Tag Archives: Drug Use & Abuse

Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko

For the first time, an Empress Redemptor sits on Aritsar’s throne. To appease the sinister spirits of the dead, Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power as a Raybearer. She must then descend into the Underworld, a sacrifice to end all future atrocities. Tarisai is determined to survive. Or at least, that’s what she tells her increasingly distant circle of friends. Months into her shaky reign as empress, child spirits haunt her, demanding that she pay for past sins of the empire. With the lives of her loved ones on the line assassination attempts from unknown… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Child abuse & neglect recounted
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder

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

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world. Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want–but what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction including mentions of a decapitation
  • Involuntary medical experimentation on children
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity of children
  • Gun violence
  • Plane crash (airship explosion)
  • Fire
  • Battle scenes

Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead

Lee Stone is a twenty-first-century woman: she kicks butt at her job as a communications director at a women-run electric car company (that’s better than Tesla, thank you) and after work she is “Stoner,” drinking guys under the table and never letting any of them get too comfortable in her bed…

That’s because Lee’s learned one big lesson: never trust love. After four major heartbreaks set her straight, from her father cheating on her mom all the way to Ben Laderman in grad school—who wasn’t actually cheating, but she could have sworn he was, so she reciprocated in kind… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug use
  • Death of a parent

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

Lucky St. James, a Métis millennial living with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella, is barely hanging on when she discovers she will be evicted from their tiny Toronto apartment. Then, one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. Burrowing through a wall, she finds a silver spoon etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM, humming with otherworldly energy. Hundreds of miles away in Salem, Myrna Good has been looking for Lucky. Myrna works for VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transmisia & deadnaming
  • Coming out scene
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Dementia
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Smoking
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Home invasion

Love Songs for Skeptics by Christina Pishiris

Zoë Frixos gets the whole love song thing. Truly, she does. As an editor at a major music magazine in London, it’s part of her job description. But love? Let’s just say Zoë’s been a bit off-beat in that department. After falling hard for her best friend, Simon, at thirteen and missing every chance to tell him how she felt before he left town, Zoë came to one grand conclusion: Love stinks. Twenty years later, Simon is returning to London, newly single and as charming as ever, and Zoë vows to take her second chance. But Zoë’s got other problems now: In order to save her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Drug abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Overdose

Wonder by Christina C. Jones

It all came down to me. The one who followed the rules, never went looking for trouble – I kept to myself. I just wanted to take care of my family. To not constantly look over my shoulder, worried about the things that went bump in the night. I just wanted to survive. But that wasn’t meant to be. As luck – or fate, or something – would have it, the trouble found me. I followed a rabbit through the wreckage of a half-ruined world to get back what was mine, and wound up at the end of it. In Wonderland. But there’s nothing magical about it.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Forced sterilisation
  • Murder
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Death of a grandmother from renal failure
  • Death of a parent in a terrorist bombing recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Disappearance of a sibling

Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

Clay: Marymount girls are good girls. We’re chaste, we’re untouched, and even if we weren’t, no one would know, because we keep our mouths shut. Not that I have anything to share anyway. I never let guys go too far. I’m behaved. Beautiful, smart, talented, popular, my skirt’s always pressed, and I never have a hair out of place. I own the hallways, walking tall on Monday and dropping to my knees like the good Catholic girl I am on Sunday. That’s me. Always in control. Or so they think. The truth is that it’s easy for me to resist them, because what I truly want, they can never be. Something soft and smooth. Someone dangerous and wild…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & internalized homomisia
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Intimate partner violence mentioned
  • Revenge porn*
  • Staff-student relationship*
  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother from suicide recounted
  • Death of a father from a heart attack recounted
  • Death of a brother from leukaemia
  • Bullying

*Context : The protagonist filmed a secondary character during a sexual experience and uploaded the video to the internet. A school employee has a ‘consensual ‘ sexual relationship with an underage student.

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button. Only he isn’t sure he wants to. After all, life hasn’t been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer’s. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend’s suicide last year…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Outing
  • Sexual assault & attempted rape
  • Alcoholism
  • Grandparent with Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Nonconsensual medical procedures and experimentation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a boyfriend from suicide recounted
  • Bullying & cyberbullying