The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Abandonment
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Infanticide
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal injury
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Pet Sematary by Stephen King 

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago. Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat.

But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully cleared path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial. A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding…

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic murder
  • Animal death
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The Night Burns Bright by Ross Barkan

The Night Burns Bright by Ross Barkan

Lucien has everything he needs: a loving mama, a library full of books, and House of Earth, a private school nestled safely in the woods of upstate New York. It’s where Lucien is taught the importance of living in harmony with nature and building a peaceful and sustainable future. But when his youthful curiosity draws him into town and to Gabrielle, a public-school student living a life wholly different from his own, Lucien’s inquisitiveness about life beyond the commune and questions regarding the events of 9/11 threaten to unbalance everything he thought he knew… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Parental abandonment
  • Dead bodies
  • Starvation
  • Branding
  • Murder
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Goblin King by Kara Barbieri 

Janneke has survived the Hunt for the Stag but all good things come with a cost. Lydian might be dead, but he took the Stag with him. Janneke now holds the mantle, while Soren, now her equal in every way, has become the new Erlking. Janneke’s powers as the new Stag has brought along haunting visions of a world thrown into chaos and the ghost of Lydian taunts her with the riddles he spoke of when he was alive. When Janneke discovers the truth of Lydian and his madness, she’s forced to see her tormentor in a different light for the first time. The world they know is dying and Lydian may have been the only person with the key to saving it.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Disordered eating recounted
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation & suicide (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries, including on-page eyeball trauma & loss of vision
  • Death of a newborn son from exposure to the cold mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture (on-page & recounted)
  • Knife, arrow & axe violence
  • Drowning (on-page)
  • Kidnapping & captivity recounted
  • Animal attack (on-page)

White Stag by Kara Barbieri 

As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren. Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Rape recounted
  • Eating disorder
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSDF)
  • Panic attacks
  • Blood & gore depiction including body mutilation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Sword violence & stabbing
  • Torture recounted
  • Kidnapping & captivity recounted
  • Animal death & hunting (theme)

My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey

My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true-crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders.

A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Divorce recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping mentioned
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Risking it All by Tessa Bailey

Risking it All by Tessa Bailey

NYPD detective Seraphia Newsom will avenge her brother’s death at any cost. Even if it means insinuating herself into a rough, Brooklyn street gang and going so far undercover, she’s not sure she’ll be able to get out. Every minute she spends in their midst means the clock ticking down on her life, especially when she overhears something that could get her killed.

Bowen Driscol is the heir to a crime enterprise. He never asked for the job, but with his father behind bars… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a brother
  • Murder
  • Organised crime (gangs)
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The Insiders by Tijan

The Insiders by Tijan

Bailey is as normal as could be, with a genius IQ and a photographic memory. But still, normal for her. Then, things happen—a guy breaks into her house in the middle of the night to take her hostage. She finds out her father is actually billionaire tech genius Peter Francis, the same guy she’s idolized all her life. She learns all this when she meets dark, mysterious, and electrifying Kashton Colello. He’s an associate of her father’s, and he gives Bailey two choices—go with him and meet her father or survive on her own because those kidnappers are going to try again. It’s a no-brainer… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Attempted murder
  • Attempted kidnapping

The Damaged by Tijan

The Damaged by Tijan

No longer an outsider, Bailey has a family and love that she never could’ve imagined. Used to living in the shadows, Kash will now do anything to protect his family and his woman. They will take on the world together…

In the meantime, stunning motives, lies, and explosive secrets continue to unfold. 1. Quinn is in jail, awaiting trial. 2. Friends might actually be enemies. 3. And what is Calhoun plotting? More importantly, will Kash discover it before it’s too late?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • PTSD & trauma
  • Panic attacks
  • Murder

The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley 

The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley

Circe Quinn goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire – and she is one of them. She soon finds out that she’s not having a wild dream, she’s living a frightening nightmare where she’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people and in short order, she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their Queen.

Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, The Horde of the nation of Korwahk and with one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex slavery & slavery
  • Rape
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Murder, on-page
  • Kidnapping & captivity