All Fall Down by Ally Carter

Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things: 1) She is not crazy; 2) Her mother was murdered, and 3) Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay. The thing is, nobody else believes her and there’s no-one she can trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands. Grace’s past has come back to haunt her and if she doesn’t stop it… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse & gaslighting
  • Drugging
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Physical injury
  • Death of a mother (theme)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead. There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more. But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod’s family.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drugging
  • Murder of a father, mother & sister by stabbing
  • Kidnapping
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Car accident mentioned (hit-and-run)
  • Bullying

Alien Quarantine Rescue by Robin Lovett

I haven’t touched anyone, let alone slept with anyone, since the Beerona Virus killed half of Earth’s population. This virus mutates faster than scientists can create a vaccine for it. I’ve lost all my family and all hope of seeing my friends again. Until a naked, silver alien comes for me. The only words he knows are “Give antibodies” and “Mine.” He could be lying. He could have Beerona. I could be dead in three days after the virus eats me from the inside out. But I haven’t had sex in so long, and he’s as strong as a gladiator. , as beautiful as Adonis, and did I mention his… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Deadnaming
  • Slut-shaming
  • Abortion recounted
  • Pregnancy
  • Heart condition
  • Pandemic
  • Medical procedures
  • Gun violence

AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler

After her brother’s death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school–especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family’s own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers. Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a brother from a congenital heart defect
  • School shooting massacre (aftermath, theme)

99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge. What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems? Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child neglect
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Drugging
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a child (off-page)
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion (bomb)
  • Animal death (pet)

Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill

Crime fiction author Joe Penvale has won the most brutal battle of his life. Now that he has finished his intense medical treatment, he and his twin sister, Meredith, are boarding the glorious Orient Express in Paris, hoping for some much-needed rest and rejuvenation. Meredith also hopes that the literary ghosts on the train will nudge Joe’s muse awake, and he’ll be inspired to write again. And he is; after their first evening spent getting to know some of their fellow travelers, Joe pulls out his laptop and opens a new document. Seems like this trip is just… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cancer
  • COVID-19 pandemic (theme)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Confinement & stalking

Wonderland by Zoje Stage

The Bennett family – artist parents and two precocious children – are leaving their familiar urban surroundings for a new home in far upstate New York. They’re an hour from the nearest city, a mile from the nearest house, and everyone has their own room for the very first time. Shaw, the father, even gets his own painting studio, now that he and his wife Orla, a retired dancer, have agreed that it’s his turn to pursue his passion. But none of the Bennetts expect what lies waiting in the lovely woods, where secrets run dark and deep. Orla must finally find a way to communicate with – not just… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Starvation
  • Gun violence

Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton

Labor and delivery nurse Penelope is an expert at her job but a complete mess when it comes to her personal life. After her boyfriend dumps her in favor of saving his marriage, Penelope discovers she’s pregnant. Now Penelope must face motherhood, her greatest fear, or consider the alternatives. Jesenia, a first-generation American, made her mark as a model then quit the business in favor of a nine-to-five and wedded bliss. After three years of fertility treatments and pressure from her family, trying to become a mother is her full-time job. But when her past mistakes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abandonment
  • Schizophrenia
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Drug use & overdose
  • School shooting mentioned

Young World by Soman Chainani

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship and sexual assault of a minor by a teacher (17-year-old protagonist kissed by their 27-year-old teacher)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking & drug dealing mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder by explosion and gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal attack (polar bear)

A Worthy Opponent by Katee Robert

Once upon a time I was a girl who believed in love and happily ever afters. Now the only thing I believe in is revenge. Unfortunately for me, there’s only one man willing to help me. Hook. I should have known it wouldn’t be out of the goodness of his heart. He doesn’t have one. No, Hook wants his ring on my finger and me on my knees before him—and he won’t take no for an answer. I’m willing to pay any price in order to bring Pan down…even if it means I lose my soul in the bargain.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Intimate partner abuse & violence recounted
  • Emotional & physical child abuse recounted
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & panic attack
  • Scars
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of recreational drug use
  • Gun violence
  • Attempted kidnapping