In Her Eyes by Sarah Alderson

In Her Eyes by Sarah Alderson

Ava’s life is the kind other people envy: loving husband; great kids; beautiful house. Until the night that a violent home invasion plunges her world into chaos.

In the aftermath of the attack, Ava needs answers to two questions. Who has targeted her family? And why? Things aren’t adding up. She is starting to suspect that someone knows more than they are letting on. That everything she thought she knew about the people closest to her was a lie.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Home invasion
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Out of Control by Sarah Alderson

Out of Control by Sarah Alderson

When 17 year old Liva witnesses a brutal murder she’s taken into police custody for her own protection. But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.

Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.

When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder
  • Gun violence
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Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho

Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy is an accessible book for children to learn about systemic racism and racist behavior. For the awkward questions white and non-black parents don’t know how to answer, this book is an essential guide to help support communication on how to dismantle racism in our youngest generation.

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy creates a safe, judgment-free space for curious children to ask questions they’ve long been afraid to verbalize. How can I have white privilege if I’m not wealthy? Why do Black people protest against the police? If Black people can say the N-word, why can’t I? And many, many more

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Slavery
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Police brutality
  • Gun violence
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Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.”

In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity—but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Hate crimes
  • Slavery
  • Physical abuse
  • Police brutality
  • Gun violence
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Taming Dante by Joel Abernathy

Taming Dante by Joel Abernathy

Keeping up the rock star image ain’t easy, but someone’s gotta show these fakers how it’s done. Hotel-room-trashing tantrums? Check. Daddy issues galore? Check. Glitz, glamour and general debauchery? I wrote the f**king book. I’m a textbook bad boy rockstar cliche, and I’ve never claimed to be anything else. Hell, I own it.

At least, I did, until he came along: Mr. Self-Righteous who acts more like a priest than a drummer. Now he’s my bodyguard and the guy in charge of making sure I don’t OD before the tour ends… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Substance addiction
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self harm mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Stalking
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The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson

The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson 

A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There’s a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions. A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom – she’s fighting for her life. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Self harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Amputation
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
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Of Silver and Shadow by Jennifer Gruenke

Of Silver and Shadow by Jennifer Gruenke

Ren Kolins is a silver wielder—a dangerous thing to be in the kingdom of Erdis, where magic has been outlawed for a century. Ren is just trying to survive, sticking to a life of petty thievery, card games, and pit fighting to get by. But when a wealthy rebel leader discovers her secret, he offers her a fortune to join his revolution. The caveat: she won’t see a single coin until they overthrow the King.

Behind the castle walls, a brutal group of warriors known as the King’s Children is engaged in a competition: the first to find the rebel leader will be made King’s Fang, the right hand of the King of Erdis. And Adley Farre is hunting down the rebels one by one, torturing her way to Ren and the rebel leader, and the coveted King’s Fang title… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Alcoholism
  • Physical injury, including eyeball trauma
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Executions
  • Gun violence
  • Stabbing
  • Poverty themes
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A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price

A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price

Valerie Simons knows the city’s gang wars are dangerous—her own brother was killed by the Boars two years ago. But nothing will sway her from joining the elite and beautiful Herons to avenge his death—a death she feels responsible for.

But when Valerie is recruited by the mysterious Stags, their charismatic and volatile leader Jax promises to help her get revenge. Torn between old love and new loyalty, Valerie fights to stay alive as she races across the streets of San Francisco to finish the mission that got her into the gangs.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abusive relationship
  • Graphic self harm
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Open heart surgery
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a sibling
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Gang violence
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning mentioned
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Crave by Tracy Wolff

Crave by Tracy Wolff

My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods…or monsters. I still can’t decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me.

Then there’s Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn’t felt anything for a hundred years. But there’s something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what’s broken in me… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Blood-drinking
  • Death from exsanguination
  • Dead bodies mentioned
  • Death of a parent in a car accident recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Strangulation
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Kidnapping
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Native Son by Richard Wright

Native Son by Richard Wright

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Rape
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead body
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying
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