Tag Archives: Fire & Arson

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. His patronage offers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug use
  • Forced institutionalisation
  • Chronic migraines
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Earthquake (1906 San Francisco)

Through the Smoke by Brenda Novak

Riches. Power. An ancient heritage of pride. The Earl of Druridge wanted only for an heir. So when he learned that his wife was carrying another man’s child, he was filled with a thirst for vengeance. But he wasn’t the one who caused Katherine’s death. Or was he? To his horror, he remembers nothing of that dreadful night, when their last confrontation ended in scorching flame and cold blood. A forbidden love… But he wasn’t the one who caused Katherine’s death. Or was he? To his horror, he remembers nothing of that dreadful night, when their last confrontation ended in scorching flame and cold blood. Passionately drawn to the…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drugging
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a wife in a fire recounted

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect. All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Self-harm for magic
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction including body horror and dead bodies
  • Emesis
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted
  • Torture recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Fire

Heroes by Alan Gratz

December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads are Navy pilots stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the boys get a front-row view of the huge battleships and the sparkling water. Yes, World War II is raging in Europe and in Asia, but the US isn’t involved in the war, and the boys are free to dream about becoming comic book creators. They’ve even invented a superhero of their own, in the style of Batman, Superman, Captain America, and other stars of the Golden Age of Comics. Maybe they’ll even get their comic published someday. December 7th, 1941: Everything explodes. That morning, Frank and Stanley are aboard the battleship the USS Utah… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racial slurs (anti-Japanese)
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Mass hospitalisation for injuries and mentions of dead bodies
  • Naval warfare including ship explosions, shipwrecks, and death from drowning or burning in flaming oil-spills
  • Gun violence
  • Plane crashes & death from explosions upon their impact
  • Attack of Pearl Harbor (theme)
  • Animal attack (dog)

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper and illustrated by Sarah Jane Coleman

Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community – her world – is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • White supremacy & Klu Klux Klan
  • Hate crimes
  • Physical child abuse
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Death of a father in a lumber mill accident mentioned
  • House fire & arson

Black Sheep by Brynne Weaver and Alexa Harlowe

Serial killer. That’s not the first thing you’d think when you meet Bria Brooks.She’s reserved. Polite. Charming, when she wants to be. But delve a little deeper. She’s cunning. Brilliant. Ruthless. Bria Brooks is not just a black sheep. She’s a wolf. And she has her heart set on a very elusive prize. Caron Berger. Trouble is, she’s not the only one. Dr. Elijah Kaplan is also on the hunt for the enigmatic leader of the Legio Agni cult. Caron Berger is a phantom, and Eli is keen on catching the ghost. What he doesn’t need is a beautiful and brutal doctoral student haunting his steps. Especially not one who seems so breakable, or who tempts him to bend every rule until it snaps, or who calls to each of… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Consensual non-consensual (noncon)
  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse & neglect recounted including whipping, burning and physical assault
  • Panic attacks & claustrophobia
  • Undiagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Religious trauma & cults recounted

This Spells Love by Kate Robb

When Gemma gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she reacts the way any reasonable twenty-eight-year-old would: by getting drunk with her sister, kooky aunt, and best friend, Dax. After one too many margaritas, they decide to perform a love- cleansing spell, which promises to erase Gemma’s ex from her memory. They follow all the instructions, including a platonic kiss from Dax to seal the deal. When Gemma wakes up, she realizes that this silly spell has worked. Not only does it seem that she never dated her ex, but the rest of her life is completely unrecognizable. The… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Fire

Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi

Aru is only just getting the hang of this whole Pandava thing when the Otherworld goes into full panic mode. The god of love’s bow and arrow have gone missing, and the thief isn’t playing Cupid. Instead, they’re turning people into heartless fighting-machine zombies. If that weren’t bad enough, somehow Aru gets framed as the thief. If she doesn’t find the arrow by the next full moon, she’ll be kicked out of the Otherworld. For good. But, for better or worse, she won’t be going it alone. Along with her soul-sister, Mini, Aru will team up with Brynne, an ultra-strong girl who knows more than she lets on, and Aiden, the boy who lives across the street… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Animal attack
  • Bullying

The Spirit Glass by Roshani Chokshi

Corazon yearns to finally start training as a babaylan (a mystical healer and spirit guide) under her powerful guardian, Aunt Tina. As soon as her magic awakens, Corazon plans to bring her parents back from the dead and no longer have to rely on a soul key to allow visits with her their ghosts for a few hours every Saturday night. But when a vengeful ghost steals Corazon’s precious key, the fragile balance between the human world and the spirit world is thrown out of whack. Aunt Tina reveals that if Corazon wants her magic to awaken, then she just lay the ghost to rest by fashioning a new soul key. With her rather bloodthirsty… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cigar smoking mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Mentions of a mother, father & son being burned alive in their home

Skin Privilege by Karin Slaughter

Lena Adams has spent her life struggling to forget her childhood in Reece, the small town which nearly destroyed her. She’s made a new life for herself as a police detective in Heartsdale, a hundred miles away – but nothing could prepare her for the violence which explodes when she is forced to return. A vicious murder leaves a young woman incinerated beyond recognition. And Lena is the only suspect. When Heartsdale police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, Lena’s boss, receives word that his detective has been arrested, he has no choice but to go to Lena’s aid – taking with him his wife, medical examiner Sara Linton. But soon after…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & white supremacy
  • Rape recounted
  • Drug abuse
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Explosion
  • Car accident
  • Fire & immolation