Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki—son of a giant—blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator. Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Through Gaiman’s deft and witty… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Marital rape mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
  • Cheating
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Suicide
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood, gore and injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a son & father
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail
  • Hanging
  • Graphic animal death & cruelty
  • War themes

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Divorce
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer, including medical treatment, on-page
  • Arson

Breathless by Cara Dee

Breathless by Cara Dee

That’s the question I ask when I go to clubs to seek out Sadists. Most men say no immediately. They see the flags my question raises and walk away. They’re the good guys. They’re the guys who adhere to safe, sane, and consensual. They wanna be aware of the risks and cause no harm. But I’m not looking for a good guy. I’m looking for punishment. The strobe lights hit me as I reach their table. The heavy, industrial music is deafening, and my head is swimming with images of grief, fire, and accusation. I hear the piercing tone of a machine letting me know that I have to… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Death of a parent & sibling in a fire
  • Psychological torture
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The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

On the morning of her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey… until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents’ fantastical stories-like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this world. To complicate matters, two crush-worthy princes ring her doorbell, insisting they’ve come to rescue her. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Physical child abuse
  • Death of a father in prison recounted
  • Sword violence
  • Kidnapping of children
  • Near-drowning
  • Earthquakes, fire and lightning storms
  • Animal attack (snake)
  • Bullying

Marian by Ella Lyons

Marian by Ella Lyons

Life changes for Marian Banner when she leaves the countryside for the big city of Nottingham with her father, Sir Erik the Fortunate, and Marian doesn’t think it’s an improvement. She must trade braids and leggings for jewelry and dresses, and hunting and wandering the woods for dancing and a life at court. But into Marian’s dull new world comes someone exciting—a girl named Robin Hood who is as courageous and dedicated as she is small. Robin is determined to become a knight, and she won’t let her gender stand in her way. The two girls quickly become… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Death of a parent
  • Fire
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Luminous by Mara Rutherford

Luminous by Mara Rutherford

Liora has spent her life in hiding, knowing discovery could mean falling prey to the king’s warlock, Darius, who uses mages’ magic to grow his own power. But when her worst nightmare comes to pass, Darius doesn’t take her. Instead, he demands that her younger sister return to the capital with him. To make matters worse, Evran, Liora’s childhood friend and the only one who knows her secret, goes missing following Darius’s visit, leaving her without anyone to turn to. To find Evran and to save her sister, Liora must embrace the power she has always feared. But the greatest danger she’ll face is yet to come, for Darius has… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Persecution for magic & witchcraft (theme)
  • Blood depiction
  • Dead body
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother in a fire recounted
  • Knife violence
  • Imprisonment mentioned
  • Blackmail
  • Animal attack
  • Animal hunting
  • Animal death, on-page
  • Animal dead bodies mentioned
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We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco. Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted. Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps. In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Hate crimes
  • Death of a friend
  • Fire
  • Imprisonment
  • Internment camps
  • War themes
  • Poverty themes
  • Animal death, on-page
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Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys’ choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the director is arrested, Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself. In the years that follow he slowly builds a new life, teaching near his hometown. There he meets a young student who is the picture of Peter and is forced to confront the past he believed was gone.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Homomisic slurs
  • Paedophilia, including child pornography
  • Suicide by gun
  • Self-immolation
  • Self-harm
  • Black Death pandemic
  • Death of a grandparents
  • Murder
  • Arson

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

With an iron fist, the Great Library controls the knowledge of the world, ruthlessly stamping out all rebellion and, in the name of the greater good, forbidding the personal ownership of books. Jess Brightwell has survived his introduction to the sinister, seductive world of the Library, but serving in its army is nothing like he envisioned. His life and the lives of those he cares for have been altered forever. His best friend is lost, and Morgan, the girl he loves, is locked away in the Iron Tower, doomed to a life apart from… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Terrorism
  • Involuntary breeding programs involving minors
  • Child abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Trauma (central theme)
  • Panic attacks, on-page
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Emesis
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Graphic psychological and physical torture, off-page
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Explosion
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Imprisonment
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Animal attack

Burning Roses by SL Huang

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang

Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, is done with wolves and woods. Hou Yi the Archer is tired, and knows she’s past her prime. They would both rather just be retired, but that’s not what the world has ready for them. When deadly sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, threatening everything they’ve both grown to love, the two must join forces. Now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, they begin a quest that’s a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Smoking
  • Starvation
  • Burn scars mentioned
  • Murder of a grandmother mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Fire, on-page
  • Animal attack
  • Animal death