Tag Archives: Homelessness

The Packing House by G. Donald Cribbs

When 16-year-old Joel Scrivener has a raging nightmare in study hall and someone records it on their phone, he awakens to a living nightmare where everyone knows his secret, one that he’s suppressed for ten years. Reeling as the whole school finds out the truth, Joel takes to the woods, leaving the bullies and his broken home behind. However, life as a runaway isn’t easy, as Joel’s hallucinations and nightmares follow him into the wilderness. To stop them once and for all, he pieces clues together with flashes of the images that play endlessly inside his head – will he figure out the identity of the person who caused his nightmare before it’s too late?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Graphic sexual assault of a child
  • Domestic abuse
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Substance & gambling addiction
  • Bullying
  • Homelessness

If I Were a Weapon by Skye Kilaen

When dying alien ships materialized across the Earth, their nanite infection knocked Deneve Wilder out cold. She woke up with the ability to see the future. Determined to keep anyone from using her visions for evil, she took to the road. Giving up everything was a small price to pay for freedom.

The ship that hit Jolie Betancourt’s town gave her the power to set things on fire. It was safer to start over in a new city. Then one terrible mistake demonstrated far too clearly that for her, solitude is safer. For everyone… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & attempted kidnapping
  • Building fire
  • Police & military violence
  • Car accident, off-page
  • Homelessness

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of travelling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Death of parents
  • Fire, arson & burns
  • Murder
  • Poisoning
  • Poverty themes
  • Homelessness

Set Fire to the Gods by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Set Fire to the Gods by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Ash is descended from a long line of gladiators, and she knows the brutal nature of war firsthand. But after her mother dies in an arena, she vows to avenge her by overthrowing her fire god, whose temper has stripped her country of its resources. Madoc grew up fighting on the streets to pay his family’s taxes. But he hides a dangerous secret: he doesn’t have the earth god’s powers like his opponents. His elemental gift is something else—something that hasn’t been seen in centuries. When an attempted revenge plot goes dangerously wrong, Ash inadvertently throws the fire and earth gods into a conflict that can… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Child homelessness recounted
  • Indentured servitude mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother, on-page
  • Death of a son mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Physical assault
  • Attempted regicide
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Murder & attempted murder

Together We Caught Fire by Eva V. Gibson

Together We Caught Fire by Eva V. Gibson

Lane Jamison’s life is turned upside down the week before her senior year when her father introduces her to his new fiancée: mother of Grey McIntyre, Lane’s secret, longtime crush. Now with Grey living in Lane’s house, there’s only a thin wall separating their rooms, making it harder and harder to deny their growing mutual attraction—an attraction made all the more forbidden by Grey’s long-term girlfriend Sadie Hall, who also happens to be Lane’s friend. Torn between her feelings for Grey and her friendship with Sadie—not to mention her desire to keep the peace at home—Lane befriends Sadie’s older brother, Connor… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Slut-shaming
  • Religious persecution
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose
  • Homelessness

North to Paradise by Ousman Umar

North to Paradise by Ousman Umar

Ousman Umar is a shaman’s son born in a small village in Ghana. Though his mother died giving birth, he spent a contented childhood working the fields, setting traps in the jungle, and living off the land. Still, as strange and wondrous flying machines crisscrossed the skies overhead, Ousman dreamed of a different life. And so, when he was only twelve years old, he left his village and began what would be a five-year journey to Europe. Every step of the way, as he travelled across the Sahara desert, through the daunting metropolises… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child abuse (child labour)
  • Death of a parent
  • Police brutality
  • Drowning
  • Imprisonment & confinement
  • Homelessness

Only For Tonight by Kendall Ryan

Only For Tonight by Kendall Ryan

Spotting a hooker on a city street corner is not an abnormal thing. Me bringing one home? Well, that’s a first. But this girl . . . She’s in trouble. And this asshole is not a guy she wants to go home with. So I do the exact thing I shouldn’t—I offer to bring her home with me instead. She says this is the first time she’s ever done this, which is adorably ironic. Then proceeds to tell me a sob story about needing money to care for the baby who was left on her doorstep. That’s when my stomach starts to clench. I think she might be telling the truth. So I do what any respectable man would do—I take her home, stopping to pick up diapers and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex work
  • Child abandonment, on-page
  • Terminal cancer (sc)
  • Poverty
  • Homelessness

Neon Hearts by Stefanie Simpson

Neon Hearts by Stefanie Simpson

Bea strikes up an online friendship with Josh, the mod of her disability support group, as she adapts to her new disabled reality after a serious accident. When the danger that’s dogged her for months closes in, she flees to Josh’s home during a terrible snowstorm, knowing he’s the only one she can go to. Josh needed to cut ties with his security job and life in Chadford, to seek solace in the hills and valleys of home. His intense connection and friendship with Bea made him second-guess his isolated life. He could protect her, but it would take him back to a dark place. Yet letting her go… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Panic attack
  • Memory loss
  • Physical injury, including brain trauma & nerve damage
  • Burn scars
  • Eyeball trauma
  • Chronic illness, including vertigo
  • Coma recounted
  • Heart attack & stroke mentioned
  • Physical assault recounted
  • Stalking
  • Car accident recounted
  • Fire recounted
  • Homelessness recounted

The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

Seventeen-year-old Dinah runs her family’s farm in the Ozarks. When she finds her grief-stricken mother dead in the living room with wealthy rancher Gabriel Gates standing over her, Dinah’s life narrows to a single point: kill Gabriel Gates. But Gates has built his wealth giving out bad loans and surrounds himself with bodyguards. Dinah’s mountains are now one giant foreclosure, including her own farm. It all belongs to him. Once he puts a ten-thousand-dollar reward on Dinah’s head, everyone in the starving county wants a piece of her. Homeless and alone in the woods, all she has is Johnny, the moonshining bootlegger at home in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder of a mother
  • Bullying
  • Homelessness

Breath by Audrey Faye

Breath by Audrey Faye

Shelley Martins thinks she needs sensible and practical and steady—but that isn’t what the big truck from HomeWild is about to deliver. Ghost Mountain is getting their school, the first building of their new den. The construction teams are ready, the big strong men are planning to be as useless as possible, and Shelley has the kitchen piled high with baked goods to fuel their work. Except what comes off that big truck isn’t just a building. And Shelley, who walked into hell six years ago to save her pack, isn’t just a baker.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Intimate partner abuse recounted
  • Pregnancy mentioned (sc)
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Death of a spouse recounted
  • Military service mentioned
  • Homelessness mentioned