Deportation & Displacement – Trigger Warning Database

The World We Make by NK Jemisin

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of New York City have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the process—the mysterious capital “E” Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and “law and order” may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Deportation
Police brutality

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe. All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Antisemitism
Blood depiction
Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation of a parent
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Physical injury
Physical assault
Police violence
Riots
Home invasion
Bombing
Imprisonment in concentration camps
War themes
Refugee experiences and displacement
Animal death

Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros

Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros

Efrén Nava’s Amá is his Soperwoman, named after the delicious Mexican sopes his mother often prepares. Both Amá and Apá work hard all day to provide for the family, making sure Efrén and his younger siblings Max and Mía feel safe and loved. But Efrén worries about his parents; although he’s American-born, his parents are undocumented. His worst nightmare comes true one day when Amá doesn’t return from work and is deported across the border to Tijuana, México. Now more than ever, Efrén must channel his inner Soperboy to help take care of and try to reunite his family.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Deportation (theme)
ICE raids, off-page

When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi

When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi

Mahmoud’s passion for his wife Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she’s ever known. But their happy, middle-class world—a life of education, work, and comfort—implodes when their country is engulfed in war, and the Taliban rises to power. In Kabul, we meet Fereiba, a schoolteacher who puts her troubled childhood behind her when she finds love in an arranged marriage. But Fereiba’s comfortable life implodes when the Taliban rises to power and her family becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime. Forced to flee with her three child… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Arranged marriage
Displacement & refugee experiences

Unearthed by Lilliam Rivera

Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story by Lilliam Rivera and illustrated by Steph C.

Jessica Cruz has done everything right. She’s a dedicated student, popular among her classmates, and has a loving family that has done everything they can to give her a better life in the United States. While Jessica is a part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, allowing her to go to school and live in the U.S., her parents are undocumented. Jessica usually worries for her parents, but her fears and anxiety escalate as a mayoral candidate with a strong anti-immigration stance runs for office… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Deportation

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the fences is all he has ever known. But as he grows, his imagination gets bigger too, until it is bursting at the limits of his world. The night sea brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie, a scruffy, impatient girl who appears from the other side of the wires and brings a notebook written by the mother she lost… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Self-harm
Murder
Hunger strike
Refugee experiences

Steph’s Outcast by Ruby Dixon

Steph’s Outcast by Ruby Dixon

Ever since we found the two Outcasts, it’s been my goal to get them to join our beach tribe. Handsome, impossible Juth has resisted all my efforts to recruit him and his small son. He’s made it very clear that he doesn’t belong with us. But when I’m trapped at Juth’s side as the beach is invaded by monsters, everything changes. He talks to me instead of pointedly ignoring me. We become friends. Heck, we even share a few stolen kisses. And when the rescue party arrives, he announces to everyone that I’m his mate and he’s joining the tribe… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Abandonment
Displacement

Delivery to the Lost City by PG Bell

Delivery to the Lost City by P.G. Bell

When the Impossible Postal Express is charged with returning an overdue library book, Suzy Smith looks forward to a nice, simple delivery–just the thing she needs to convince her anxious parents to let her keep her job on the train. So she’s less than thrilled to discover that not only is the book alive, it’s full of a growing and dangerous magic. Worse still, the world to which it belongs is missing, and Suzy and her friends will have to use all their ingenuity to find it. Suzy must help a fledgling rebellion seize power, return the book, and get home before her parents ground her for life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Earthquake recounted
Displacement discussed
Flooding
Imprisonment mentioned

The Great Brain Robbery by PG Bell

The Great Brain Robbery by P.G. Bell

Suzy Smith and her friends have gathered again for the re-launch of The Impossible Postal Express. The celebrations don’t last long though, before Trollville is rocked by a violent tremor—one of a series growing more powerful by the day. It’s clear something sinister is underfoot. Nevertheless Suzy’s got a long overdue package that the Express must deliver, and it may just lead her to some answers.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental abandonment
Child abuse
Earthquakes (theme)
Imprisonment mentioned
Building collapse
Loss of autonomy (mind control)
Displacement

Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

Parvin has just had her heart broken when she meets the cutest boy at her new high school, Matty Fumero–with an emphasis on fumero, because he might be the smoking hot cure to all of her boy troubles. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to homecoming, she’s positive it will erase all the awful and embarrassing feelings He Who Will Not Be Named left her with after the summer. The only problem is Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself has not worked for her in the past (see aforementioned relationship), she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Islamophobia
Deportation