Pumpkin by Julie Murphy

Pumpkin by Julie Murphy

Waylon Russell Brewer is a fat, openly gay boy stuck in the small West Texas town of Clover City. His plan is to bide his time until he can graduate, move to Austin with his twin sister, Clementine, and finally go Full Waylon, so that he can live his Julie-the-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music-Andrews truth. So when Clementine deviates from their master plan right after Waylon gets dumped, he throws caution to the wind and creates an audition tape for his favourite TV drag show, Fiercest of Them All. What he doesn’t count on is the tape accidentally getting shared with the entire… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Lesbomisia & lesbomisic slurs
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Blood & physical injury depiction (broken bone)
  • Physical assault

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back. Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia mentioned
  • Fatphobia & body shaming (theme)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying

Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer

Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer

When his dad is caught embezzling funds from half the town, Rob goes from popular lacrosse player to social pariah. Even worse, his father’s failed suicide attempt leaves Rob and his mother responsible for his care.

Everyone thinks of Maegan as a typical overachiever, but she has a secret of her own after the pressure got to her last year. And when her sister comes home from college pregnant, keeping it from her parents might be more than she can handle.

When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a calculus project, they’re both reluctant to let anyone through the walls they’ve built. But when Maegan learns of Rob’s plan to fix the damage caused by his father, it could ruin more than their fragile new friendship…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Classism (theme)
  • Queermisia & homomisia mentioned
  • Conversion therapy recounted
  • Cheating
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Disownment recounted
  • Panic attacks
  • Suicide discussed
  • Graphic attempted suicide of a parent recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Pregnancy
  • Abortion discussed
  • Emesis (multiple scenes)
  • Blood & graphic physical injuries depiction
  • Stroke mentioned
  • Attempted murder by strangulation, off-page
  • Physical assault, on-page
  • Gun violence recounted
  • Imprisonment of a parent
  • Bullying
  • Poverty (theme)

Needlework by Julia Watts 

Needlework by Julia Watts 

While other sixteen-year-old boys in Morgan, Kentucky, love hunting and football, Kody prefers to spend his time quilting with his grandmother (“Nanny”), watching Golden Girls reruns, and listening to old Dolly Parton albums. Nanny is Kody’s main caregiver, but it takes both Nanny and Kody to take care of Kody’s mother, whose drug problem is spinning out of control. Between looking after Mommy and trying to survive in a place that doesn’t look kindly on feminine boys, Kody already has a hard time making sense of his life. But then he uncovers a family secret that will change everything in his life.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Religious homomisia
  • Parent with a substance addiction
  • Death of a parent

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Our story begins in 1902, at The Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide
  • Overdose
  • Unwanted pregnancy
  • Animal attack

Cinderella Boy by Kristina Meister

Cinderella Boy by Kristina Meister

Cinderella Boy by Kristina Meister

Sixteen-year-old Declan is the perfect son . . . except for one tiny issue. When his sister Delia comes home to find him trying on her clothes, he fears her judgment, but she only fears his fashion choices. One quick makeover later, Declan is transformed into Delia’s mysterious cousin Layla and dragged to the party of the year, hosted by Carter, the most popular boy in school.

When Carter meets Layla, he fumbles to charm her. He adores her sense of humor and her poise. But when she vanishes in the middle of the night, he’s left confused and determined to solve the mystery of who she is.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Queermisic & homomisic language

Heartstopper: Volume Four by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 4 by Alice Oseman

Charlie didn’t think Nick could ever like him back, but now they’re officially boyfriends. Charlie’s beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.

Nick’s been feeling the same, but he’s got a lot on his mind – not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.

As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Bimisia
  • Coming out & outing mentioned
  • Eating disorder (anorexia)
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  • Self-harm
  • Voluntary psychiatric hospitalisation
  • Bullying mentioned

Heartstopper: Volume Three by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 3 by Alice Oseman

In this volume, we’ll see the Heartstopper gang go on a school trip to Paris! Not only are Nick and Charlie navigating a new city, but also telling more people about their relationship and learning more about the challenges each other are facing in private…

Meanwhile, Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem… rather close…?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Outing mentioned
  • Homomisia
  • Bimisia
  • Disordered eating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Self-harm recounted, off-page

Heartstopper: Volume Two by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 2 by Alice Oseman

Nick and Charlie are best friends. Nick knows Charlie’s gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn’t.

But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family … and himself.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Disordered eating
  • Bullying

Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman

Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn’t been too great, but at least he’s not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He’s heard a little about Charlie – the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months – but he’s never had the opportunity to talk to him.

They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Outing recounted
  • Homomisia
  • Sexual assault, on-page
  • Bullying