Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, surviving on the debris of its long-dead progenitors, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new, is Stefan Advani, rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction including body horror and dead bodies
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a friend, on-page & recounted
  • Death of a girlfriend in a stampede recounted
  • Murder, mass murder & attempted murder, on-page
  • Tank accident
  • Physical assault, on-page
  • Gun violence, on-page
  • Shipwreck
  • Drowning discussed
  • Torture
  • Whipping mentioned
  • Knife violence & stabbing, on-page
  • Riots, on-page
  • Police brutality & violence, on-page
  • Fire & immolation
  • Graphic penal labour & inhumane imprisonment (theme)
  • Homelessness recounted
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver’s acclaimed international bestseller tells the story of an American missionary family in the Congo during a poignant chapter in African history. It spins the tale of the fierce evangelical Baptist, Nathan Price, who takes his wife and four daughters on a missionary journey into the heart of darkness of the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them to Africa all they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it – from garden seeds to the King James Bible – is calamitously transformed on African soil.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Domestic violence
  • War themes
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Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.

Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou’s, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.

The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou’s most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Rape mentioned
  • Forced marriage
  • Child abandonment mentioned
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Self-harm
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Medical experimentation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Fire & immolation
  • Kidnapping
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Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

‘She could hear men and women shouting. Angry hollers crashed through the soft humid salty summer night. It was somehow hurtful for Mrs Ponder to hear, as if all that rage was directed at her . . . then she heard the wail of a siren in the distance, at the same time as a woman still inside the building began to scream and scream . . .’

When a harmless quiz night ends with an act of shocking violence, the parents of Pirriwee Public School can’t seem to stop their many secrets from finally spilling out. Rumours ripple through the small town, as truth and lies blur to muddy the story of what really happened on that fateful night . . .

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault (on-page)
  • Domestic violence
  • Alcohol consumption
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The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Five prominent biophysicists have warned the United States government that sterilization procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, a probe satellite falls to the earth and lands in a desolate region of northeastern Arizona. Nearby, in the town of Piedmont, bodies lie heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. What could cause such shock and fear? The terror has begun, and there is no telling where it will end.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Pandemic
  • Seizures
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And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion.
When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey… before the weekend is out, there will be none.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Classism
  • Antisemitism
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning
  • Drowning
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The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

The Wold in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

Born with the soul of a hunter and the spirit of the Wolf, Omat is destined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps-invoking the spirits of the land, sea, and sky to protect her people.

But the gods have stopped listening and Omat’s family is starving. Alone at the edge of the world, hope is all they have left.

Desperate to save them, Omat journeys across the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she meets a Viking warrior and his strange new gods, they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world…or save it.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Misogyny
  • Slavery
  • Domestic violence
  • Rape
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Body horror
  • Graphic murder
  • Graphic animal death, including the death of a dog
  • Animal injury & illness
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Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith

Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.

Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault recounted
  • Stalking
  • Blackmail
  • Bullying
  • Cyberbullying & online harassment
  • Doxxing
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A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith

A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith

No one knows what to do with Reiko. She is full of hatred. All she can think about is how to best hurt herself and the people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt, Reiko’s parents send her from their Seattle home to spend the summer with family in Japan to learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping back in time into the life of Miyu, a young woman even more bent on revenge than Reiko herself. Reiko loves being Miyu, until she discovers the secret of Kuramagi village, and must face down Miyu’s demons as well as her own.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Lesbomisia
  • Misogyny
  • Depression
  • Self harm
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Overdose mentioned
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Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon

It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been bitter rivals for all of high school, clashing on test scores, student council elections, and even gym class pull-up contests. While Rowan, who secretly wants to write romance novels, is anxious about the future, she’d love to beat her infuriating nemesis one last time.

When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. But after learning a group of seniors is out to get them, she and Neil reluctantly decide to team up until they’re the last players left—and then they’ll destroy each other.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism
  • Misogyny
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Underage drug use
  • Car accident mentioned
  • Bullying
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