Tag Archives: Death of a Parent & Guardian

Wrong by Adelaide Forrest

Wrong by Adelaide Forrest

She’s the girl I can never have. Everlee likes to torment me, to enrapture me with her innocence at every turn. The games we play skirt the lines of what is appropriate, but I’d never allow myself to cross them. Her father would kill me if I did. He’s my oldest friend, and I’ve watched his daughter blossom into the woman she’s becoming. My tastes are too deviant for her shining light, and I need an outlet even if she’s all I see when I close my eyes. Enter Purgatory — the club that caters to every manner of taste. Arranging a meeting with a stranger to fill my needs, the last thing I expect when I look in the window of our meeting… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scenarios
  • Consensual rape play
  • Forced pregnancy
  • Kidnapping

With Love from London by Sarah Jio

With Love from London by Sarah Jio

When librarian Valentina Baker was a teenager, her mother, Eloise, unexpectedly fled to her native London, leaving Val and her father on their own. Now in her thirties and fresh out of a failed marriage, Val feels a nagging disenchantment with her life–and knows she is still heartbroken over her mother’s abandonment. In a bittersweet twist of fate, Val receives word that Eloise has passed away, leaving Val her Primrose Hill apartment and the deed to a bookshop Val never knew she’d owned. Though the news is devastating, Val finds herself more determined than ever to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of a parent from cancer

Delicates by Brenna Thummler

Delicates by Brenna Thummler

Marjorie Glatt’s life hasn’t been the same ever since she discovered a group of ghosts hiding in her family’s laundromat. Wendell, who died young and now must wander Earth as a ghost with nothing more than a sheet for a body, soon became one of Marjorie’s only friends. But when Marjorie finally gets accepted by the popular kids at school, she begins to worry that if anyone learns about her secret ghost friends, she’ll be labelled as a freak who sees dead people. With Marjorie’s insistence on keeping Wendell’s ghost identity a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism mentioned
  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Toxic friendships
  • Bullying

Enemies With Benefits by Roxie Noir

Enemies With Benefits by Roxie Noir

Eli Loveless was my nemesis from the first day of kindergarten until we graduated high school. Everything I did, he had to do better – and vice versa. The day he left town was the best day of my life. Ten years later, the day he came back was the worst. Now he’s my co-worker. Grown-up Eli Loveless is sexy as sin. He’s hotter than asphalt in the summer. The irritating kid I once knew is gone, and he’s been replaced by a man with green eyes, perfect abs, and a cocky smile. It’s bad that I want him. It’s worse that he… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Nonconsensual distribution of nude photographs
  • Sexual harassment
  • Slut shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a father mentioned
  • Death of a mother from lung cancer mentioned
  • Bullying recounted

Gemini Keeps Capricorn by Anyta Sunday

Gemini Keeps Capricorn by Anyta Sunday

Wesley loves annoying his RA, Lloyd Reynolds. He just can’t help it. Lloyd is focused, decisive, grounded. He has this amusing ability to follow rules. Of course, Wesley wants Lloyd to break one… or three hundred.… It doesn’t stop Wesley teasing again. And again. And again… But damn. Lloyd doesn’t crack easily. He’s full of principles. He’s unshakable. He’s the perfect friend to have when Wesley needs help. Like with his truant brother and his old high school principal. What can he say? It seemed like a good idea at the time…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Cheating
  • Alcoholism
  • Heart failure mentioned
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Stalking

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

Enchantments run deep on the magical Isle of Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind, plaid shawls can be as strong as armour, and the smallest cut of a knife can instil fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that live there find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home, but that mischief turns to malevolence as girls begin to go missing. Adaira, heiress of the east, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, enticing them to return the missing girls. But there’s only one bard capable of drawing the spirits forth by song: her childhood enemy Jack Tamerlaine… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening. As his grandmother’s sole caretaker, he spends his days cooped up in their apartment, avoiding his neighbourhood masjid, his estranged sister, and even his best friend (who also happens to be his longtime crush). The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Transmisia
  • Islamomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Sexual assault
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Fire

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

1629: A newly orphaned young girl named Mayken is bound for the Dutch East Indies on the Batavia, one of the greatest ships of the Dutch Golden Age. Curious and mischievous, Mayken spends the long journey going on misadventures above and below the deck, searching for a mythical monster. But the true monsters might be closer than she thinks. 1989: A lonely boy named Gil is sent to live off the coast of Western Australia among the seasonal fishing community where his late mother once resided. There, on the tiny reef-shrouded island, he discovers the story of an infamous shipwreck…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother (theme)

The Curse of Broken Shadows by Laura Winter

The Curse of Broken Shadows by Laura Winter

Shadow magic is extinct. The Veil Worshippers who honour the shadow god’s wall are hunted for their artifacts, including the Veil shards that break off the wall in Valisea. Brela vows to steal it all back. With the dagger of her people and a Veil shard embedded in her collarbone that has infected her with shadow-cursed magic, she is determined to keep her secrets or suffer a fate worse than death. That was a lot easier when the uptight and infuriatingly handsome Captain Cason Valkip wasn’t hunting her. Cason has spent his entire life hiding from the raids on Valisea, from,… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Abandonment
  • Rape & sexual assault mentioned
  • Physical & emotional child abuse mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & trauma
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & genocide
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire

Goodreads • The Story Graph

The Boy with the Spider Face by A.J. Franks

The Boy with the Spider Face by A.J. Franks

Jeff Pritchet isn’t much different from other teenage boys, with one exception. His monstrous, spider-like appearance and loner persona make him a target for bullying when all he wants is a friend who sees beyond the surface. Enter transfer student, Aarav Jain. Thoughtful, accepting, and insightful, he sparks an untapped hope in Jeff, transforming his life. But as the boys grow closer, their deepening relationship becomes hijacked by a darkness Aarav can’t escape and a life-altering secret Jeff can barely contain. The unconventional pair find themselves… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Queermisia
  • Child abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug abuse
  • Emesis
  • Body horror
  • Murder
  • Death of a parent
  • Animal death
  • Bullying