Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Classism
  • Indentured servitude discussed
  • Forced underaged sex work recounted
  • Child rape recounted
  • Child abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Disownment
  • Drug addiction
  • Gambling addiction
  • Drug dependency and withdrawal discussed
  • Recreational drug use recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries
  • Chronic illness and pain
  • Plague mentioned
  • Consensual body modification
  • Death of a boyfriend and death of a friend, on-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture, on-page
  • Explosions
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Imprisonment
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail and death threats
  • Poverty themes and debt collection mentioned

Against the Odds by Danielle Steel

Against All Odds by Danielle Steel

Kate Madison’s stylish boutique has been a big success in New York, supporting her and her four kids since her husband’s untimely death. Now, her children have grown up and are ready to forge lives of their own.

Isabelle, a dedicated attorney, falls for a client in a criminal case. She tells herself she can make a life with him – but can she? Julie, a young designer, meets a man who seems too good to be true. She gives up her job and moves to LA to be at his side, ignoring the danger signs. Justin is a struggling writer who pushes his partner for children before they’re financially or emotionally ready… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Cheating
  • Spousal abuse
  • Drug use
  • Death of a husband recounted
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After the Fire by Will Hill

After the Fire by Will Hill

Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences.

But there are lies behind Father John’s words. Outside, there are different truths.

Then came the fire.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Misogyny
  • Child abuse & psychological abuse
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
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After the Eclipse by Fran Dorricott

After the Eclipse by Fran Dorricott

Two solar eclipses. Two missing girls.

Sixteen years ago a little girl was abducted during the darkness of a solar eclipse while her older sister Cassie was supposed to be watching her. She was never seen again. When a local girl goes missing just before the next big eclipse, Cassie – who has returned to her home town to care for her ailing grandmother – suspects the disappearance is connected to her sister: that whoever took Olive is still out there. But she needs to find a way to prove it, and time is running out.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child sexual abuse
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse
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Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

No one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals. Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a “baby farmer.” Mrs. Sucksby’s household also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, they all will share in Maud’s vast inheritance. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to regret her decision.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & execution
  • Torture
  • Wrongful incarceration
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal cruelty
  • Bullying
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Affinity by Sarah Waters

Affinity by Sarah Waters

An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by an apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Suicide & attempted suicide recounted
  • Incarceration discussed
  • Drowning implied
  • Recreational drug use
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Adrian and the Tree of Secrets by Hubert

Adrian and the Tree of Secrets by Hubert, Marie Caillou & David Homel

Adrian isn’t very happy these days. He lives in a small town and goes to a Catholic high school. He wears glasses, secretly reads philosophy books, and wishes he had more muscles. He’s dogged by a strict mother, bullied by fellow players on the soccer field, and chastised by the school principal, who considers gay rumors about Adrian as a sign that he is “ill.” But Jeremy, the coolest kid at school, thinks otherwise; he takes Adrian on scooter trips, where they end up in Jeremy’s secret treehouse stealing kisses…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Suicide
  • Drowning implied
  • Bullying
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Absent by Katie Williams

Absent by Katie Williams

When seventeen-year-old Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumour that her death wasn’t an accident–that she supposedly jumped on purpose–she can’t bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumours once and for all.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Recreational drug use
  • Death by a fall (protagonist)
  • Murder
  • Bullying

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy—that he thinks he might be gay. “You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay too, do you?” But when Sandy goes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs (theme)
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Hate crimes mentioned
  • Coming out themes
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Parental abandonment
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother from a heart attack (theme)
  • Police brutality mentioned
  • Animal death, on-page

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Queerphobia & mentions of disownment from queerphobic parents
  • Transphobia, internalised transphobia, misgendering & deadnaming
  • Biphobia & internalised biphobia
  • Coming out themes
  • Racism & racist microaggressions
  • Parental abandonment
  • Emotional parental & domestic abuse mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Top surgery recounted & Hormone Replacement Therapy
  • Needles & injections (on-page)
  • Scars
  • Bullying
  • Cyberbullying, cyberharassment, catfishing & doxxing