Influence by Sara Shepard & Lilia Buckingham

Influence by Sara Shepard & Lilia Buckingham

Influence by Sara Shepard & Lilia Buckingham book cover

After a video she makes goes viral, everyone knows Delilah Rollins. And now that she’s in LA, Delilah’s standing on the edge of something incredible. Everything is going to change. She has no idea how much.

Jasmine Walters-Diaz grew up in the spotlight. A child star turned media darling, the posts of her in her classic Lulu C. rainbow skirt practically break the Internet. But if the world knew who Jasmine really was, her perfect life? Canceled.

Fiona Jacobs is so funny–the kind of girl for whom a crowd parts–no wonder she’s always smiling! But on the inside? The girl’s a hot mess. And when someone comes out of the shadows with a secret from her past, it’s one that won’t just embarrass Fiona: it will ruin her.

Who wouldn’t want to be Scarlet Leigh? Just look at her Instagram. Scarlet isn’t just styled to perfection: she is perfection. Scarlet has a gorgeous, famous boyfriend named Jack and there’s a whole fanbase about their ship. To everyone watching online, their lives seem perfect . . . but are they really? The sun is hot in California . . . and someone’s going to get burned.

Goodreads The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Drug abuse
  • Murder
  • Bullying
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Miss You Hate You Love You Bye by Abby Sher

Miss You Hate You Love You Bye by Abby Sher

Miss You Love You Hate You Bye by Abby Sher book cover

Zoe and Hank (short for Hannah) have been inseparable since they met in elementary school. The leader of the pack, Zoe is effortlessly popular while Hank hides comfortably in her shadow. But when Zoe’s parents unexpectedly divorce, Zoe’s perfect facade starts cracking little by little. Sinking under the weight of her broken family, Zoe develops an eating disorder. Now she must rely on Hank for help.

Hank struggles to help Zoe; after all, she is used to agreeing, not leading. How can she help her best friend get better before it’s too late?

Written partially in letters from Zoe and mostly in narrative from Hank’s perspective, Miss You Love You Hate You Bye is a poignant and eye-opening novel about friendship, mental health, and learning to put yourself first.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Eating disorders, specifically anorexia and bulimia
  • Self-harm, specifically cutting
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The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen

The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen

The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen book cover

Caleb Michaels is a sixteen-year-old champion running back. Other than that his life is pretty normal. But when Caleb starts experiencing mood swings that are out of the ordinary for even a teenager, his life moves beyond “typical.”

Caleb is an Atypical, an individual with enhanced abilities. Which sounds pretty cool except Caleb’s ability is extreme empathy—he feels the emotions of everyone around him. Being an empath in high school would be hard enough, but Caleb’s life becomes even more complicated when he keeps getting pulled into the emotional orbit of one of his classmates, Adam. Adam’s feelings are big and all-consuming, but they fit together with Caleb’s feelings in a way that he can’t quite understand.

Caleb’s therapist, Dr. Bright, encourages Caleb to explore this connection by befriending Adam. As he and Adam grow closer, Caleb learns more about his ability, himself, his therapist—who seems to know a lot more than she lets on—and just how dangerous being an Atypical can be.

“What if the X-Men, instead of becoming superheroes, decided to spend some time in therapy?”

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Fatmisia
  • Misogyny
  • Queermisia
  • Aromisic language
  • Depression and depressive episodes
  • Self-harm recounted, off-page
  • Medical experimentation mentioned
  • Bullying
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Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman book cover

Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.

Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia and body shaming
  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Torture
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Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman book cover

Caden Bosch is on a ship that’s headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.

Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behaviour.
Caden Bosch is designated the ship’s artist in residence to document the journey with images.
Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.
Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.

Caden Bosch is torn.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Schizophrenia
  • Attempted suicide
  • Hospitalisation
  • Bullying
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Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

From bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults.

CollectingSaga 1-6

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language including r slur
  • Racism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Child sexual slavery & forced sex work
  • Rape mentioned
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Trauma & PTSD, including flashbacks
  • Recreational drug use
  • Graphic childbirth (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction, including serious injury
  • Dead bodies
  • Death of a child recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Stabbing
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • War themes & military violence (theme)
  • Animal death
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Survive the Night by Danielle Vega

Survive the Night by Danielle Vega

Julie lies dead and disemboweled in a dank, black subway tunnel, red-eyed rats nibbling at her fingers. Her friends think she’s just off with some guy—no one could hear her getting torn apart over the sound of pulsing music.
 
In a tunnel nearby, Casey regrets coming to Survive the Night, the all-night underground rave in the New York City subway. Her best friend Shana talked her into it, even though Casey just got out of rehab. Alone and lost in the dark, creepy tunnels, Casey doesn’t think Survive the Night could get any worse . . . until she comes across Julie’s body, and the party turns deadly.
 
Desperate for help, Casey and her friends find themselves running through the putrid subway system, searching for a way out. But every manhole is sealed shut, and every noise echoes eerily in the dark, reminding them they’re not alone.
They’re being hunted.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Addiction recovery mentioned
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse
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The Boy Who Wouldn’t Die by David Nyoul Vincent

The Boy Who Wouldn’t Die by David Nyoul Vincent with Carol Nader

David Nyuol Vincent was a little boy when he fled southern Sudan with his father, as war raged in their country. He left behind his distraught mother and sisters, his village, and his childhood and he would never return.

For months David and his father walked across southern Sudan, barefoot, desperately searching for safety, food, and water. They survived the perilous Sahara Desert crossing into Ethiopia only to be separated and for David to be trained as a child soldier and then to survive the next 17 years of his life alone in refugee camps. Life in the camps was a relentless struggle against starvation, air bombings, and people determined to kill him and his people. 

In 2004 David was offered a Humanitarian Visa as one of the Lost Boys and was resettled to Australia. Traumatized by what he had seen and endured, he went about the slow and painful process of making a new life for himself – a life away from hunger, away from guns, away from death. A life where David is determined to improve the plight of his people both in Australia and back in the Sudan.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Trauma (theme)
  • Starvation & famine
  • Bombings
  • War themes, including refugee experiences
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99 Lies by Rachel Vincent

99 Lies by Rachel Vincent

Getting kidnapped over spring break was definitely memorable. But now that the surviving hostages are home, they want life to feel normal again: high school, dating, million-dollar galas.

But there’s no escaping the spotlight–or the truth about the ways they betrayed each other in the jungle. And this time, the real threat isn’t kidnappers–it’s what the “friends” might do to each other.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Kidnapping recounted
  • Trauma (theme)
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This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures… until the day their adventures turn all too real.

They stumble upon the Dark Library and discover secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies. Father forbids them from ever entering the room again, but when Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is drawn back to the Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life… Read more.

Determined to save Konrad, Victor, along with his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry, scale the highest trees in Strumwald, dive into the deepest lakes, and even make an unthinkable sacrifice in their quest for the elixir’s ingredients. And as if their task was not complicated enough, a new realm of danger—that of illicit love—threatens to end the ordeal in tragedy.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Ableism, including the Disabled Villain trope
  • Sexual assault*
  • Incest*
  • Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
  • Serious illness of a child
  • Medical treatment & procedures, including consensual amputation
  • Needles
  • Emesis
  • Death of a brother
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack

* Explanation : There are two on-page sexual assault scenes, including one where the main character pretends to be his identical twin to trick his brother’s girlfriend into kissing him, and another where he forces a kiss on her. The romance subplot involves a love triangle between the two Frankenstein twins and their cousin.

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