Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman book cover

Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.

Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia and body shaming
  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Torture
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This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures… until the day their adventures turn all too real.

They stumble upon the Dark Library and discover secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies. Father forbids them from ever entering the room again, but when Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is drawn back to the Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life… Read more.

Determined to save Konrad, Victor, along with his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry, scale the highest trees in Strumwald, dive into the deepest lakes, and even make an unthinkable sacrifice in their quest for the elixir’s ingredients. And as if their task was not complicated enough, a new realm of danger—that of illicit love—threatens to end the ordeal in tragedy.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Ableism, including the Disabled Villain trope
  • Sexual assault*
  • Incest*
  • Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
  • Serious illness of a child
  • Medical treatment & procedures, including consensual amputation
  • Needles
  • Emesis
  • Death of a brother
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack

* Explanation : There are two on-page sexual assault scenes, including one where the main character pretends to be his identical twin to trick his brother’s girlfriend into kissing him, and another where he forces a kiss on her. The romance subplot involves a love triangle between the two Frankenstein twins and their cousin.

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Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Adult-minor relationship discussed
  • Parental abandonment
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Physical injuries
  • Death of a father & husband
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning
  • Torture
  • Whipping
  • War themes
  • Graphic animal death, including multiple death of pet dogs
  • Animal cruelty & abuse
  • Hunting
  • Animal attack mentioned

All That Has Flown Beyond by Marina Vivancos

All that Has Flown Beyond by Marina Vivancos

Kaiyo’s bloodline has been part of the Garrow pack for generations. He has been destined to be shaman, to anchor the werewolves to the land, and lend aid with the force of his Ousía. When Kaiyo is fourteen, however, an attacking group kills all of the adults in the pack, leaving young Ahmik, only fifteen, as leader.

Kaiyo grows increasingly reckless in his desperation to defend his pack, to finally grow into his shaman powers, and to protect Ahmik: the boy he loves. In the end, Kaiyo loses his pack anyway… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Depression
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A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis book cover

Grace Mae knows madness. She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum. When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Paedophilia & child sexual assault
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Depression
  • Attempted suicide
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life – which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan’s Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig’s suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sex addiction
  • Depression
  • Attempted suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation
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Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

It’s 1788 and Alice Payne is the notorious highway robber, the Holy Ghost. Aided by her trusty automaton, Laverna, the Holy Ghost is feared by all who own a heavy purse. It’s 1889 and Major Prudence Zuniga is once again attempting to change history―to save history―but seventy attempts later she’s still no closer to her goal. But in 2020 the Farmers and the Guides are locked in battle; time is their battleground, and the world is their prize. Only something new can change the course of the war. Or someone new. Little did they know, but they’ve all been waiting until Alice Payne arrives.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical misogyny
  • Sexual assault of a minor & statutory rape mentioned*
  • Depression mentioned
  • Suicide, suicidal ideation & suicide pacts discussed
  • Minor blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Gun violence
  • War themes, including refugee experiences & displacement

*Context : Mentions of sex between a seventeen-year-old girl and an adult man.

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

My Heart & Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner.

Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together. Except that Roman may not be so easy to convince.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide (theme)
  • Suicidal ideation (theme)
  • Depression
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Tarnished Crown by Erin Watt

Tarnished Crown by Erin Watt

Two years ago, one mistake cost Gideon Royal the girl of his dreams. Since then he’s become jaded and stoic, caught in a spiral that has him dealing with blackmail, heartache and loss. When he left for college, he hoped to start over. But fate has other ideas, placing Savannah Montgomery in his path again.

Savannah believes there’s no coming back from Gideon’s betrayal. He thinks she’s wrong.

Forgiveness. Hope. Redemption. Gideon has vowed to win back the only girl who owns his heart. And when a Royal makes a promise, he’ll go to the ends of the earth to keep it.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Sexual harassment
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Cheating
  • Blackmail
  • Depression

*The female protagonist was 15-years-old when she started her then 18-year-old boyfriend.

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Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.

Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.

Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Slut shaming
  • Revenge porn*
  • Abusive relationship
  • Cheating
  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation & suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction

*Note: Release of nude photographs without consent.

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