Malian was visiting her grandparents on the reservation when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Now she’s staying there, away from her parents and her school in Boston. Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but on the reservation, everyone protects each other, from Malian caring for her grandparents to the local dog, Malsum, guarding their house. They always survive together.. Malian hears stories from her grandparents about how it has always been this way in their community: Stories about their ancestors, who survived epidemics of European diseases; about her grandfather, who survived a terrible government board… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • COVID-19 pandemic
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The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

When his girlfriend throws him out during the pandemic, Bambi has to go to his Uncle’s house in lock-down Lagos. He arrives during a blackout and is surprised to find his Aunty Bidemi sitting in a candlelit room with another woman. They both claim to be the mother of the baby boy, fast asleep in his crib. At night Bambi is kept awake by the baby’s cries, and during the days he is disturbed by a cockerel that stalks the garden. There is sand in the rice. A blood stain appears on the wall. Someone scores tribal markings into the baby’s cheeks. Who is lying and who is telling the truth?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Child neglect
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption, on-page
  • Recreational drug use, on-page
  • COVID-19 (theme)
  • Emesis
  • Physical illness & tribal marking disfigurement of a baby
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of an uncle & husband recounted
  • Animal slaughter, on-page
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Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty 

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Eating disorder
  • COVID-19
  • Car accident
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All That’s Left in the World by Erik Brown 

All That’s Left in the World by Erik J. Brown

When Andrew stumbles upon Jamie’s house, he’s injured, starved, and has nothing left to lose. A deadly pathogen has killed off most of the world’s population, including everyone both boys have ever loved. And if this new world has taught them anything, it’s to be scared of what other desperate people will do . . . so why does it seem so easy for them to trust each other?

After danger breaches their shelter, they flee south in search of civilization. But something isn’t… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Pandemic
  • COVID-19 mentioned
  • Dead bodies
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
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The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

When his girlfriend throws him out during the pandemic, Bambi has to go to his Uncle’s house in lock-down Lagos. He arrives during a blackout, and is surprised to find his Aunty Bidemi sitting in a candlelit room with another woman. They both claim to be the mother of the baby boy, fast asleep in his crib.

At night Bambi is kept awake by the baby’s cries, and during the days he is disturbed by a… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Child neglect
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption, on-page
  • Recreational drug use, on-page
  • COVID-19 (theme)
  • Emesis
  • Physical illness & tribal marking disfigurement of a baby
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of an uncle & husband recounted
  • Animal slaughter, on-page
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Hello by Chandler Baker and Wesley King 

Hello (from Here) by Chandler Baker & Wesley King

Maxine and Jonah bump into each other in the canned goods aisle of the grocery store just as the state of California is going into lockdown, when everything changes completely. Could there be a worse time to meet? Max’s part-time job at a supermarket is about to transform into a hellish gauntlet. Jonah’s preexisting anxiety is about to become an epic daily struggle. As Max, Jonah, and their friends live together but apart through hijinks, humanity, and heartbreak,

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
  • Panic attacks
  • Emesis
  • AIDS
  • COVID-19 (theme)
  • Death of a parent
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In My Dreams by Elin Annalise

In My Dreams by Elin Annalise

Twenty-five-year-old Polly Brady was supposed to fly off on a dating holiday to meet others, like her, who identify as asexual, but when the nature reserve she works at goes into lockdown after a terrorist attack, she finds herself stuck with Harry Weller, her childhood friend and the only man she’s ever loved. There are just two problems: Harry doesn’t know Polly’s in love with him, and he’s also very sex-orientated.

Still, Polly knows other couples who have had successful ace/allo relationships and given she was looking forward to romance this summer… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Amisia
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Car accident
  • Heart attack (parent)
  • COVID-19 pandemic mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Terrorism mentioned
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Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds

Ain’t Burned All the Bright written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jason Griffin

Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin had a mind-meld. And they decided to tackle it, in one fell swoop, in about ten sentences, and 300 pages of art, this piece, this contemplation-manifesto-fierce-vulnerable-gorgeous-terrifying-WhatIsWrongWithHumans-hope-filled-hopeful-searing-Eye-Poppingly-Illustrated-tender-heartbreaking-how-The-HECK-did-They-Come-UP-with-This project about oxygen. And all of the symbolism attached to that word, especially NOW. And so for anyone who didn’t really know what it means to not be able to breathe, REALLY breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you’ll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Police brutality mentioned including the death of George Floyd and Eric Garner

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult 

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Dementia
  • Self-harm
  • Suicidal ideation
  • COVD-19
  • Hospitalisation

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love, and even less time for the men in her private messages—until the day a certain international superstar slides into her DMs, and she falls hard and fast. There’s just one wrinkle: he has no idea who she is.

The son of a powerful Bollywood family, soap opera star Dev Dixit is used to drama, but a strange woman who accuses him of wooing her online, well, that’s a new one. As much as he’d like to focus on his Hollywood fresh start, he can’t get Jia out of his head. Especially once he starts to suspect who might have used his famous name to catfish her… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Panic attack
  • COVID-19 mentioned
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Catfishing