A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

Cameron doesn’t want to go to prom. Not with his boyfriend, Shane, and definitely not with his fake date, Virginia. Sure, it’s senior prom, it’s the end of high school, and Virginia’s drop-dead gorgeous. But none of that matters to Cam, who’s never liked any high school dance. Ever.

Then an unexpected kiss changes everything, and Cam needs to make a quick exit. After teaming up with a waiter who’s been dealing drugs in the bathroom, Cam leaves the prom. But his night is far from over. From a high-speed car chase, to a stop at the after-prom party, to a bar with a wild dance contest… Cam’s night finally ends in the most unlikely of romances.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Emesis
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley

Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley

Nate never imagined that he would be attacked by his best friend, Cam.

Now, Nate is being called to deliver a sworn statement that will get Cam convicted. The problem is, the real story isn’t that easy or convenient—just like Nate and Cam’s friendship. Cam challenged Nate on every level from the day the boys met. He pushed him to break the rules, to dream, and to accept himself. But Nate—armed with a fierce moral code and conflicted by his own beliefs—started to push back. With each push, Nate and Cam moved closer to each other—but also spiraled closer to their breaking points.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Internalised bimisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Cheating
  • Panic attack
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Stabbing
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Decapitation
  • Loss of limb
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Stick by Andrew Smith

Stick by Andrew Smith

Fourteen-year-old Stark McClellan (nicknamed Stick because he’s tall and thin) is bullied for being “deformed” – he was born with only one ear. His older brother Bosten is always there to defend Stick. But the boys can’t defend one another from their abusive parents.

When Stick realizes Bosten is gay, he knows that to survive his father’s anger, Bosten must leave home. Stick has to find his brother, or he will never feel whole again. In his search, he will encounter good people, bad people, and people who are simply indifferent to kids from the wrong side of the tracks. But he never loses hope of finding love – and his brother. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Disfigurmisia
  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Stand Off by Andrew Smith

Stand Off by Andrew Smith

It’s his last year at Pine Mountain, and Ryan Dean should be focused on his future, but instead, he’s haunted by his past. His rugby coach expects him to fill the roles once played by his lost friend, Joey, as the rugby team’s stand-off and new captain. And somehow he’s stuck rooming with twelve-year-old freshman Sam Abernathy, a cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a serious crush on Annie Altman—aka Ryan Dean’s girlfriend, for now, anyway.

Equally distressing, Ryan Dean’s doodles and drawings don’t offer the relief they used to… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend recounted*
  • Murder by physical assault recounted

*Note: The protagonist’s gay best friend was beaten to death in a brutal hate crime in the previous book.

Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Winger by Andrew Smith

Winger by Andrew Smith

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bury Your Gays trope
  • Homomisia
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

*Note: The protagonist’s gay best friend is beaten to death in a brutal hate crime within the last fifty pages of the book.

Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Bird King by G Willow Wilson

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

Set in 1491 during the reign of the last sultanate in the Iberian peninsula, The Bird King is the story of Fatima, the only remaining Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker.

Hassan has a secret–he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Religious persecution
  • Homomisia
  • Alcoholism
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the “Hand of God,” as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground.

When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Torture
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

There is a hint of Armageddon in the air. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world will end on a Saturday. So the Armies of Good and Evil are massing, and the world’s last two remaining witchfinders are getting ready to Fight the Good Fight. Atlantis is rising. Frogs are falling. Tempers are flaring, and everything appears to be going to Divine Plan.

Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. They’ve lived amongst Humanity for millennia, and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle. So if Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they’ve got to find and kill the AntiChrist (which is a shame, really, as he’s a nice kid). There’s just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Racism & racist language
  • Starvation
  • Eating disorder
  • Childbirth
  • Blood depiction
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • Animal abuse
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year’s Eve: a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Topper’s House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives.

In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Homomisia
  • Victim blaming
  • Slut shaming
  • Paedophilia
  • Statutory rape
  • Depression
  • Suicide mentioned
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com