Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland. Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Self-harm (blood magic) & self-sacrifice
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including broken bones, seizures (secondary character) and needles for piercing/tattooing
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture & physical assault
  • Imprisonment
  • Volcanic eruption
  • Explosion
  • Animal death, abuse & injury

The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson

For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set—with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders—since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner, Wayne, find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between the capital, Elendel, and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate—whose corruption Wax and his wife, Steris, have sought to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Gun violence & explosions
  • Animal abuse mentioned (cat)

Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole

In a mortal world colonized by the gods and ruled over by the Descended, their cruel offspring, Diem Bellator yearns to escape the insular life of her poor village. Her mother’s sudden disappearance—and the discovery of a dangerous secret about her past—offer Diem an unexpected opportunity to enter the dark world of Descended royalty and unlock the web of mysteries her mother left behind. With the dying King’s handsome, mysterious heir watching her every move, and a ruthless mortal alliance recruiting her to join the growing civil war, Diem will have to navigate the unwritten rules of love, power, and politics in order to save her family—and all of mortalkind.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Murder & explosions

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

Avery West’s newfound family can shut down Prada when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war. Part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle, they believe Avery is the key to an ancient prophecy. Some want to use her as a pawn. Some want her dead. To unravel the mystery putting her life in danger, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the monuments of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul with two boys who work for the Circle — beautiful, volatile Stellan and mysterious, magnetic Jack. But as the clues expose a stunning… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism & homophobia mentioned
  • Attempted rape recounted
  • Forced breeding (implied)
  • Child abuse & parental abandonment
  • Panic attack (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife & gun violence
  • Explosions mentioned
  • Kidnapping, captivity & being held hostage situation at knifepoint
  • Stalking & blackmail
  • Car accident (off-page)
  • Bullying recounted

Stranger Skies by Pascale Lacelle

Opening locked doors has a price—even for those who hold a key. After going through the door that called to them both in dreams, Emory and Romie find themselves in the the same verdant world written of in Song of the Drowned Gods, albeit a twisted, rotting version of it. A sinister force has awoken with their arrival, intent on destruction as it spills across realms, and now Emory and Romie must stop it before it reaches their own shores. Meanwhile, Baz and Kai are desperate to follow their friends through the door to other worlds, but a mishap pulls them back in time instead—where they come face to face with Cornus Clover… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Knife, sword & weapon violence including decapitation (monsters)
  • Blood, injury and minor body horror (necromancy, a secondary character being reborn after being buried alive, etc.)
  • Mentions of death from choking, strangulation, drowning, stabbing & explosions
  • Loss of autonomy (demonic possession)
  • Physical beating of a child recounted

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighbourhood to a reporting job at one of the city’s biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can’t let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy. Andy Fleming’s newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He’s barely able to run his life–he’s never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical homophobia & threats of outing
  • Infidelity recounted (protagonist’s ex-fiancée)
  • Parental divorce recounted
  • Physical sibling abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of smoking and drug use
  • Death of a mother in a bombing recounted
  • Police violence & corruption
  • Blackmail
  • Bullying (recounted & off-page)

Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu

A year has passed since superstar Winter Young last saw secret agent Sydney Cossette. After barely surviving their first assignment together in London — and their intense chemistry – the two haven’t spoken at all. Though they’re never far from the other’s thoughts, or fantasies. So when Syndey shows up at Winter’s studio one day with a new mission from Panacea, he has no choice but to accept. With the clock ticking, the duo prepares to head to Singapore to rescue an operative in danger — only to learn he’s none other than Sydney’s ex, a rogue agent known as the Arsonist… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & domestic violence recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Murder by poisoning
  • Car bombing
  • Knife & gun violence

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting. He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be. Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites. The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Panic attack
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction
  • Plague recounted
  • Death of a mother from a fever recounted
  • Death of a father from sword violence recounted
  • Genocide
  • Explosions & fire
  • Knife, sword, spear & weapons violence
  • Whipping
  • Animal death
  • Rockslide

Armada by Ernest Cline

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure. But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption & drug use (on-page)
  • Gun violence

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder of an aunt in an explosion
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking mentioned