The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the air, and people of all faiths weave their lives together. However, the city bears scars of its recent past, when the chaotic tribe of Shayateen djinn slaughtered its entire population — except for Fatima and two other humans. Now ruled by a new maharajah, Noor is protected from the Shayateen by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reason, and by their commander, Zulfikar.

But when one of the most potent of the Ifrit dies, Fatima is changed in ways she cannot fathom, ways that scare even those who love her. Oud in hand, Fatima is drawn into the intrigues of the maharajah and his sister, the affairs of Zulfikar and the djinn, and the dangers of a magical battlefield.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Massacre and genocide recounted
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • War themes
  • Poverty themes
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All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Depression
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation (theme)*
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister
  • Death of a boyfriend
  • Car accident
  • Death by drowning

*Note: The main character dies by suicide at the end of book.

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Hollow by Rhonda Parrish

Hollow by Rhonda Parrish

A car accident shattered sixteen-year-old Morgan’s family. Now her brother’s dead, her mom’s paralyzed in more ways than one, her dad lives at work and her seven-year-old sister Amy tries too freaking hard to salvage everything. What’s more, high school is its own special kind of hell, where her ex-boyfriend delights in spreading rumors that shred her reputation and make her feel like a loser.

When she finds an old camera in a creepy abandoned hospital, it seems like her luck is finally changing. And it is changing–from bad to worse. Because of course it is. Each time Morgan photographs one of her classmates they become corrupted versions of themselves. It’s like the camera steals their goodness, their essence, and leaves them hollow… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape & sexual assault, on & off page
  • Depression
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a child
  • Car accident recounted
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A Song of Wraiths and 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… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Emotional & physical child abuse
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Anxiety & panic attack (on-page, protagonist)
  • Depersonalisation & derealization
  • Hallucinations
  • Self-harm & self-harm ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a father & sister recounted
  • Death of a mother (on-page)
  • Murder & attempted murder and regicide
  • Police brutality
  • Whipping mentioned
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Fire recounted
  • Colonialism themes, including refugee experiences, riots & stampede
  • Animal cruelty & death, including animal sacrifice

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Em is locked in a bare, cold cell with no comforts. Finn is in the cell next door. The Doctor is keeping them there until they tell him what he wants to know. Trouble is, what he wants to know hasn’t happened yet.

Em and Finn have a shared past, but no future unless they can find a way out. The present is torture – being kept apart, overhearing each other’s anguish as the Doctor relentlessly seeks answers. There’s no way back from here, to what they used to be, the world they used to know. Then Em finds a note in her cell which changes everything. It’s from her future self and contains some simple but very clear instructions. Em must travel back in time to avert a tragedy that’s about to unfold. Worse, she has to pursue and kill the boy she loves to change the future

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Disorder food thoughts & restrictive eating (dieting)
  • Internalised body shaming
  • Nightmares & flashbacks
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Blood depiction & physical injuries, including serious injury of a loved one
  • Hospital
  • Needles
  • Surgery
  • Comas
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of both parents
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture & psychological torture
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Incarceration
  • Fire
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Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong

Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong

Three years after losing her brother Luka in a school shooting, Skye Gilchrist is moving home. But there’s no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn’t a victim; he was a shooter.

Jesse Mandal knows all too well that the scars of the past don’t heal easily. The shooting cost Jesse his brother and his best friend–Skye.

Ripped apart by tragedy, Jesse and Skye can’t resist reopening the mysteries of their past. But old wounds hide darker secrets. And the closer Skye and Jesse get to the truth of what happened that day, the closer they get to a new killer.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & Islamophobia
  • Drugging
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • School shooting (theme)
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Stalking
  • Fire
  • Bullying
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Act Like It by Lucy Parker

Act Like It by Lucy Parker

Richard Troy used to be the hottest actor in London, but the only thing firing up lately is his temper. We all love to love a bad boy, but Richard’s antics have made him Enemy Number One, breaking the hearts of fans across the city. Have the tides turned? Has English rose Lainie Graham made him into a new man?

Sources say the mismatched pair has been spotted at multiple events, arm in arm and hip to hip. From fits of jealousy to longing looks and heated whispers, onlookers are stunned by this blooming romance. Could the rumors be right? Could this unlikely romance be the real thing? Or are these gifted stage actors playing us all?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism and slut-shaming discussed
  • Sexual assault
  • Cheating recounted*
  • Suicide recounted
  • Cancer
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Building collapse

*Note: The main character has recently broken up with her boyfriend after finding out her cheated on her.

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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

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy—that he thinks he might be gay. “You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay too, do you?” But when Sandy goes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs (theme)
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Hate crimes mentioned
  • Coming out themes
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Parental abandonment
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother from a heart attack (theme)
  • Police brutality mentioned
  • Animal death, on-page

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie

To regain a throne he never wanted, Prince Yarvi first must survive cruelty, chains and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea itself. And he must do it all with only one good hand. Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a cold heart rule. He cannot grip a shield or swing an axe, so he must sharpen his mind to a deadly edge. Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles could. Will the usurped become the usurper?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, internalised ableism & slurs (theme)
  • Arranged marriage
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Death of a brother, father & husband
  • Murder
  • War themes
  • Bullying