Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Vern – seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised – flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.

But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes. To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future – outside the woods.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Ableism
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Forced sterilization
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Graphic childbirth
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Burns
  • Death of a child & infant
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
  • Drowning
  • Poisoning
  • Cult
  • Graphic animal death
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An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia & misgendering
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Slavery
  • Graphic rape
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Child sexual abuse implied
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Self harm
  • Abortion
  • Forced sterilization
  • Medical procedures, including graphic surgery & amputation
  • Needles
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Police brutality
  • Torture
  • Lynching
  • Fire
  • Captivity
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A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier

A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier

Some people knit socks by the fire at night. Gyssha Blackbone made monsters. But the old witch is dead now, and somehow it’s Elodie’s job to clean up the mess. When she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, Elodie had no idea she’d find herself working for a witch; and her acid-tongued new mistress, Aleida, was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep.

Gyssha’s final curse left Aleida practically dead on her feet, and now, with huge monsters roaming the woods, a demonic tree lurking in the orchard and an angry warlock demanding repayment of a debt, Aleida needs Elodie’s help, whether she likes it or not. And no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it’s still better than going back home.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Graphic verbal & emotional child abuse
  • Physical child abuse mentioned
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Misogyny
  • Dissociation
  • Suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping mentioned
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
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Past Perfect by Danielle Steel

Past Perfect by Danielle Steel

Sybil and Blake Gregory live a predictable Manhattan life — she as a cutting-edge design authority and museum consultant, he in high-tech investments — raising their teenagers Andrew and Caroline and six-year-old Charlie. But when Blake is offered a dream job as CEO of a start-up in San Francisco, he accepts it, without consulting his wife, and buys a magnificent, historic mansion as their new home in Pacific Heights.

Past and present collide at their elegant mansion, when they meet the large and lively family who lived there a century ago. All long dead but very much alive in spirit—visible to the Gregorys and no one else. Have the Gregorys been given a perfect gift; beloved friends, a chance to relive the past and the wisdom and grace to shape the future?

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
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Antigen by RA Steffan

Antigen by R.A. Steffan

Ryder isn’t a stupid woman, and she knows better than to volunteer for things. Volunteering always gets you into trouble. So it’s really no surprise when her undercover operation to retrieve Temple Akenzua from the belly of a Regime prison goes tits-up in fairly short order.

With Ryder stuck on the wrongs side of the bars, the rescue mission has now become a mission of survival. Her only hope—and Temple’s—lies with her comrades in the Shadow Wing. Ryder just needs to stay alive until they come up with a plan.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Imprisonment
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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California.

Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic & child physical abuse
  • Stillbirth
  • Starvation
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Murder
  • Imprisonment
  • Graphic animal death
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The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens

The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens

For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain. The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.

As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Cannibalism
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
  • Animal death
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The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur book cover

From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.

Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Incest
  • Child sexual abuse
  • Abusive relationship
  • Depression
  • Abortion
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of a an infant mentioned
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The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud

The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud

After leaving Lockwood & Co., Lucy is a freelance operative, hiring herself out to agencies that value her ever-improving skills. One day she is pleasantly surprised by a visit from Lockwood, who tells her he needs a good Listener for a tough assignment.

Penelope Fittes, the leader of the giant Fittes Agency wants them–and only them–to locate and remove the Source for the legendary Brixton Cannibal. They succeed in their very dangerous task, but tensions remain high between Lucy and the other agents. Even the skull in the jar talks to her like a jilted lover.

What will it take to reunite the team? Black marketeers, an informant ghost, a Spirit Cape that transports the wearer, and mysteries involving Steve Rotwell and Penelope Fittes just may do the trick.  

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Persecution for witchcraft mentioned
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Physical injuries
  • Dismemberment
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a mother, father & sister recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Animal cruelty (minor)
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The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud

The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud

As a massive outbreak of supernatural Visitors baffles Scotland Yard and causes protests throughout London, Lockwood & Co. continue to demonstrate their effectiveness in exterminating spirits. Anthony Lockwood is dashing, George insightful, and Lucy dynamic, while the skull in the jar utters sardonic advice from the sidelines. There is a new spirit of openness in the team now that Lockwood has shared some of his childhood secrets, and Lucy is feeling more and more as if her true home is at Portland Row. It comes as a great shock, then, when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoyingly perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro.

Meanwhile, there are reports of many new hauntings, including a house where bloody footprints are appearing, and a department store full of strange sounds and shadowy figures… Read More.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Physical injuries
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother, father & sister recounted
  • Death of a child
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Fire
  • Homelessness
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