Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Rape
  • Alcoholism
  • Manic-depressive episode
  • Murder
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Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community centre in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Murder
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The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there’s more at stake than merely winning and losing.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Substance addiction
  • Death of a parent
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The Woods by Harlan Coben 

The Woods by Harlan Coben

Twenty years ago at summer camp, Paul Copeland’s sister died in the woods, the alleged victim of a serial killer. Her body was never found. Now, Paul is the prosecutor for Essex County, New Jersey, immersed in one of the biggest cases of his career-a case that will change everything he believes about the past…and the truth.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Misogyny
  • Animal death
  • Animal cruelty
  • Mentions of children starving to death
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The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

When his girlfriend throws him out during the pandemic, Bambi has to go to his Uncle’s house in lock-down Lagos. He arrives during a blackout and is surprised to find his Aunty Bidemi sitting in a candlelit room with another woman. They both claim to be the mother of the baby boy, fast asleep in his crib. At night Bambi is kept awake by the baby’s cries, and during the days he is disturbed by a cockerel that stalks the garden. There is sand in the rice. A blood stain appears on the wall. Someone scores tribal markings into the baby’s cheeks. Who is lying and who is telling the truth?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Child neglect
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption, on-page
  • Recreational drug use, on-page
  • COVID-19 (theme)
  • Emesis
  • Physical illness & tribal marking disfigurement of a baby
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of an uncle & husband recounted
  • Animal slaughter, on-page
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The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish 

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.  As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Antisemitism
  • Chronic illness
  • Plague
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Exile
  • Forced conversion
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The Lying Kind by Alison James

The Lying Kind by Alison James

Six-year-old Lola Jade Harper is taken from her bedroom. Her mother is distraught. She is convinced her estranged husband, Gavin Harper, has abducted their daughter.

Detective Rachel Prince is leading the investigation but is soon out of her depth as she searches for the most high-profile missing child in the country. To uncover the truth about Lola’s disappearance, Rachel must untangle the Harper family’s complicated web of secrets… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Victim blaming
  • Child sexual abuse, implied
  • Cheating
  • Childbirth
  • Murder of a baby
  • Stalking
  • Kidnapping of a child
  • Car accident
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My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries – and there he dies suddenly. In almost no time at all, the new widow – Philip’s cousin Rachel – turns up in England. Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious woman like a moth to the flame. And yet …might she have had a hand in… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Domestic violence
  • Death of a parent
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Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie

Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie

According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment. But when Dr. Arthur Calgary arrives with the proof that confirms Jacko’s innocence, it is too late—Jacko died behind bars following a bout of pneumonia. Worse still, the doctor’s revelations reopen old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer will strike again.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Sexism
  • Suicide
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Why Didn’t They Ask Evans by Agatha Christie

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. The man opens his eyes and with his last breath says, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?”

Haunted by those words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
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