Just Call My Name by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Just Call My Name by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Emily Bell has it all. She’s in love with a boy named Sam Border, and his little brother has become part of her family. This summer is destined to be the best time of their lives–until a charismatic new girl in town sets her sights on Sam. Now Emily finds herself questioning the loyalty of the person she thought she could trust most.

But the biggest threat to her happiness is someone she never saw coming. Sam’s criminally insane father, whom everyone thought they’d finally left behind, is planning a jailbreak. And he knows exactly where to find Emily and his sons when he escapes…and takes his revenge. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death recounted
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Home After Dark by David Small

Home After Dark by David Small

Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to sun-splashed California in search of a dream. Suddenly forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell. Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays their generosity by running away with their restaurant’s proceeds.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death
  • Animal abuse
  • Bullying
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Stitches by David Small

Stitches by David Small

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die.

Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim, subjected to X-rays by his radiologist father and scolded by his withholding and tormented mother, to his decision to flee his home at sixteen with nothing more than dreams of becoming an artist.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Emotional & verbal child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Cancer
  • Surgery
  • Fire
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Bright Burning Stars by AK Small

Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Eating disorder (anorexia)
  • Restrictive & disordered eating (theme)
  • Disordered food & weight thoughts
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Body dysmorphia
  • Abortion
  • Death from starvation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling
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Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Decapitation
  • Loss of limb
  • Bullying
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Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith

Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith

Cager has been transported to the Tennessee, a giant lunar-cruise ship orbiting the moon that his dad owns, by Billy and Rowan to help him shake his Woz addiction. Meanwhile, Earth, in the midst of thirty simultaneous wars, burns to ash beneath them. And as the robots on board become increasingly insane and cannibalistic, and the Earth becomes a toxic wasteland, the boys have to wonder if they’ll be stranded alone in space forever.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Substance addiction
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The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Starvation mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a brother mentioned
  • Mass murder by gun violence & poison gas recounted
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Explosions
  • Physical assault mentioned
  • Refugee experiences
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The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when she was ten. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.

Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family—her grandmother and cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug abuse mentioned
  • Death of a mother by heroine overdose recounted
  • Shipwreck & boating accident recounted
  • Hurricane
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Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

Once and For All by Sarah Dessen

Louna, daughter of famed wedding planner Natalie Barrett, has seen every sort of wedding: on the beach, at historic mansions, in fancy hotels and clubs. Perhaps that’s why she’s cynical about happily-ever-after endings, especially since her own first love ended tragically. When Louna meets charming, happy-go-lucky serial dater Ambrose, she holds him at arm’s length. But Ambrose isn’t about to be discouraged, now that he’s met the one girl he really wants.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • School shooting recounted
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Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

Sydney has always felt invisible. She’s grown accustomed to her brother, Peyton, being the focus of the family’s attention and, lately, concern. Peyton is handsome and charismatic, but seems bent on self-destruction. Now, after a drunk-driving accident that paralysed a boy, Peyton’s serving some serious jail time, and Sydney is on her own, questioning her place in the family and the world.

Then she meets the Chatham family. Drawn into their warm, chaotic circle, Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance for the first time… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Substance addiction mentioned
  • Recreational drug abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Paralysis mentioned
  • Car accident recounted
  • Incarceration of a sibling
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