The Conductors by Nicole Glover

The Conductors by Nicole Glover

The Conductors by Nicole Glover book cover

As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery & human trafficking
  • Racism & colourism
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Infertility, miscarriage & mentions of pregnancy
  • Physical injury, including burns & scars
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Death of a mother & father, friend, husband, sister & son
  • Disappearance of a sister
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping
  • Incarceration & captivity mentioned
  • Hanging/lynching (implied)

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley book cover

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when her family is struck by tragedy, she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother.

The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, certain details… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Fatmisia
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Sexual harassment
  • Sexual assault, on-page
  • Rape, on-page
  • Cheating recounted
  • Child abuse & neglect mentioned
  • Substance addiction discussed
  • Nightmares
  • Suicide by a gunshot to the head, on-page
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use & abuse (theme)
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Teen pregnancy recounted
  • Grandparent recovering from a stroke
  • Physical injuries, including nerve damage & chronic shoulder injury
  • Hospitalisation for internalised bleeding & liver damage
  • Surgery mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of an uncle
  • Death of a father
  • Murder of a friend & teenager by gun violence, on-page
  • Car accident, on- & off-page
  • Bullying
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Repo Virtual by Corey J. White

Repo Virtual by Corey J. White

The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities — augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive.

Enter Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief. He’s been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he’s stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Deadnaming & misgendering
  • Blackmailed outing*
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Classism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries & chronic pain
  • Death of a friend (on-page)
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Explosions
  • Gun violence
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Car accident
  • Fire
  • Blackmail
  • Flood
  • Cults
  • Animal death mentioned
  • Poverty themes & homelessness

*Note: the transgender protagonist is blackmailed to investigate a crime by a man with documents that would out her as a trans woman and her past as a secret agent.

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The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankentstein by Kiersten White

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Classism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Graphic physical, verbal & emotional abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Intimate partner abuse & violence
  • Nightmares
  • Self-sacrifice (on-page) & suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies & body parts
  • Graphic physical injuries & wound descriptions
  • Graphic medical procedures & experiments
  • Emesis
  • Forced hospitalisation
  • Body horror
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Death of an uncle (off-page)
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a brother
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Graphic strangulation
  • Hanging (off-page)
  • Fire (multiple scenes)
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Building collapse
  • Stalking
  • Graphic animal abuse (on-page) & animal death
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Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews

Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews

Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews book cover

Mercenary Kate Daniels knows all too well that magic in post-Shift Atlanta is a dangerous business. But nothing she’s faced could have prepared her for this…

Kate and the former Beast Lord Curran Lennart are finally making their relationship official. But there are some steep obstacles standing in the way of their walk to the altar…

Kate’s father, Roland, has kidnapped the demigod Saiman and is slowly bleeding him dry in his never-ending bid for power. A Witch Oracle has predicted that if Kate marries the man she loves, Atlanta will burn and she will lose him forever. And the only person Kate can ask for help is long dead.

The odds are impossible. The future is grim. But Kate Daniels has never been one to play by the rules…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Physical injury
  • Death of a friend
  • War themes
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Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews

Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews

Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews book cover

Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.

Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she’s trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.

Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?

As the prophet says: “It is better to marry than to burn.”

Hugh and Elara may do both.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse, mentioned
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Physical injury
  • Death of a friend
  • Fire
  • Animal death
  • Animal sacrifice
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Contagion by Erin Bowman

Contagion by Erin Bowman

Contagion by Erin Bowman book cover

It got in us
After receiving an urgent SOS from a work detail on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is dispatched to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.

Most are dead.
But when the crew arrives, they find an abandoned site, littered with rotten food, discarded weapons…and dead bodies.

Don’t set foot here again.
As they try to piece together who—or what—could have decimated an entire operation, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide by gun (on-page in prologue)
  • Graphic blood and gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Physical illness & injuries, including eyeball trauma
  • Plague, central theme
  • Needles and syringes
  • Medical procedures, including blood test and surgery
  • Medical emergency & serious (terminal) illness of a loved one
  • Comas
  • Emesis
  • Death of parents
  • Death of cousin
  • Death of friend
  • Death of colleague
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Strangulation mentioned
  • Knife violence
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Death from electrocution
  • Blizzards & severe storms
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The Jewel by Amy Ewing

The Jewel by Amy Ewing

Today is my last day as Violet Lasting. Tomorrow I become Lot 197.

Sold for six million diamantes, Violet is now Surrogate of the House of the Lake in the centre of the Lone City, the Jewel. Her sole purpose is to produce a healthy heir for the Duchess – a woman Violet fears and despises.

Violet is trapped in a living death, her name and body no longer her own. She fights to hold on to her own identity and sanity, uncertain of the fate of her friends, isolated and at the mercy of the Duchess.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny (theme)
  • Child abuse
  • Forced child sex work
  • Suicide
  • Forced child & teenage pregnancy (theme)
  • Death of a friend
  • Non-consensual medical procedures
  • Needles
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A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Eyeball trauma recounted
  • Death of an aunt
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Home invasion
  • Attempted kidnapping
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Animal attack recounted
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The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando book cover

Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back–with no idea of where they’ve been.

Eleven years ago, six kindergarteners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to.

Until today. Today five of those kids return. They’re sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn’t really recognize the person she’s supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they’re entirely unable to recall where they’ve been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max. He doesn’t come back. Everyone wants answers. Most of all Max’s sister Avery, who needs to find her brother–dead or alive–and isn’t buying this whole memory-loss story.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Child abuse
  • Absent parent
  • Cheating
  • Alcoholism
  • Depression
  • Asthma
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
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