The Last Colony by John Scalzi

The Last Colony by John Scalzi

Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for a human colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forces warrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes, and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up.

That is, until his and Jane’s past reaches out to bring them back into the game–as leaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all the major human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry and Sagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a friend
  • Explosion
  • Gun violence
  • War themes
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Lock In by John Scalzi

Lock In by John Scalzi

Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent – and nearly five million souls in the United States alone – the disease causes “Lock In”: Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Loss of autonomy
  • Death of a First Nations person
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Redshirts by John Scalzi

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that: (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Serious physical injury
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a spouse recounted
  • Explosions
  • Gun violence
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We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not of the boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with Kevin’s horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband. Uneasy with the sacrifices of motherhood, Eva fears that her dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so drastically off the rails.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Eyeball trauma
  • Gun violence
  • School shooting
  • Bullying
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Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson

Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson

Olivia is an expert at falling in love . . . and at being dumped. But after the fallout from her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and at home, she’s determined to turn over a new leaf. A crush-free weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her.

Toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be. Unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling in the wake of the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed his life in hopes that following in his footsteps will help her find her own way forward… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Revenge porn
  • Gun violence
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Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

The story is supposed to be over. Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after…

What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light…

That’s how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West. They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost. They get so lost, they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were headed in the first place…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating mentioned
  • Depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Animal death
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Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.

But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
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White Oleander by Janet Fitch

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Astrid has been raised by her mother, a beautiful, headstrong poet. Astrid forgives her everything as her world revolves around this beautiful creature until Ingrid murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life. Astrid’s fierce determination to survive and be loved makes her an unforgettable figure.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Graphic child sexual abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Cheating
  • Suicide
  • Alcoholism
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Incarceration
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11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Maine. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Disfigurmisia
  • Terminal cancer
  • Hospital
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries & illness
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Car accident
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City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other.

As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Homomisia & queermisia
  • Slut shaming
  • Hate crimes
  • Attempted rape & sexual assault
  • Incest
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Intimate partner violence recounted
  • Disownment
  • Hallucinations
  • Nightmares
  • Self-inflicted injuries
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction, including blood-drinking
  • Physical injuries
  • Dead bodies
  • Medical experimentation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a brother & sister
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a boyfriend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Whipping
  • Disappearance of a loved one
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