Tag Archives: Death of a Parent & Guardian

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace’s drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder. Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly’s debut novel weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving and real.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder by drowning

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously. But someone… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical sibling abuse recounted (protagonist)
  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted (protagonist)
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page)
  • Minor physical injury and depiction of dead bodies
  • Death of parents from cancer, illness and fire mentioned
  • Death of a father recounted (protagonist)
  • Parent with depression mentioned (protagonist)

Sweet Rome by Tillie Cole

Sweet Rome by Tillie Cole

It makes me laugh when I hear folks think Molly and I rushed into things too fast, spouting that we couldn’t possibly have felt what we did for each other in such a short space of time. I say, how the hell would they know? We made it, didn’t we? She became my whole life, didn’t she? And as for my folks not being real, being true? Tell that to me aged ten, eleven, twelve—damn, all my bastard life—when I was never enough when I was beaten until I bled for being too good at football and not being everything they’d dreamed: the perfectly dutiful son. Tell that to thousands of kids around the world getting wailed on by asshole parents for… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Suicide
  • Unplanned pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of parents

Sweet Hope by Tillie Cole

Sweet Hope by Tillie Cole

My name is Ally Prince and I’ve always been unlucky in love. I don’t know why, I just always… have. When all of my best friends were falling for their soul mates in College, I was left behind. I was Ally, the pretty cousin of superstar quarterback, Romeo Prince. I was Ally, the best friend to the most amazing group of girls I’ve ever known—a title I loved, but one I became tired of ‘just’ being. And I was Ally, the one on which they could all rely. But to me, I was Ally, the girl with the heart no one had claimed. And I was, Ally, the girl, who underneath it all, was heart-breakingly lonely… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Drug use
  • Death of a parent recounted

Sweet Home by Tillie Cole

Sweet Home by Tillie Cole

At age twenty, Molly Shakespeare knows a lot. She knows Descartes and Kant. She knows academia and Oxford. She knows that the people who love you leave you. ⁣⁣⁣She knows how to be alone. But when Molly leaves England’s grey skies behind to start a new life at the University of Alabama, she finds that she has a lot to learn — she didn’t know a summer could be so hot, she didn’t know students could be so intimidating, and she certainly didn’t know just how much the folks of Alabama love their football. When a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Unplanned pregnancy
  • Miscarriage, on-page
  • Death of parents, off-page
  • Death of a grandparent, off-page

Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole

Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole

Lexington “Lexi” Hart is a senior at the University of Alabama. Surrounded by her best friends, her loving family and having fulfilled her life-long dream of making the Crimson Tide cheer squad, everything is going exactly as she always dreamed it would. But beneath her happy exterior, demons lurk, threatening to jeopardize everything Lexi has worked to achieve. When events in her life become too much to cope with, Lexi finds herself spiralling down into the realm of her biggest fear. Lexi falls hard, victim once again to the only thing that can destroy her and, on the way, finds herself falling straight into the dangerous.⁣⁣⁣.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent
  • Organised crime & gang violence

Crux Untamed by Tillie Cole

Crux Untamed by Tillie Cole

A broken woman. A damaged man. A free spirit intent on saving them both. Elysia ‘Sia’ Willis lives a solitary life. The only person in it is her big brother, Ky, vice-president of the infamous Hades Hangmen. She loves him, but she has absolutely no love for the outlaw MC he belongs to. Raised in secret by her mother, Sia grew up separated from her brother and distant father. No one knew she even existed. After the tragic murder of her mother, Sia spiralled into a rebellion against the rules of the Hangmen. A rebellion with dire consequences that now, years later, she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking, on-page
  • Racism & white supremacy, on-page
  • Klu Klux Klan
  • Epilepsy
  • Murder of parents recounted

Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross

Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross

Violet Savoie has a plan. A dream, rather. To open her own tattoo shop, which caters to supernaturals in need of permanent charms. As a powerful Seer, she has the potent magic to cast every kind of spell. Except the kind to give werewolves control over their beastly side. And her business partner Nico needs help in the worst kind of way. Nico Cruz has a secret. A motive, rather. To subtly stalk and seduce Violet until she finally recognizes they are fated to be together. Ever since their heated encounter in Austin on New Year’s Eve two years earlier, he’s been dying to get his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Kidnapping

Return to You by Julie Cross

Return to You by Julie Cross

Even with bad boy, TJ, disrupting their morning workouts, Karen and Stevie’s daily battles with each other are sure to bring both of them closer to a national title at next month’s championships. It’s the kind of feud that creates winning results. Until a fall from the uneven bars shakes Karen’s rock-solid confidence. Not only does she balk every time she so much as attempts a routine, she’s also facing all this without much support from Jordan. After receiving some bad news, Jordan’s reluctance to listen to reason causes Karen so much frustration she begins to avoid him, need… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nightmares
  • Physical illness
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Car accident

Letters to Nowhere by Julie Cross

Letters to Nowhere by Julie Cross

I’ve gotten used to the dead parents’ face. I’ve gotten used to living with my gymnastics coach. I’ve even adjusted to sharing a bathroom with his way-too-hot son. Dealing with boys is not something that’s made it onto my list of experiences as of yet. But here I am, doing it. And something about Jordan–being around him, talking to him, thinking about him–makes me feel like I can finally breathe again. That’s something I haven’t been able to do lately. He knows what it feels like to be me right now. He knows what it’s like to wonder–what now? I think about it constantly. I need answers. I need to know how to get…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents recounted