Tag Archives: Drug Use & Abuse

Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf by Hayley Krischer

Ali Greenleaf and Blythe Jensen couldn’t be more different. Ali is sweet, bitingly funny, and just a little naive. Blythe is beautiful, terrifying, and the most popular girl in school. They’ve never even talked to each other, until a party when Ali decides she’ll finally make her move on Sean Nessel, her longtime crush, and the soccer team’s superstar. But Sean pushes Ali farther than she wants to go. When she resists–he rapes her. Blythe sees Ali when she runs from the party, everyone sees her. And Blythe knows something happened with Sean, she knows how he… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Victim-blaming
  • Rape & sexual assault of a minor (theme), on-page
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Overdose
  • Bullying

Invisible Son by Keri Beevis

Life can change in an instant. When you’re wrongfully accused of a crime. When a virus shuts everything down. When the girl you love moves on. Andre Jackson is determined to reclaim his identity. But returning from juvie doesn’t feel like coming home. His Portland, Oregon, neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, and COVID-19 shuts down school before he can return. And Andre’s suspicions about his arrest for a crime he didn’t commit even taint his friendships. It’s as if his whole life has been erased. The one thing Andre is counting on is his relationship  with the Whitaker kids…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger & Content Warnings

Hate, Discrimination & Oppression
  • Racism (theme)
  • Racial slurs recounted
Sex & Sexual Violence

Abuse & Relationships

Mental Health & Suicide
  • Suicide mentioned
Alcohol & Drugs
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Smoking mentioned (cigarettes)
Pregnancy & Childbirth

Medical, Gore & Injury

Death & Loss

Violence & Crime
  • False incarceration of a minor
  • Police violence
    • The protagonist is tackled and held to the ground before his arrest.
    • The murder of George Floyd & Breonna Taylor happens off-page.
War & Genocide
  • Gentrification
Natural Disasters

Animal Death & Cruelty

The Queens of New York by EL Shen

The Queens of New York by E.L. Shen

Best friends Jia Lee, Ariel Kim, and Everett Hoang are inseparable. But this summer, they won’t be together. Everett, aspiring Broadway star, hopes to nab the lead role in an Ohio theater production, but soon realizes that talent and drive can only get her so far. Brainy Ariel is flying to San Francisco for a prestigious STEM scholarship, even though her heart is in South Korea, where her sister died last year. And stable, solid Jia will be home in Flushing, juggling her parents’ Chinatown restaurant, a cute new neighbor, and dreams for an uncertain future.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use (weed) mentioned
  • Hospitalisation of a grandparent from a fall
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister in a boating accident recounted

American Prince by Sierra Simone

American Prince by Sierra Simone

I’ve been many things. I’ve been a son and a stepbrother. An Army captain and a Vice President. But only with him am I a prince. His little prince. Only with Maxen and Greer does my world make sense, only between them can I find peace from the demons that haunt me. But men like me aren’t made to be happy. We don’t deserve it. And I should have known a love as sharp as ours could cut both ways. My name is Embry Moore and I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States… for now. This is the story of an American Prince.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Deadnaming
  • Sexual assault
  • Date rape
  • Threats of rape
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Drugging
  • Kidnapping
  • Physical assault
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a wife from cancer recounted
  • Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
  • Murder of a grandfather
  • Gun violence
  • Blackmail
  • Fire recounted

Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell by Tobias Madden

Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell by Tobias Madden

Noah is in love with his online best friend. Which is a huge problem, for the following reasons: 1. His crush has no idea. 2. Noah only knows him as his gaming avatar. 3. There’s zero chance they’ll ever meet in real life. So, when Noah sees an opportunity to secretly meet his crush, he takes it. Even though he’ll have to join the cast of a local production of Chicago with his self-obsessed mother. Even though he’ll need to lie to his best (and only) friend. And even though he’ll have to sing and dance in front of actual people. Because love is worth the risk. And, really, what could possibly go wrong?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Body-shaming (skinny shaming)
  • Sexual assault of minors mentioned
  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • Graphic emesis
  • Fire recounted
  • Bullying & catfishing
  • Weight gain mentioned

Ruthless Knight by Ashley Jade

Ruthless Knight by Ashley Jade

Cole Covington is the most popular heartbreaker at school. Every guy wants to be him and every girl wants to screw him. Except me. His devastatingly good looks, golden arm, and flirty smiles don’t do it for me anymore…because I know what’s lurking underneath the star quarterback’s gorgeous armour. At least I thought I did. And sometimes the only way to save someone… is to walk beside them through hell. Sawyer Church is the bible-thumping nerd of Royal Hearts Academy. Girls pick on her and guys don’t notice her. Except me. Sweet, curvy, and sarcastic… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Eating disorders
  • Drug use

The Attack by Catherine Jinks

The Attack by Catherine Jinks

Robyn Ayres works as the camp caretaker on Finch Island, a former leper colony off the coast of Queensland. Her current clients are a group of ex-military men who run a tough-love program for troubled teens. The latest crop looks like the usual mix of bad boys and sad boys. Then Robyn takes a second look at a kid called Darren. Last time she saw him his name was Aaron, and Robyn was his primary school teacher. And she was somehow at the centre of a vicious small-town custody battle involving his terrifying grandmother. Bruising classroom dynamics, manipulative parents and carers and horrendous small-town politics… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Lesbomisia mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Drug abuse mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Police corruption

The Words by Ashley Jade

The Words by Ashley Jade

He was the talented bad boy everyone wanted. I was the irrelevant geek everyone hated. He was the sun, drawing all of us in. I was a black hole, taking up space. He was destined to be a star. I was destined to remain an insignificant no one. Until he made me believe I was special… And then he destroyed me. I never thought I’d see Phoenix Walker again after he broke my heart, but fate had other plans. One tour. Eight weeks. Forty shows. Countless opportunities to make him pay. The world thought he was a God… But I knew the truth.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body-shaming (theme)
  • Dubious consent scenario, on-page
  • Child abuse
  • Abusive & toxic relationship
  • Recovery from substance abuse issues
  • Parent with early-onset dementia
  • Disordered eating as a coping mechanism for grief mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse recounted
  • Drug abuse & use recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother during childbirth recounted
  • Bullying*

*Context : The heroine is hired as the hero’s sober companion. The heroine was bullied for her weight in high school.

The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas

The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas

In 1903, fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. An ambulance is sent for, and the two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the imposing asylum, hidden deep on Dartmoor. The woman remains in a coma, but the little girl, who the staff name Harriet, awakens and is taken to an attic room, far away from the noise of the asylum, and is put in the care of Nurse Emma Everdeen. In 1993, All Hallows is now a boarding school. Following his mother’s death and his father’s hasty remarriage, Lewis Tyler is banished to Dartmoor… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Psychiatric hospitalisation including unethical treatment of patients involving being tied down and drugged
  • Physical injuries & illness
  • Parent in a coma
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Fire

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook. As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her taboo and psychologically harrowing ability was.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Drug use
  • Pregnancy
  • Murder