Dance with the Devil by Kit Rocha

Tobias Richter, the fearsome VP of Security of the TechCorps is dead. The puppetmaster is gone and the organization is scrambling to maintain control by ruthlessly limiting Atlanta’s access to resources, hoping to quell rebellion. Our band of mercenary librarians have decided that the time for revolution has come. Maya uses her wealth of secrets to weaken the TechCorps from within. Dani strikes from the shadows, picking off the chain of command one ambush at a time. And Nina is organizing their community―not just to survive, but to fight back. When Maya needs to make contact with a sympathetic insider, Dani… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury including amputation due to a gunshot wound (secondary character)
  • Medical experimentation recounted
  • Heart transplant surgery mentioned
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assailt
  • Bombings
  • War themes & battle scenes

The Devil You Know by Kit Rocha

Maya has had a price on her head from the day she escaped the TechCorps. Genetically engineered for genius and trained for revolution, there’s only one thing she can’t do—forget. Gray has finally broken free of the Protectorate, but he can’t escape the time bomb in his head. His body is rejecting his modifications, and his months are numbered. When Maya’s team uncovers an operation trading in genetically enhanced children, she’ll do anything to stop them. Even risk falling back into the hands of the TechCorps. And Gray has found a purpose for his final days: keeping Maya safe.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Pregnancy & abortion mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Seizure
  • Medical experimentation recounted
  • Nonconsensual body modification
  • Surgery
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a close friend recounted
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Torture, on-page & recounted
  • Kidnapping of children

Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha

The United States went belly up 45 years ago when our power grid was wiped out. Too few live in well-protected isolation while the rest of us scrape by on the margins. The only thing that matters is survival. By any means. At any cost. Nina is an information broker with a mission: to bring hope to the darkest corners of Atlanta. She and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help those in need. But altruism doesn’t pay the bills—raiding vaults and collecting sensitive data is where the real money is. Knox is a bitter, battle-weary supersoldier who leads the Silver Devils… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Medical experimentation recounted
  • Seizures
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault (cage fighting, attempted mugging)
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Poverty themes

The Crimson Fortress by Akshaya Raman

The search for the Ivory Key has brought royal siblings Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya closer than they have been in years as they try to restore magic and stability to Ashoka. But despite finally getting their hands on the long-lost key, uncovering its cipher has proved more complicated and dangerous than they ever expected. Their missions force them to split up and disperse them across Ashoka and beyond. When a rash decision by the council strips Vira of her power, her journey to reclaim her throne takes on new meaning. Kaleb travels to the neighbouring country of Lyria to uncover its emperor’s motives and meets a prince seeking answers of his own. Ronak’s efforts to escape his arranged… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury
  • Human experimentation mentioned
  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Sword, knife & arrow violence
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping

Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong

In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette have established themselves as the heads of an underground weapons ring in Zhouzhuang, making a living the way they do best while remaining anonymous in their peaceful, quiet life. But when they hear about several Russian girls showing up dead in nearby towns, they decide to investigate—and ultimately discover that this mystery is much closer to home than they ever imagined. In This Foul Murder, Benedikt and Marshall have been summoned by Roma to find the elusive scientist, Lourens, and bring him to Zhouzhuang… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Human medical experimentation
  • Needles
  • Murder
  • Gun & knife violence

Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong

Winter is drawing thick in 1932 Shanghai, as is the ever-nearing threat of a Japanese invasion. Rosalind Lang has suffered the worst possible fate for a national spy: she’s been exposed. With the media storm camped outside her apartment for the infamous Lady Fortune, she’s barely left her bedroom in weeks, plotting her next course of action after Orion was taken and his memories of Rosalind wiped. Though their marriage might have been a sham, his absence hurts her more than any physical wound. She won’t rest until she gets him back. But with her identity in the open, the task is near impossible. Th only way to leave the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human medical experimentation
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)

The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker

Zilan dreams of becoming a royal alchemist, of providing for her family by making alchemical gold and gems for the wealthy to eat in order to stay young forever. But for now, she’s trapped in her impoverished village in southern China, practicing an illegal form of alchemy to keep food on the table—resurrecting the dead, for a price. When Zilan finally has the chance to complete her imperial exams, she ventures to the capital to compete against the best alchemists in the country in tasks she’ll be lucky to survive, let alone pass. On top of that, her reputation for raising the dead has followed her to the capital, and the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & colourism
  • Classism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Medical experimentation
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping

The Survival of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

Who was Molly Southbourne? What did she leave behind?

A burnt-out basement. A name stained in blood. Bodies that remember murder, one of them left alive. A set of rules that no longer apply.

Molly Southbourne is alive. If she wants to survive, she’ll need to run, hide, and be ready to fight. There are people who remember her, who know what she is and what she’s done. Some want her alive, some want her dead… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Medical experimentation mentioned

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world. Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want–but what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction including mentions of a decapitation
  • Involuntary medical experimentation on children
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity of children
  • Gun violence
  • Plane crash (airship explosion)
  • Fire
  • Battle scenes

Cry of Metal and Bone by L Penelope

Six weeks after the fall of the Mantle, centuries-old enemies Elsira and Lagrimar struggle to unite. The will of the goddess is that the two nations become one, but while the war may be over, peace is still elusive. As desperate Lagrimari flee their barren land for a chance at a better life in Elsira, a dangerous faction opposed to the unification rises. When a shadowy group with ties to the Elsiran government takes responsibility for the attack and promises more, an unlikely crew is assembled to investigate. Among them are Lizvette Nirall, a disgraced socialite seeking redemption for past mistakes, and Tai Summerhawk, a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Verbal & emotional child abuse
  • Self-injury for magic & bloodletting
  • Parent with gambling addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury & illness
  • Emesis
  • Medical experimentation
  • Attempted assassination by poisoning
  • Torture
  • Terrorism (bombing of a religious institution)
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)