The Serpent’s Curse by Tony Abbott

The Serpent’s Curse by Tony Abbott

Wade, Lily, Darrell, and Becca may have found the Copernicus Legacy’s first relic—a beautiful blue stone named after the constellation Vela—but they have lost much more than they have gained. Darrell’s mother, Sara, has been kidnapped by Galina Krause, the conniving leader of the Teutonic Order, who hopes that the renowned academic will lead her and her minions to the next relic.

That means the stakes couldn’t be higher for the Kaplan kids, who trek across the cold wilderness of Siberia, along the winding canals of Venice, and through the streets of Moscow’s Red Square in search of their beloved family member and the sought-after relic called the Serpens… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Drugging
  • Medical experimentation mentioned
  • Beheading mentioned
  • Death of an uncle recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Stabbing
  • Explosion
  • Poisoning
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Mass death in Siberian labour camps mentioned
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The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

It all began when four friends-Wade, Lily, Darrel, and Becca-received a strange, coded email from Wade’s uncle Henry shortly before the old man’s sudden death. They set off for Germany to attend the funeral with Wade’s father, Roald, and discover that Uncle Henry left them yet another baffling message that they suspect is the key to figuring out how and why he died.

The message leads to a clue, and the more clues they discover, the farther they travel down a treacherous path toward an ancient, guarded secret. Soon they are in a breathless race across the globe, running for their lives as a dangerous shadow organization chases them around every corner. Their only hope of saving themselves-and the world that they know-is to find twelve magical relics from a hidden past that will unlock the Copernicus Legacy

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder by strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Death from a fall mentioned
  • Boat & car accidents mentioned
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Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat. Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two. A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape of a minor mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother from a drug overdose mentioned
  • Death of a father from suicide
  • Death of parents from gun violence mentioned
  • Death of a husband from heart failure mentioned
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
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Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Attempted genocide
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Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating mentioned
  • Child abuse, off-page
  • Graphic rape & attempted rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Intimate partner abuse
  • Suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • Poisoning
  • Torture
  • Animal attack
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Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Animal death
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Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh

Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh

The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. Never mind her cunning, which rivals that of her twin brother, Kenshin, or her skills as an accomplished alchemist. Since Mariko was not born a boy, her fate was sealed the moment she drew her first breath.

So, at just seventeen years old, Mariko is sent to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed, a man she did not choose, for the very first time. But the journey is cut short when Mariko’s convoy is viciously attacked by the Black Clan, a dangerous group of bandits who’ve been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Seppuku*
  • Decapitation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Battle scenes

* Note : Ritual samurai suicide.

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Not Your All-American Girl by Wendy Wan-Long Shang and Madelyn Rosenberg

Not Your All-American Girl by Wendy Wan-Long Shang & Madelyn Rosenberg

Lauren and her best friend, Tara, have always done absolutely everything together. So when they don’t have any classes together in sixth grade, it’s disastrous. The solution? Trying out for the school play. Lauren, who loves to sing, wonders if maybe, just maybe, she will be the star instead of Tara this time.

But when the show is cast, Lauren lands in the ensemble, while Tara scores the lead role. Their teacher explains: Lauren just doesn’t look the part of the all-American girl. What audience would believe that she, half-Jewish, half-Chinese Lauren, was the everygirl star from Pleasant Valley, USA?

From amidst the ensemble, Lauren tries to support her best friend. But when she can’t bring herself to sing anymore, her spot in the play and her friendship are in jeopardy. With the help of a button-making business, the music of Patsy Cline, and her two bickering grandmothers, can Lauren find her voice again?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • Hate crimes*

*Note: This book is set in the 1980s and discusses the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man who was beaten to death by white auto workers who mistakenly believed he was Japanese  and blaming him for the loss of auto jobs in Detroit.

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Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Panic attacks
  • Suicide
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Coma mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion mentioned
  • Strangulation
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • Death from exposure to the cold
  • Drowning
  • Hit-and-run car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Vivisepulture (buried alive)
  • Psychological torture
  • Electrocution
  • Graphic animal death & death of a pet
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The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman book cover

Lost in a new world, Lyra finds Will—a boy on the run, a murderer—a worthy and welcome ally. For this is a world where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and witches share the skies with troops of angels. Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power. And neither Lyra nor Will suspects how tightly their lives, their loves, and their destinies are bound together… until they are split apart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Amputation (loss of fingers)
  • Death of a father
  • Murder