The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall

Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Kidnapping & confinement
  • Physical injury & body horror
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal cruelty

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander

In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He’s warned though, to never go to the river at night. His brother tells him ”There are things about the water you do not know.” “Like what?” Kofi asks. “The beasts,” his brother answers. One fateful night, the unthinkable happens, and in a flash, Kofi’s world turns upside down. Kofi soon ends up in a fight for his life and what happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Colonialism
  • Slavery
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Suicide by drowning (throwing self overboard)
  • Stillbirth
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Shipwreck

Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams

After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school—Allie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she’s a little jealous of Allie’s globe-trotting life. Who wouldn’t be? As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guy—and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Murder
  • Stalking

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

Chaos. Fury. Destruction. The Great Change is upon us… Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds. With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption. Orso will find that when the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & misogyny
  • Incest
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War themes
  • Animal death

Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry

Winslow Covington believes in life, liberty and the letter of the law. As Quincy, Montana’s new chief of police, she’s determined to prove herself to the community and show them she didn’t earn her position because her grandfather is the mayor. According to her pops, all she has to do is earn favor with the Edens. But winning over the town’s founding family might have been easier if not for her one-night stand with their oldest son. In her defense, it was her first night in town and she didn’t realize that the rugged and charming man who wooed her into bed was Quincy royalty. Sleeping…. Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide (off-page)
  • Murder (on-page)
  • Kidnapping

The Intruder by Freida McFadden

Casey’s cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she’s a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window. She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood. The girl won’t explain where she came from or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse. The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Emotional & physical domestic abuse
  • Hoarding Disorder
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Fire

Glint by Raven Kennedy

For ten years, I’ve lived in a gilded cage inside King Midas’s golden castle. But one night changed everything. Now I’m here, a prisoner of Fourth Kingdom’s army, and I’m not sure if I’m going to make it out of this in one piece. They’re marching to battle, and I’m the bargaining chip that will either douse the fire or spark a war. At the heart of my fear, my worry, there’s him—Commander Rip. Known for his brutality on the battlefield, his viciousness is unsurpassed. But I know the truth about what he is. Fae. The… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking & slavery
  • Misogyny
  • Child abuse & neglect mentioned
  • Rape & sexual assault mentioned
  • Murder

That’s Not My Name by Megan Lally

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there―or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He’s been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says. When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Blood & illness depiction including an allergic reaction
  • Amnesia (protagonist)
  • Murder
  • Disappearance of a child

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened? It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger. She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder by stabbing
  • Kidnapping of a child
  • Blackmail

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

When Hercule Poirot and his associate Arthur Hastings arrive in the French village of Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet their client Paul Renauld, they learn from the police that he has been found that morning stabbed in the back with a letter opener and left in a newly-dug grave adjacent to a local golf course. Among the plausible suspects are Renauld’s wife Eloise, his son Jack, Renauld’s immediate neighbor Madame Daubreuil, the mysterious “Cinderella” of Hasting’s recent acquaintance, and some unknown visitor of the previous day–all of whom Poirot has… Read more,

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism
  • Infidelity
  • Minor blood and injury depiction (fainting episodes, dead bodies)
  • Death of a father and husband
  • Death from an epileptic fit mentioned (off-page)
  • Murder by stabbing with a knife
  • Faked being tied up and held captive by armed burglars
  • False incarceration
  • Blackmail mentioned