Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Deadnaming & misgendering
  • Gender dysphoria
  • Coming out themes
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Disownment and child homelessness
  • Blood depiction & use of blood for magic and in rituals
  • Dead bodies
  • Serious injury of a loved one
  • Hospital (brief scene)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & mother recounted
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Gun violence recounted
  • Police racial discrimination mentioned
  • Car accident mentioned
  • Smoking & alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Animal blood used for magic and in rituals
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All the Ways Home

All the Ways Home by Elsie Chapman

Sometimes, home isn’t where you expect to find it.

After losing his mom in a fatal car crash, Kaede Hirano–now living with a grandfather who is more stranger than family–developed anger issues and spent his last year of middle school acting out.

Best-friendless and critically in danger repeating the seventh grade, Kaede is given a summer assignment: write an essay about what home means to him, which will be even tougher now that he’s on his way to Japan to reconnect with his estranged father and older half-brother. Still, if there’s a chance Kaede can finally build a new family from an old one, he’s willing to try. But building new relationships isn’t as easy as destroying his old ones, and one last desperate act will change the way Kaede sees everyone–including himself.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Car accident recounted
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The Lost Sisters by Holly Black

The Lost Sisters by Holly Black

Sometimes the difference between a love story and a horror story is where the ending comes . . .

While Jude fought for power in the Court of Elfhame against the cruel Prince Cardan, her sister Taryn began to fall in love with the trickster, Locke.

Half-apology and half-explanation, it turns out that Taryn has some secrets of her own to reveal.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Coerced marriage discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Murder discussed
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Bullying
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Wicked Fox by Kat Cho

Gumiho: Wicked Fox by Kat Cho

Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret. She’s a gumiho–a nine-tailed fox who survives by consuming the energy of men. But she’s also half-human and has a soft spot for people. So she won’t kill indiscriminately. With the help of a shaman, Miyoung only takes the lives of men who have committed terrible crimes. Devouring their life force is a morbid kind of justice… or so she tells herself.

But killing men no one would ever miss in bustling modern-day Seoul also helps Miyoung keep a low profile. She and her mother protect themselves by hiding in plain sight. That is until Miyoung crosses paths with a handsome boy her age as he’s being attacked by a goblin in the woods… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Ableist language
  • Physical, emotional & verbal parental abuse
  • Parental neglect & abandonment
  • Nightmares
  • Suicide & attempted suicide discussed
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Seizures, multiple on-page scenes
  • Coma
  • Hospital (setting)
  • Medical procedures, including blood tests & surgery mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother, on-page
  • Death of a grandmother, on-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Attempted infanticide recounted
  • Hostage situation
  • Drowning recounted
  • Loss of autonomy (theme)*
  • Bullying

*Note: The main character is a gumiho, and people are able to control her actions and force her to follow their instructions when they possess her fox bead.

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Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance – and Papi’s secrets – the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Coming out themes
  • Sexual harassment
  • Sexual assault & attempted rape of a minor, on-page
  • Sex trafficking & coerced sex work of a minor discussed
  • Cheating
  • Pregnancy discussed
  • Premature childbirth scene & resuscitation of a newborn
  • Emesis
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from dengue fever recounted
  • Death of a father & husband (theme)
  • Death of a sister mentioned
  • Stalking
  • Plane crash, off-page but discussed throughout the novel
  • Poverty themes
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A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown

A Song of Wraiths & Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Racism and racial slurs
  • Colonialism themes
  • Refugee experiences
  • Riots and stampede
  • Police brutality
  • Emotional & physical child abuse
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attack, described in detail on-page
  • Hallucinations
  • Depersonalisation & derealization
  • Self-harm & self-harm ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Death of a mother, on-page
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death in a fire recounted
  • Hostage situation
  • Kidnapping & attempted kidnapping
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Regicide
  • Whipping of feet mentioned
  • Animal cruelty
  • Animal death, including animal sacrifice
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Ace of Shadows by Amanda Foody

Ace of Shadows by Amanda Foody

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.

Frightened and alone, Enne has only one lead: the name Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn’t have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne’s offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Book Depository

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Paedophilia*
  • Blood depiction
  • Burns
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a friend in a fire
  • Murder, on-page
  • Regicide
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Poisoning
  • Bullying

*The villian is an adult man with a fetish for young girls; the only on-page sexual assault is unwanted touching, however.

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A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope. Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & sexism
  • Threats of rape & sexual assault (on-page)
  • Cheating recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation, attempted suicide & suicide, discussed & recounted (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood and gore depiction including dead bodies & emesis
  • Graphic physical injuries including recounts of an amputation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from cancer (on-page)
  • Death of a sister & father recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Graphic torture (multiple scenes)
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping & attempted kidnapping
  • Death from a fall recounted
  • Death from drowning recounted
  • War themes & military violence, including battle scenes
  • Attempted regicide
  • Poverty themes & debt collection discussed

Ghost House by Alexandra Adornetto

Ghost House by Alexandra Adornetto

After the loss of her mother, Chloe Kennedy starts seeing the ghosts that haunted her as a young girl again. Spending time at her grandmother’s country estate in the south of England is her chance to get away from her grief and the spirits that haunt her. Until she meets a mysterious stranger. Alexander Reade is 157 years dead, with secrets darker than the lake surrounding Grange Hall and a lifelike presence that draws Chloe more strongly than any ghost before. But the bond between them awakens the vengeful spirit of Alexander’s past love, Isobel… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Slut-shaming
  • Cheating recounted
  • Suicide recounted
  • Death of a child recounted
  • Death of a mother
  • Drowning
  • Murder recounted

*Context: Romantic relationship between a 17-year-old girl and a 23-year-old man who has been dead for 157 years.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Colourism
  • Coming out themes recounted
  • Dubious consent scene discussed
  • Teen pregnancy & motherhood (theme) with mentions of childbirth mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother, husband & grandfather recounted
  • Hurricanes & severe storms recounted
  • Bullying recounted