Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

When Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning, she fears her rash actions have earned her a longer sentence on the debtor ship where she’s been held captive for years. Instead, the man she saved offers her unimaginable riches and a new identity, setting Amaya on a perilous course through the coastal city-state of Moray, where old-world opulence and desperate gamblers collide. Amaya wants one thing: revenge against the man who ruined her family and stole the life she once had. But the more entangled she becomes in this game of deception—and as her path intertwines with the son of the man she’s… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Indentured servitude of children, discussed in-depth
  • Sexual assault, on-page
  • Child abuse
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Gambling addiction recovery & relapse (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse, recounted & discussed
  • Drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction,
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Needles
  • Terminal illness (plague-like), recounted & on-page
  • Depiction of starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of children, on-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Torture recounted
  • Whipping recounted
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Blackmail
  • Death by a fall recounted
  • Near-drowning incident
  • War themes discussed
  • Poverty themes & debt collection (theme)

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Margot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unravelling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother. Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Attempted rape & sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Cancer
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a daughter
  • Death of a husband
  • Gun violence
  • Stalking mentioned
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The Atrocities by Jeremy Shipp

The Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp

When Isabella died, her parents were determined to ensure her education wouldn’t suffer. But Isabella’s parents had not informed her new governess of Isabella’s… condition, and when Ms Valdez arrives at the estate, having forced herself through a surreal nightmare maze of twisted human-like statues, she discovers that there is no girl to tutor. Or is there…?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Hallucinations & delusions
  • Graphic body horror
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Seizures mentioned
  • Death of a daughter
  • Death of a mother from extrahepatic bile duct cancer mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
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The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson

The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson

Casey Wilson has a lot on her mind and she isn’t afraid to share. In this dazzling collection of essays, skillfully constructed and brimming with emotion, she shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and persuasively argues that lowbrow pop culture is the perfect lens through which to understand human nature. Whether she’s extolling the virtues of eating in bed, processing the humiliation over her father’s late in life perm, or exploring her pathological need to be liked, Casey is witty, candid, and full of poignant… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depression & postpartum depression
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Febrile seizure, on-page
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandfather
  • Death of a mother from a heart attack
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The Forest of Stars by Heather Kassner

The Forest of Stars by Heather Kassner

Left all alone after her mother passes away, twelve-year-old Louisa LaRoche watches the sky for her father. Long ago, a powerful gust of wind swept through town, stealing him away on the wings of his untamed magic—the same magic that stirs within Louisa. As if she is made of hollow bones and too much air, her feet never quite touch the ground. But for all her sky gazing, Louisa finds her fortune on the leaf-strewn street when she spots a gleaming black-and-gold invitation—a ticket to the Carnival Beneath the Stars. If her father fits in nowhere else, maybe she’ll find him there… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Memory loss
  • Death of a mother
  • Homelessness
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Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall

Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall

Twelve-year-old Eleanor has just moved to Eden Eld to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother was killed in a fire. Her birthday, which falls on Halloween, is just around the corner, and she hopes that this year will be a fresh start at a new life. But then one morning, an ancient grandfather clock counting down thirteen hours appears outside of her bedroom. And then she spots a large black dog with glowing red eyes prowling the grounds of her school. A book of fairytales she’s never heard of almost willingly drops in front of her, as if asking to be read. Something is wrong in… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Pregnancy & childbirth, off-page
  • Death of a mother, implied
  • Attempted murder
  • Kidnapping
  • House fire recounted

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Sexism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Fire
  • Drowning
  • Building collapse
  • Colonialism
  • Graphic animal death & dead bodies (theme)

Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer

Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer

After twelve years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s resume and give her a shot. Jane is a supernova—witty and dazzling and unapologetically herself—and as the two work closely together, their relationship becomes a true friendship. In Jane, Merit sees the possibility of what a woman could be. And Jane sees Merit… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Cheating
  • Divorce mentioned
  • Weight loss
  • Miscarriage
  • Unplanned pregnancy
  • Recreational drug use
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father from a heart attack
  • Death of a mother from breast cancer recounted
  • Death of a brother from AIDS recounted

Confessions by Kanae Minato

Confessions by Kanae Minato

After calling off her engagement in wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Parental neglect & abandonment
  • Transphobia mentioned & misgendering
  • Depression
  • HIV/AIDs (theme)*
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father in a car accident mentioned
  • Death of a mother from illness mentioned
  • Murder of a daughter from drowning
  • Attempted murder of a child from electrocution
  • Murder of a teen girl from strangulation
  • Mass death of a family from poisoning discussed (mother, father & child)
  • Explosion, off-page
  • Animal death & cruelty mentioned

*Context: A teacher purposefully infects the two teenage boys who murdered her daughter with HIV/AIDs. The aftereffects of being infected are explored in depth. Mentions of HIV+ stigma and how the teacher’s ex-husband is dying of HIV/AIDs.

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. There are no strangers in the town of Near. These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. As the hunt for… Read more,

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a father off-page
  • Death of a mother, on-page
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Animal death
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