Tag Archives: Depression

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misgendering
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Plague
  • Nonconsensual castration recounted
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Death of children
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture, off-page
  • Bombings
  • War themes
  • Animal injury
  • Animal death

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t. They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Claustrophobia
  • Depression
  • Parent with Parkinson’s Disease
  • Recreational & medicinal drug use
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Lesbomisia
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Paedophilia
  • Rape
  • Sexual harassment
  • Emotional abuse
  • Depression
  • Schizophrenia
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Terminal cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent

Zyla & Kai by Kristina Forest

While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn’t surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn’t have been more different.

Zyla was a cynic about love. She’d witnessed the dissolution of her parents’ marriage early in life, and it left an indelible impression… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Death of a parent in a car accident mentioned

A Soul to Guide by Opal Reyne

All Raewyn ever wanted was to go home. After accidentally creating a portal to another realm, Raewyn finds herself trapped in a world she’s struggling to navigate. Desperate to find those with magic who can help her, she sets out on a dangerous journey to another town. Unfortunately, on her travels, she learns there are bigger and scarier monsters than the Demons she knows of – and one of them won’t let her get away. All Merikh ever wanted was to escape. For a hundred and eighty years, Merikh has been hunting for a way off Earth. He doesn’t care who he has to eat, kill, or maim to get what he wants. So, when his prey ends… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Bullying recounted

A Soul to Heal by Opal Reyne

All Delora ever wanted was to disappear. Thrown into the Veil for a crime she committed, Delora was discarded by the world. Although afraid of her oncoming demise, she accepts it as it would be a worldly escape from her problems. She didn’t expect that she would wake up from her deadly fall, nor that the person who saved her would be a Duskwalker. She’s wary about him at first, but Delora begins to realise there’s more to him than just a faceless monster. All he ever wanted was a name. After discovering that humans can be kept as companions, he begins planning for the day he finds his own bride. He still lacks humanity and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Spousal infidelity
  • Depression
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Murder of a husband and his mistress

No Place Like Here by Christina June

Ashlyn Zanotti has big plans for the summer. She’s just spent a year at boarding school and can’t wait to get home. But when Ashlyn’s father is arrested for tax evasion and her mother enters a rehab facility for “exhaustion,” a.k.a. depression, her life is turned upside down. The cherry on top? Ashlyn’s father sends her to work with a cousin she doesn’t even know at a rustic team-building retreat center in the middle of nowhere. A self-proclaimed “indoor girl,” not even Ash’s habit of leaving breadcrumb quotes—inspirational sayings she scribbles everywhere—can help her cope… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Incarcerated parent
  • Depression
  • Anaphylaxis
  • Near-drowning

Didn’t Mean to Love You by Christina C. Jones

Vivienne is one of “those” people, the kind that believes in love at all costs. Broken hearts are a natural product of that, and Viv is used to dealing with it by simply ignoring the ache, and moving on to a new love. But this time, she can’t seem to shake the pain — until Carter comes along, handing out easy smiles and the kind of attention that makes her not feel so fractured after all. Everybody knows Carter as this cool, confident, charismatic guy. He has a penchant for saying just the right things at just the right times, being just the kind of friend that’s needed in the midst of sorrow. But, as he and Viv embark on what was only ever… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cheating recounted
  • Parent with depression
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Death of a father from prostate cancer

Whispers of Shadow and Flame by L Penelope

The Mantle that separates the kingdoms of Elsira and Lagrimar is about to fall. And life will drastically change for both kingdoms. Born with a deadly magic she cannot control, Kyara is forced to become an assassin. Known as the Poison Flame in the kingdom of Lagrimar, she is notorious and lethal, but secretly seeks freedom from both her untamed power and the blood spell that commands her. She is tasked with capturing the legendary rebel called the Shadowfox, but everything changes when she learns her target’s true identity. Darvyn ol-Tahlyro may be the most powerful Earthsinger in generations, but guilt over… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery
  • Child abuse
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self injury for blood magic
  • Scars
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder, on-page
  • Gun violence
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Disappearance of a parent

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson

Sixteen-year-old Elena Mendoza is the product of a virgin birth. This can be scientifically explained (it’s called parthenogenesis), but what can’t be explained is how Elena is able to heal Freddie, the girl she’s had a crush on for years, from a gunshot wound in a Starbucks parking lot. Or why the boy who shot Freddie, David Combs, disappeared from the same parking lot minutes later after getting sucked up into the clouds. What also can’t be explained are the talking girl on the front of a tampon box, or the reasons that David Combs shot Freddie in the first place. As more… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Death of a parent from suicide mentioned