Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.

Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racist language
  • Sexism
  • Ableism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Body horror
  • Hospitalisation
  • Decapitation, on-page
  • Murder (theme)
  • Gun violence
  • Infanticide by defenestration, on-page
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Riots
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister, Scarlett, from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name. The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister’s. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape mentioned
  • Parental abandonment & child abuse discussed
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page, protagonist) & mentions of smoking
  • Blood & injury depiction, including magical healing by drinking blood after a near-fatal fall into freezing water
  • Death of a fiancé mentioned
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Murder
  • Physical assault & assault with a knife
  • Imprisonment

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over. But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse discussed
  • Blood-drinking
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Suicide from a fall off a balcony discussed (on-page)
  • Self-injury
  • Torture
  • Murder from stabbing
  • Kidnapping

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Suspected of murdering the crippled widow for whom she worked as a housekeeper and companion, Dolores Claiborne has a story to tell. But it isn’t the one the police are expecting to hear. It’s a little darker, a little stranger – and a lot more horrifying.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Marital rape
  • Paedophilia & incestuous child sexual abuse (father-daughter)
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Hallucinations
  • Dementia
  • Stroke recounted
  • Death of a husband in a car accident
  • Murder
  • Death from a fall
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The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver

The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H.C. Chester

What you will find in this book: A rather attractive bearded lady, several scandalous murders, a deliciously disgusting Amazonian shrunken head, four extraordinary children with equally extraordinary abilities, and a quite loquacious talking bird.

Blessed with extraordinary abilities, orphans Philippa, Sam, and Thomas have grown up happily in Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. But when a fourth child, Max, a knife-thrower, joins the group, it sets off an unforgettable chain of events. When the museum’s Amazonian shrunken head is stolen, the four are determined to get it back. But their search leads them to a series of murders and an explosive secret about their pasts.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
  • Poisoning
  • Hanging
  • Train accident
  • Death from a fall
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Magic in the Mix by Annie Barrows

Magic in the Mix by Annie Barrows

Molly and Miri Gill are twins. They look the same, act the same, sometimes even think the same. But they weren’t always twins. . . . Molly used to live in 1935, until Miri traveled back in time to save her from the clutches of Molly’s evil adoptive family. Only they know about the magic, and its power to set things right. So when home repairs unleash more unexpected magic from their very special, very magical old house, the girls set off on another time-traveling adventure to the Civil War where they race against the clock to save two unusual soldiers and come to terms with the truth about Molly’s real past.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a mother in childbirth mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Death from a fall, presumed
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Curse of the Forgotten City by Alex Aster

Curse of the Forgotten City by Alex Aster

After unwillingly inheriting all of the Night Witch’s abilities, Tor Luna is the most powerful person on Emblem Island—though he doesn’t want power at all. Fresh from their last adventure, a girl from a forgotten underwater city named Vesper, with the same water-breathing emblem as Tor, washes ashore—with a warning. Pirates are coming to attack Emblem Island.

Using the Night Witch’s enchanted ship, Tor, Melda, Engle, and Vesper set off on a dangerous journey to find the only thing that can save Emblem Island from the cursed Calavera pirates—a pearl, with the power to control the sea. But just like their first, this quest won’t be easy. In a race against time, they will face… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Attempted murder recounted
  • Shipwreck
  • Drowning
  • Death from a fall
  • Animal attack (shark)
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The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

It all began when four friends-Wade, Lily, Darrel, and Becca-received a strange, coded email from Wade’s uncle Henry shortly before the old man’s sudden death. They set off for Germany to attend the funeral with Wade’s father, Roald, and discover that Uncle Henry left them yet another baffling message that they suspect is the key to figuring out how and why he died.

The message leads to a clue, and the more clues they discover, the farther they travel down a treacherous path toward an ancient, guarded secret. Soon they are in a breathless race across the globe, running for their lives as a dangerous shadow organization chases them around every corner. Their only hope of saving themselves-and the world that they know-is to find twelve magical relics from a hidden past that will unlock the Copernicus Legacy

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder by strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Death from a fall mentioned
  • Boat & car accidents mentioned
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The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again. All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don’t even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won’t leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a “special home” for troubled teens. Yet the home isn’t what it seems. Don’t tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It’s up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House… before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Nonconsensual administration of medication
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Knife violence
  • Hanging
  • Death from a fall into an industrial saw mentioned
  • Physical assault
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City of Secrets by Victoria Ying

City of Secrets by Victoria Ying

Ever Barnes is a shy orphan guarding a secret in an amazing puzzle box of a building. Most of the young women who work at the building’s Switchboard Operating Facility, which connects the whole city of Oskar, look the other way as Ever roams around in the shadows. But one of them, Lisa, keeps an eye on the boy. So does the head of the Switchboard, Madame Alexander . . . a rather sharp eye. Enter Hannah, the spunky daughter of the building’s owner. She thinks Ever needs a friend, even if he doesn’t know it yet. Lisa and Madame Alexander are each clearly… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation for injury & blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Death from a fall
  • War themes, including a missile strike
  • Child homelessness & poverty