Private Lessons by Cynthia Salaysay

Private Lessons by Cynthia Salaysay

After seventeen-year-old Claire Alalay’s father’s death, only music has helped her channel her grief. Claire likes herself best when she plays his old piano, a welcome escape from the sadness — and her traditional Filipino mother’s prayer groups. In the hopes of earning a college scholarship, Claire auditions for Paul Avon, a prominent piano teacher, who agrees to take Claire as a pupil. Soon Claire loses herself in Paul’s world and his way of digging into a composition’s emotional core. She pra… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Statutory rape, on-page
  • Paedophilia & grooming
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Emotional & verbal abuse
  • Depression
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Death of a parent from cancer
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Where the Truth Lives by Mia Sheridan

Where the Truth Lives by Mia Sheridan

When the director of a local mental health hospital is found murdered and mutilated, Homicide Detective Reed Davies is first on scene. What was done to the body is gruesome. Inexplicable. But Reed is dealt another curveball when he finds that the doctor who discovered the victim is someone Reed is intimately familiar with—a woman with whom he shared one passionate night weeks before.

Dr. Elizabeth Nolan is somehow tangled up in the crime, and even while Reed must now question her… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape of a child recounted
  • Domestic abuse
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
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The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide ‘physical, intellectual and moral training’ which will equip its inmates to become ‘honourable and… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Whipping
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Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly 

Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly

It is 1914 and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanov’s. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia’s Imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire. …. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Incestuous sexual assault of a minor (half-siblings)
  • Sexual harassment
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • World War I
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Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out.

Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn’t such a bright idea.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Blood depiction & blood-drinking
  • Death of a parent by drowning recounted
  • Murder of a grandmother
  • Physical assault
  • Death of a pet cat
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Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labour camp on charges of having helped the Nazis–with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Paedophilia & sexual assault
  • Childbirth
  • Starvation
  • Physical illness
  • Torture
  • Word War Two (theme)
  • Concentration camps
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Billy Summers by Stephen King

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?

How about everything.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia
  • Sexual assault
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Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless – mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death..

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse recounted
  • Alcoholism recovery
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
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Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Christopher is seven years old. Christopher is the new kid in town. Christopher has an imaginary friend. We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us.

Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Paedophilia
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Dementia
  • Schizophrenia & psychosis
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood depiction
  • Body horror
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Bullying
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I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark

I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark

A Manhattan ER doctor is in the local playground with his young son when someone ruthlessly guns him down. Now his young widow, a television producer, is raising their son alone and is under pressure to come up with a successful TV series. Her new show will focus on cold case files.

Revisiting unsolved crimes one at a time, she and her TV crew plan to gather friends and family of the victim who have lived under suspicion of guilt for many years. By paying them to reenact the crime on … Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse, implied
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder recounted
  • Gun violence

Warnings sourced from K.

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