If the Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

If the Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

Linny has been fascinated by disappearances, ever since her sister Grace ran away in the middle of the night without saying goodbye.

Sebastian can tell you how many galaxies there are, and knows how much plutonium weighs. But the one thing he can’t figure out is the identity of his birth father.

They’ve never met, but Linny and Sebastian have one thing in common: an obsession with famous novelist and filmmaker Alvaro Herrera, who went missing three years ago and has just reappeared. As they learn more about the mystery of Alvaro, Linny and Sebastian uncover the answers they’ve been searching for.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Physical injury (fall)
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Disappearance of a sister
  • Death of a pet
  • Animal illness
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Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

Mid-December, and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date – the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace.

Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman – door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of blood on the kitchen floor. Manon knows the first 72 hours are critical: you find her, or you look for a body. And as soon as she sees a picture of Edith Hind, a Cambridge post-graduate from a well-connected family, she knows this case will be big… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Dead body
  • Disappearance
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Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff book cover

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra — who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents — including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more — Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Explosions
  • Disapperance of a loved one
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False Step by Victoria Helen Stone

False Step by Victoria Helen Stone

For days, all of Denver, Colorado, has worried over the fate of a missing child, little Tanner Holcomb. Then, a miracle: handsome, athletic Johnny Bradley finds him, frightened but unharmed, on a hiking trail miles from his wealthy family’s mountain home. In a heartbeat, his rescuer goes from a financially strapped fitness trainer to a celebrated hero. The heat of the spotlight may prove too much for Johnny’s picture-perfect family, however. His wife, Veronica, despises the pressure of the sudden fame, afraid that secrets and bitter resentments of her marriage may come to light. An… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Cheating
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Divorce
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of child
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House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.

Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Familial estrangement
  • Sexual assault
  • Hallucinations & delusions
  • Coerced suicide recounted
  • Emesis
  • Body horror
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Physical illness & injury
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & husband
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a boyfriend
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Disappearance of a sister
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The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.

Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Human trafficking
  • Physical parental abuse
  • Child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Amnesia (memory loss)
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Medical experimentation
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a wife
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Imprisonment
  • Drowning
  • Earthquakes
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Child homelessness & poverty recounted
  • Rebellion themes & regicide
  • Animal attack
  • Animal injury & illness
  • Animal abuse
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The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah

The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah

The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah book cover

In the last days of the twenty-first century, sea creatures swim through the ruins of London. Trapped in the abyss, humankind wavers between fear and hope—fear of what lurks in the depths around them, and hope that they might one day find a way back to the surface.

When sixteen-year-old submersible racer Leyla McQueen is chosen to participate in the prestigious annual marathon, she sees an opportunity to save her father, who has been arrested on false charges. The Prime Minister promises the champion whatever their heart desires. But the race takes an unexpected turn, forcing Leyla to make an impossible choice.

Now she must brave unfathomable waters and defy a corrupt government determined to keep its secrets, all the while dealing with a guarded, hotheaded companion she never asked for in the first place. If Leyla fails to discover the truths at the heart of her world, or falls prey to her own fears, she risks capture—or worse. And her father will be lost to her forever.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Explosions
  • Disappearance of a parent
  • Terrorism
  • Serious injury to an animal
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These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker & Kelly Zekas

These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker & Kelly Zekas

England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes, she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they’re not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive, young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true—and that her sister is in graver danger than she feared.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Sex worker shaming
  • Slut-shaming
  • Attempted rape, on-page
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Chronic illness
  • Physical injury
  • Human medical experimentation
  • Hospital
  • Death of a brother reounted
  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Death of a father mentioned
  • Mugging with a knife
  • Gun violence
  • Murder
  • Attempted murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Fire
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Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Morrigan Crow may have defeated her deadly curse, passed the dangerous trials and joined the mystical Wundrous Society, but her journey into Nevermoor has only just begun. And she is fast learning that not all magic is used for good.

Morrigan Crow has been invited to join the prestigious Wundrous Society, a place that promised her friendship, protection and belonging for life. She’s hoping for an education full of wunder, imagination and discovery – but all the Society want to teach her is how evil Wundersmiths are. And someone is blackmailing Morrigan’s unit, turning her last few loyal friends against her. Has Morrigan escaped from being the cursed child of Wintersea only to become the most hated figure in Nevermoor? Worst of all, people have started to go missing. The fantastical city of Nevermoor, once a place of magic and safety, is now riddled with fear and suspicion…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emotional & verbal child abuse
  • Emesis
  • Blackmail
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Disappearance of a child
  • Animal cruelty
  • Bullying

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery… who makes you want to kiss back.

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Disappearance of a child
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