Tag Archives: Hate Crimes

Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden

Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden

Luca is ready to audition for the Australian Ballet School. All it takes to crush his dreams is one missed step . . . and a broken foot. Jordan is the gorgeous rowing star and school captain of Luca’s new school. Everyone says he’s straight – but Luca’s not so sure . . . As their unlikely bond grows stronger, Luca starts to wonder: who is he without ballet? And is he setting himself up for another heartbreak?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Outing
  • Racism
  • Islamomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Toxic friendships
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Bullying

Afterglow by Phil Stamper

Afterglow by Phil Stamper

After a summer of life-changing, these four friends are finally ready for senior year. Gabriel is thrilled to create his school’s first LGBTQ+ advocacy group, but his long-distance relationship is fading from summer love to something else. Heath feels secure for the first time in years, but with his future riding on a baseball scholarship, each pitch triggers his anxiety. Reese is set on pursuing a career in fashion design, but his creativity takes him in an unexpected direction he isn’t yet ready to share. Sal wants to be in politics, specifically local politics. After a chat with his aunt, he is ready for an unlikely path… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia *
  • Hate crime*
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical assault*

*Context : A character punches a gay classmate, threatens further violence, and uses homophobic slurs. Graphic microaggressions and outright bias occur toward the gay characters living in a small conservative town.

Heat Stroke by Tessa Bailey

Heat Stroke by Tessa Bailey

They can’t be together. They won’t stay apart. Marcus “Diesel” O’Shaughnessy is a brash, oversized CrossFit enthusiast with a naked lady tattooed on his rippling forearm. Jamie Prince is a private school teacher with an extremely low tolerance for bull. The two men have zero in common. Well, except for three things. They’re both moonlighting as lifeguards for the summer. No matter how hard they try, they cannot stay away from each other. And both of them have secrets they’re determined to keep. But what happens in the shadows of the Long Beach boardwalk can only… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Hate crime*
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Attempted drowning recounted

* Context : An ex-lover beat the protagonist up and attempted to drown Jamie.

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Kyuri is a beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a “room salon,” an exclusive bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake with a client may come to threaten her livelihood. Her roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the super-wealthy heir to one of Korea’s biggest companies. Down the hall in their apartment building… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Cheating*
  • Parental abandonment
  • Body dysmorphia
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Alcoholism
  • Mutism
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer
  • Emesis
  • Surgery recounted & discussed
  • Murder of sex workers discussed
  • Physical assault, on- & off-page

*Context : Miho’s boyfriend is engaged to another woman and cheats on her with a sex worker.

Tidal Wave by EM Lindsey

Tidal Wave by E.M. Lindsey

Gunner has spent half his life running from his past, and the other half trying to protect himself from ever being vulnerable again. He’s escaped his old club and worked hard to earn the VP patch on his cut after joining the Broken Chains. But his entire life is turned upside down when Gunner’s past comes back to haunt him, and the club’s Deaf delivery guy ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time. When his president asks him to protect the injured man, Gunner wants to say no. After all, he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off Logan since the day they met, and Gunner can’t afford that kind of distraction. But ignoring him is damn… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Hate crimes
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Drug use
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening. As his grandmother’s sole caretaker, he spends his days cooped up in their apartment, avoiding his neighbourhood masjid, his estranged sister, and even his best friend (who also happens to be his longtime crush). The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Transmisia
  • Islamomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Sexual assault
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Fire

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

Nima doesn’t feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn’t. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn’t give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Islamomisia
  • Hate crime
  • Attempted rape mentioned
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Hospital
  • Death of a parent, off-page
  • Police violence & brutality
  • Drowning

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

Lavender House by Lev A.C. Rosen

Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well-guarded secret—but it’s not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they’ve needed to keep others out. And now they’re worried they’re keeping a murderer in. Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Hate crimes, including gay bashing
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Animal death & hunting (rabbit)

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

Sam Sylvester’s not overly optimistic about their recent move to the small town of Astoria, Oregon after a traumatic experience in their last home in the rural Midwest. Yet Sam’s life seems to be on the upswing after meeting several new friends and a potential love interest in Shep, the pretty neighbor. However, Sam can’t seem to let go of what might have been, and is drawn to investigate the death of a teenage boy in 1980s Astoria. Sam’s convinced he was murdered–especially since Sam’s investigation seems to resurrect some ghosts in the town… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Transmisia
  • Bimisia
  • Homomisia
  • Misgendering
  • Hate crime
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Strangulation mentioned
  • Stalking
  • Bullying

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world. Arlo Wilde, a gruff has-been rock star who’s got nothing to show for his fame but track marks, is always two steps behind the other dads. His wife, beautiful ex-pageant queen Gertie, feels socially ostracized and adrift. Spunky preteen Julie curses like a sailor and her kid brother Larry is called “Robot Boy” by the kids on the block… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Hate crime
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Alcoholism & substance addiction
  • Suicide
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com