The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.

Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Human trafficking
  • Physical parental abuse
  • Child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Amnesia (memory loss)
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Medical experimentation
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a wife
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Imprisonment
  • Drowning
  • Earthquakes
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Child homelessness & poverty recounted
  • Rebellion themes & regicide
  • Animal attack
  • Animal injury & illness
  • Animal abuse
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Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry & Tobias Iaconis

Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Terminal illness (cystic fibrosis)
  • Hospitalisation
  • Medical treatment & procedures
  • Death of a child
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An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir book cover

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
 
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
 
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
 
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
 
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Attempted rape, on-page
  • Rape threats
  • Child abuse
  • Physical abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
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Moriarty the Patriot, Vol. 1 by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Hikaru Miyoshi

Moriarty the Patriot, Vol. 1 by Ryōsuke Takeuchi & illustrated by Hikaru Miyoshi

Before he was Sherlock’s rival, Moriarty fought against the unfair class caste system in London by making sure corrupt nobility got their comeuppance. But even the most well-intentioned plans can spin out of control—will Moriarty’s dream of a more just and equal world turn him into a hero…or a monster?

In the late 19th century, Great Britain rules over a quarter of the world. Nobles sit in their fancy homes in comfort and luxury, while the working class slaves away at their jobs. When young Albert James Moriarty’s upper-class family adopts two lower-class orphans, the cruelty the boys experience at his family’s hands cements Albert’s hatred of the nobility he was born into. He asks the older of the two boys—who has a genius mind and a killer instinct—to help him rid the world of evil, starting with Albert’s own family! 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Self-harm
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning
  • Arson
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Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor

Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor

Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor book cover

Let’s get this straight – ghosts are everywhere. I can see them. You can’t. And, see them or not, they’re dangerous. This is why my family has hunted ghosts for hundreds of years to protect people like you.

The Marin family are outcasts of the ghost hunting world. They run a two-man operation in inner city Melbourne. Anton has the Ghost-sight, but his father does not.

Rani Cross is supremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat, with enhanced speed and strength thanks to her magical initiation into the Company of the Righteous.

When it comes to ghost-hunting methodology, Anton and Rani don’t see eye to eye – Anton likes to ‘ease their passage’ to the next world, while Rani’s all about the slashing.

But Melbourne is under threat; with a massive spike in violent ghost manifestations, Anton and Rani must find a way to work together to keep supernatural forces at bay.

And what with all the blindingly terrifying brushes with death, Anton must decide if he really wants in on the whole ghost hunting biz anyway.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a child
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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Physical child abuse & domestic abuse mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • Teen pregnancy recounted
  • Death of a friend & child (on-page & recounted)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Gang violence
  • Incarceration recounted
  • Police brutality & violence, including the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black teen

Violet Ghosts by Leah Thomas

Violet Ghosts by Leah Thomas

Dani’s best friend, Sarah, is a ghost. But maybe that’s normal when you’ve spent your childhood running from an abusive parent.

Dani and Sarah might be more than friends, though Dani dares not say so. Dani is afraid that if he tells Sarah he’s trans, she won’t bother haunting him anymore. Sarah’s got good reason to distrust boys, having been strangled by one.

After Sarah and Dani come across another ghost haunted by her own brutal murder, they set out to bring peace and safety to spirits like her. But when an old rival reenters Dani’s life, their unexpected friendship gives Dani a strange new feeling of belonging. As Dani starts to find his place in the living world, he’ll need to let go of his ghosts.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Misgendering
  • Child sexual abuse
  • Rape
  • Violence against a sex worker
  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicide
  • Strangulation recounted
  • Murder
  • Death of an infant to cancer
  • Bullying
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Enchantée by Gita Trelease

Enchantée by Gita Trelease

Also known as All That Glitters.

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians…

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Sex work shaming
  • Racism
  • Physical, emotional & verbal abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Alcohol abuse & alcoholism
  • Gambling addiction
  • Death of a parent recounted

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisic & homomisic slurs
  • Hate crimes recounted
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Plague
  • Home invasion
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Floods & tsunami
  • Earthquake
  • Plane crash
  • Death of a child

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery… who makes you want to kiss back.

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Disappearance of a child
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