Tag Archives: Mental Illness

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Meet Winter Young – International pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. His rabid fans would move heaven and earth for even a glimpse of him – just imagine what they’d do to become his latest fling. Meet Sydney Cossette – Part of an elite covert ops group, Sydney joined their ranks as their youngest spy with plans to become the best agent they’ve ever had. An ice queen with moves as dangerous as her comebacks, Sydney picks up languages just as quickly as she breaks… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Dismemberment
  • Murder
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Graphic death from poisoning
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping

The Headmaster’s List by Melissa de la Cruz

The Headmaster’s List by Melissa de la Cruz

One of them was driving. One of them was high. One of them screamed. And one of them died. When fifteen-year-old Chris Moore is tragically killed in a car crash, Argyle Prep is full of questions. Who was at the wheel? And more importantly, who was at fault? Eighteen-year-old Spencer Sandoval wishes she knew. As rumours swirl that her ex, Ethan, was the driver that fateful night, she can’t bring herself to defend him. And their messy breakup has nothing to do with it – she can’t remember anything from that night, not even what put her in that car with Ethan, Chris, and Tabby Hill, the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating*
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Drugging (‘roofie’)
  • Medicinal and recreational drug use & abuse discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Car accident (theme)

*Context : A narrrator catchers her boyfriend cheating on her.

Beautiful Mess by Claire Christian

Beautiful Mess by Claire Christian

Since Ava lost Kelly, things haven’t been going so well. Even before she gets thrown out of school for shouting at the principal, there’s the simmering rage and all the weird destructive choices. The only thing going right for Ava is her job at Magic Kebab. Which is where she meets Gideon. Skinny, shy, anxious Gideon. A mad poet and collector of vinyl records with an aversion to social media. He lives in his head. She lives in her grief. The only people who can help them move on with their lives are each other.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Self-harm recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend recounted

The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby

The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby

What if one contest could change the course of your entire life? Charlie Dean is a style-obsessed girl who eats, sleeps, and breathes fashion. John Thomas-Smith is a boy who forges metal sculptures in his garage and couldn’t care less about clothes. Both are gunning for a scholarship to the private art high school that could make all their dreams come true. And whoever wins the fashion competition will win the scholarship.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Cheating
  • Substance addiction

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly, slipping away… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Eating disorder (pica)
  • Body horror

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly—and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow July is not quite alive, and not quite dead. As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly, and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Depression
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Car accident

To Target the Heart by Aldrea Alien

To Target the Heart by Aldrea Alien

How can he win with the odds stacked against him? Prince Hamish has no interest in fulfilling his duty of marrying. Not to a woman, at least. That doesn’t stop his mother, Queen Fiona, from presenting him with every eligible noblewoman that enters their castle. He’s certain it’ll be no different with the representative of the Udynea Empire. So when they do arrive, Hamish is relieved the imperial prince, Darshan, is not the woman everyone expected. Until the man kisses him and Hamish is confronted by the very emotion… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Physical & psychological child abuse
  • Depression
  • Attempted suicide
  • Graphic attempted murder

To Poison a Prince by Aldrea Alien

To Poison a Prince by Aldrea Alien

Imperial Crown Prince Darshan knew his journey home wasn’t going to be the modest one he hoped for, especially not after eloping with Hamish, a former prince—and now exile—of Tirglas. When he thwarts a clumsy attempt on his husband’s life during a soirée hosted by his long-standing rival and half-sister, he figures the worst is behind them. Yet, the threat of death continues to shadow them across the empire. Someone is intent on making the rumours of his husband’s demise a reality, someone who can erase the memory of their very presence from people’s minds… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Homophobia mentioned
  • Physical & psychological child abuse mentioned
  • Depression mentioned
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Graphic attempted murder
  • Poisoning

In Pain and Blood by Aldrea Alien

In Pain and Blood by Aldrea Alien

Dylan’s life in the spellster tower has everything he should want: magical knowledge, safety from the King’s Hounds and frequent clandestine affairs with women. All at the cost of his freedom. So when the chance to leave the tower—even as a leashed weapon for the King’s Army—arises, he seizes it. When his first scouting mission goes awry, Dylan is left alone in a hostile world with the tower a distant beacon of safety. Only the flirtatious Tracker, an elven man whose very presence awakens Dylan’s long-repressed desire… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Bimisia
  • Threats & mentions of rape
  • Sex-trafficking
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide
  • Death of children
  • Graphic mass murder including infanticide
  • Kidnapping
  • War

Tracking Trouble by Aldrea Alien

Tracking Trouble by Aldrea Alien

Before a routine job brought him to the love of his life, Tracker’s world had two facets: Hunting spellsters and entertaining strangers in his bed. There’s no doubt he’s good at both, even if only one is considered acceptable amongst the King’s Hounds. But there’s something off about his current tasks. The spellsters he typically finds aren’t usually this powerful or anywhere near as dangerous to a man untouchable by magic. It’s as if someone is releasing them with an eye to weaken an already harried kingdom. Can he find out who before they run out of hounds? Join this mess of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex-trafficking
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Death of children
  • Graphic mass murder including infanticide
  • Kidnapping