The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis book cover

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it.

Three years ago, when her older sister, Anna, was murdered and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best—the language of violence. While her own crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people. Not with Jack, the star athlete who wants to really know her but still feels guilty over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered. And not with Peekay, the preacher’s kid with a defiant streak who befriends Alex while they volunteer at an animal shelter. Not anyone.

As their senior year unfolds, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting these three teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Misogyny and sexism
  • Victim blaming
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Paedophilia
  • Child pornography
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder/s
  • Death of a sibling
  • Animal death
  • Animal abuse and cruelty
  • Fire, specifically arson
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Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie by Courtney Summers book cover

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meagre clues to find him… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse (theme)
  • Child pornography
  • Sex work
  • Child abandonment & neglect
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Disordered eating, mentioned
  • Attempted suicide
  • Self-injury (unintentional)
  • Alcohol & drug abuse
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Terminal cancer mentioned
  • Graphic blood depiction
  • Physical injury & illness
  • Emesis
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister and child
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Death of a husband mentioned
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Hostage situation
  • Stalking
  • Car accident
  • Homelessness
  • Poverty
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The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas book cover

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Victim blaming
  • Statutory rape
  • Paedophilia
  • Domestic violence
  • Adult-minor relationship/s
  • Depression
  • Suicide, mentioned
  • Abortion
  • Teenage pregnancy
  • Pregnancy from rape
  • Mild gore depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin book cover

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Adult incest, mythological and recounted
  • Intimate partner murder, mythological
  • Death by gunshot
  • Police arrest and interrogation
  • Imprisonment in a labour camp
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Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler book cover

This Nebula Award-winning sequel to Parable of the Sower continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren’s followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Hate crimes
  • Victim blaming
  • Misogyny, sexism and gendered slurs
  • Racism and racial slurs
  • White supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
  • Child sexual assault and rape
  • Grooming behaviour and paedophilia
  • Rape and rape by coercion
  • Sex trafficking and sex slavery
  • Abuse, neglect and abandonment
  • Child abuse
  • Emotional abuse
  • Physical abuse
  • Verbal abuse
  • Family estrangement
  • Adult-minor relationships
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide and attempted suicide
  • Infertility themes
  • Pregnancy
  • Non-consensual pregnancy
  • Teenage and child pregnancy
  • Amnesia
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Emesis
  • Physical injuries and wounds
  • Scars
  • Starvation and dehydration depiction
  • Dead bodies and body parts
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent/guardians
  • Death of a sibling
  • Death of a partner/spouse
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Grief and loss depiction
  • Flogging and whippings
  • Gun violence
  • Hanging and lynching
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Avalanche
  • Chemical gassing and warfare
  • Cults
  • Home invasion
  • Exile
  • Indentured servitude
  • Imprisonment, incarceration and captivity
  • Kidnapping
  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Police brutality and violence
  • Religious persecution
  • Terrorism
  • War and military themes
  • Homelessness
  • Poverty themes

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Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

In order to protect Prince Lucien d’Malvane’s heart, Zera had to betray him. Now, he hates the sight of her. Trapped in Cavanos as a prisoner of the king, she awaits the inevitable moment her witch severs their magical connection and finally ends her life. But fate isn’t ready to give her up just yet.

With freedom coming from the most unlikely of sources, Zera is given a second chance at life as a Heartless. But it comes with a terrible price. As the king mobilizes his army to march against the witches, Zera must tame an elusive and deadly valkerax trapped in the tunnels underneath the city if she wants to regain her humanity.

Winning over a bloodthirsty valkerax? Hard. Winning back her friends before war breaks out? A little harder. But a Heartless winning back Prince Lucien’s heart? The hardest thing she’s ever done.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Persecution for witchcraft (theme)
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Self-harm (on-page)
  • Self-sacrifice discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a grandfather mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Imprisonment
  • War themes (central theme)
  • Animal cruelty & torture
  • Animal injury, blood & body parts
  • Animal attack
  • Hunting mentioned
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Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

Zera is a Heartless – the immortal, unageing soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly. Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a Prince’s heart in exchange for her own.

Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him – every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his side. No one can challenge him – until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, & out for his blood.

So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all. Winner takes the loser’s heart. Literally.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Classism
  • Persecution for witchcraft (theme)
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Child abuse
  • Arranged marriage
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Alcohol abuse & alcoholism recounted
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Cannibalism
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Explosions
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Death from a fall mentioned
  • War themes (central theme)
  • Animal death and dead bodies
  • Death by animal attack mentioned
  • Bullying
  • Poverty themes
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The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

Genie Lo thought she was busy last year, juggling her academic career with protecting the Bay Area from demons. But now, as the Heaven-appointed Guardian of California, she’s responsible for the well-being of all yaoguai and spirits on Earth. Even the ones who interrupt her long-weekend visit to a prestigious college, bearing terrible news about a cosmos-threatening force of destruction in a nearby alternate dimension.

The goddess Guanyin and Genie’s boyfriend, Quentin Sun Wukong, do their best to help, but it’s really the Jade Emperor who’s supposed to handle crises of this magnitude. Unfortunately for Genie and the rest of existence, he’s gone AWOL. Fed up with the Jade Emperor’s negligence, Genie spots an opportunity to change the system for the better by undertaking a quest that spans multiple planes of reality along with an adventuring party of quarrelsome Chinese gods. But when faced with true danger, Genie and her friends realize that what will save the universe this time isn’t strength, but sacrifice.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Graphic murder
  • Medical emergency of a loved one
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Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries, including eyeball trauma
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • War themes
  • Animal sacrifice
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Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardians, the all-girl boarding school offers an array of studies and activities, from “Growing a Beautiful and Prosperous Garden” to “Art Appreciation” and “Interior Design.” The girls learn to be the best society has to offer. Absent is the difficult math coursework, or the unnecessary sciences or current events. They are obedient young ladies, free from arrogance or defiance. Until Mena starts to realize that their carefully controlled existence may not be quite as it appears.

As Mena and her friends begin to uncover the dark secrets of what’s actually happening there—and who they really are—the girls of Innovations will find out what they are truly capable of. Because some of the prettiest flowers have the sharpest thorns.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Victim blaming
  • Body shaming
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Rape culture (theme)
  • Sexual assault, on- & off-page
  • Sexual harassment
  • Rape of a minor, implied
  • PTSD & trauma
  • Nightmares & flashbacks
  • Dieting & food-shaming
  • Drugging
  • Alchol consumption
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Physical injuries
  • Dead bodies
  • Consensual & non-consensual medical treatment
  • Human medical experimentation
  • Graphic needles
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Graphic torture
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (memory & mind manipulation)
  • Disappearance of a friend
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