The Impossibility of Us by Katy Upperman

The Impossibility of Us by Katy Upperman

The last thing Elise wants is to start her senior year in a new town. But after her brother’s death in Afghanistan, she and her mother move from San Francisco to a sleepy coastal village.

When Elise meets Mati, they quickly discover how much they have in common. Mati is new to town too, visiting the U.S. with his family. Over the course of the summer, their relationship begins to blossom, and what starts out as a friendship becomes so much more.

But as Elise and Mati grow closer, her family becomes more and more uncomfortable with their relationship, and their concerns all center on one fact—Mati is Afghan.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss
  • Death of a brother
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The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente

The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente

Inside a small Yorkshire parsonage, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë have invented a game called Glass Town, where their toy soldiers fight Napoleon and no one dies. This make-believe land helps the four escape from a harsh reality But on this Beastliest Day, the day Anne and Branwell walk their sisters to the train station, something incredible happens: the train whisks them all away to a real Glass Town.

This is their Glass Town, exactly like they envisioned it…almost. They certainly never gave Napoleon a fire-breathing porcelain rooster instead of a horse. And their soldiers can die; wars are fought over the potion that raises the dead, a potion Anne would very much like to bring back to England. But when Anne and Branwell are kidnapped, Charlotte and Emily must find a way to save their siblings. Can two English girls stand against Napoleon’s armies, especially now that he has a new weapon from the real world? And if he escapes Glass Town, will England ever be safe again?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Dismemberment
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a sister
  • War themes
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Saga, Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

After a dramatic time jump, Hazel begins the most exciting adventure of her life: kindergarten. Meanwhile, her starcrossed family learns hard lessons of their own.

CollectingSaga 31-36

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language (r word)
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Transmisia
  • Outing
  • Misgendering
  • Rape mentioned
  • Forced sex work mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Substance addiction
  • Hallucinations
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Pregnancy
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries, including serious injury of a loved one
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister
  • Death of a girlfriend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Explosion
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Blackmail
  • Imprisonment
  • War & military violence (theme)
  • Animal death
  • Hunting
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100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis’s entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami’s predictable social scene with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends. While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty—like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens. But paradise has its price. Dragged from their tents under the cover of dark, Genesis, Maddie, and their friends are kidnapped and held for ransom deep inside the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Statutory sexual assault
  • Abusive relationship
  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including emesis & needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent, brother & cousin
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Explosions
  • Psychological torture

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard, known only as the Dragon, to keep the wood’s powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, her dearest friend in the world. There is no way to save her. But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl and when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Attempted rape (on-page, detailed)
  • Cheating recounted
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Body horror
  • Minor physical injuries (burns)
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War themes & military violence
  • Graphic animal death
  • Animal attack

*Note: The main romance is between a seventeen-year-old girl and an immortal 100-(plus)-year-old man.

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Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis book cover

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Rape & attempted rape recounted
  • Forced sex work, off-page
  • Child abuse
  • Intimate partner violence recounted
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy & childbirth, on-page
  • Stillbirth, on-page
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Graphic physical injuries & illness, including cholera, seizures, and fever
  • Field surgery
  • Syringes and needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a brother
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Fire
  • Drought
  • Death from starvation & dehydration
  • Death from exposure
  • Military deployment recounted
  • Animal death & death of a pet, on-page
  • Animal cruelty
  • Hunting & animal dead bodies
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Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

When her sister Patty died, Jenna blamed herself. When Jenna died, she blamed herself for that, too. Unfortunately Jenna died too soon. Living or dead, every soul is promised a certain amount of time, and when Jenna passed she found a heavy debt of time in her record. Unwilling to simply steal that time from the living, Jenna earns every day she leeches with volunteer work at a suicide prevention hotline.

But something has come for the ghosts of New York, something beyond reason, beyond death, beyond hope; something that can bind ghosts to mirrors and make them do its bidding. Only Jenna stands in its way.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide*
  • Suicidal ideation*
  • Grief depiction
  • Death themes
  • Death of a sister
  • Death of a husband
  • Death of a daughter
  • Murder
  • Loss of autonomy
  • Death of pet/s, specifically cats

*Main character works at a suicide hotline

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Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire book cover

The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire’s award-winning, bestselling Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones

When Jack left Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister–whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice–back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn’t always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West’s “No Quests” rule is about to be broken.

Again.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Mysophobia
  • Dysphoria
  • Minor blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Resurrection, on-page
  • Vampirism & blood drinking mentioned
  • Medical experiments with corerced consent recounted
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a girlfriend recounted
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death of a mentor, off-the-page
  • Murder recounted
  • Lightning storm
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The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Wait

The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Wait

This novel is the story of Emma’s two brothers: the one who died five years ago, and the one who left home on the day of the funeral and never came back. It is the story of Emma’s parents, who have been keeping the truth from her, and from each other. It is the story of Emma herself, caught in the middle and trying to work out how everything fell apart.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide (on-page & theme)
  • Attempted suicide
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters

To Love & to Loathe by Martha Waters

The widowed Diana, Lady Templeton and Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham are infamous among English high society as much for their sharp-tongued bickering as their flirtation. One evening, an argument at a ball turns into a serious wager: Jeremy will marry within the year or Diana will forfeit one hundred pounds. So shortly after, just before a fortnight-long house party at Elderwild, Jeremy’s country estate, Diana is shocked when Jeremy appears at her home with a very different kind of proposition.

After his latest mistress unfavorably criticized his skills in the bedroom, Jeremy is looking for reassurance, so he has gone to the only woman he trusts to be totally truthful. He suggests that they embark on a brief affair while at the house party—Jeremy can receive an honest critique of his bedroom skills and widowed Diana can use the gossip to signal to other gentlemen that she is interested in taking a lover.

Diana thinks taking him up on his counter-proposal can only help her win her wager. With her in the bedroom and Jeremy’s marriage-minded grandmother, the formidable Dowager Marchioness of Willingham, helping to find suitable matches among the eligible ladies at Elderwild, Diana is confident her victory is assured. But while they’re focused on winning wagers, they stand to lose their own hearts.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating mentioned
  • Gambling addiction mentioned
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Death of a husband recounted
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