Bath Haus by PJ Vernon

Bath Haus by PJ Vernon

Oliver Park, a young recovering addict from Indiana, finally has everything he ever wanted: sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent DC trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they’ve made a perfect life together. With everything to lose, Oliver shouldn’t be visiting Haus, a gay bathhouse. But through the entrance, he goes, and it’s a line crossed. Inside, he follows a man into a private room, and it’s the final line. Whatever happens next, Nathan can never know. But then, everything goes wrong, terribly wrong, and Oliver barely escapes with his life.

He races home in full-blown terror as the hand-shaped bruise grows dark on his neck. The truth will destroy Nathan and everything they have together, so Oliver does the thing he used to do so well: he lies.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Panic attack
  • Gun violence

First Moon by Richard Amos

First Moon by Richard Amos

Need someone, or something, hunted down? Akira Murakami is your man! No target is too small for him to get his energy-sucking blades swinging, and all jobs are welcome at the right price. The bills have to be paid after all.

Living in a world where the apocalypse almost happened can be complicated, as is being the hybrid son of the High Werewolf of, well, everything. But Akira likes to live a relatively simpler life than dear old papa would like, shunning all the political crap, living by the sword and perfecting that recipe for dark chocolate and raspberry brownies. Killing is easy. Brownies are easy. Too easy. To hell with the simple life!

There’s a werewolf killer stalking the city, and Akira is about to be caught in the middle of everything.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Bullying mentioned

Abbott: 1973 by Saladin Ahmed

Abbott: 1973 by Saladin Ahmed and illustrated by Sami Kivelä

Danica Waterhouse is a fully modern witch—daughter, a war for the soul of Detroit. Elena Abbott is one of Detroit’s toughest reporters—and after defeating the dark forces that murdered her husband, she’s focused on the most important election in the city’s history. But when someone uses dark magic to sabotage the campaign of the prospective first Black mayor of Detroit, it becomes clear to Abbott that the supernatural conspiracy in her city is even greater than she ever imagined. Now Abbott must exhaust all her abilities as a reporter and a supernatural saviour to rescue Detroit—but at what cost to her own life? 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Homomisia
  • Kidnapping

Bitter Eden by Tatamkhulu Afrika

Bitter Eden by Tatamkhulu Afrika

This frank and beautifully written novel draws heavily on the author’s World War II experiences as a captive in North Africa and a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany. Three men who see themselves as “straight” must negotiate the emotions that are brought to the surface by the physical closeness of survival in the male-only camps. The complex rituals of camp life and the strange loyalties and deep bonds between the men are compellingly depicted in this tender, bitter, powerful tale of lives inexorably changed and a war whose ending does not bring peace. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Child sexual abuse, implied

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Body shaming
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Infidelity
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Paedophilia mentioned
  • Emotional and physical abuse
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Dementia
  • Abortion
  • Religious bigotry
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape, paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Infidelity
  • Death of a parent

The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee

Monty’s epic grand tour may be over, but now that he and Percy are finally a couple, he realizes there is something more nerve-wracking than being chased across Europe: getting together with the person you love.

Will the romantic allure of Santorini make his first time with Percy magical, or will all the anticipation and build-up completely spoil the mood?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Parental abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Bimisia
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Blood & physical injury depiction
  • Epilepsy
  • Needles
  • Medical procedures
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Torture mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

This is Britain as you’ve never seen it.
This is Britain as it has never been told.

From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl Woman Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They’re each looking for something – a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Misgendering
  • Deadnaming
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Emotional & physical abuse
  • Cheating
  • Drug use
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Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Bimisia
  • Religious bigotry
  • Coming out (central theme)
  • Conversion therapy discussed
  • Death of a father during military service mentioned
  • Ex-communication from Mormon community mentioned
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