The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy

The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis

It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks. Yet Charlie is less alarmed than intrigued. This is the most thrilling thing that’s happened to him since he came to France with his father,… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Physical assault
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Mayhem by Estelle Laure

Mayhem by Estelle Laure

It’s 1987 and unfortunately it’s not all Madonna and cherry lip balm. Mayhem Brayburn has always known there was something off about her and her mother, Roxy. Maybe it has to do with Roxy’s constant physical pain, or maybe with Mayhem’s own irresistible pull to water. Either way, she knows they aren’t like everyone else. But when May’s stepfather finally goes too far, Roxy and Mayhem flee to Santa Maria, California, the coastal beach town that holds the answers to all of Mayhem’s questions about who her mother is, her estranged family, and the mysteries of her own self. There she meets the kids who live with… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Suicide, off-page
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Physical assault
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The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The letter waits in a book, in a box, in an attic, in an old house in Lambert, South Carolina. It’s waiting for Candice Miller. When Candice finds the letter, she isn’t sure she should read it. It’s addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. But the letter describes a young woman named Siobhan Washington. An injustice that happened decades ago. A mystery enfolding the letter-writer. And the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle. Grandma tried and failed. But now Candice has another chance. So with the help of Bran… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Eye trauma mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Threat of lynching
  • Bullying
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The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. She would be eight years old now—if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as “the Child Finder,” Naomi is their last hope. Naomi’s methodical search takes her deep into the icy, mysterious forest in the Pacific Northwest, and into her own fragmented past. She understands children like… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Incest (foster siblings)
  • Paedophilia, child sexual assault and rape (theme)
  • Child abuse and neglect
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Amnesia and memory loss
  • Dissociation
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Physical injuries mentioned, including the loss of an arm in an explosion while deployed
  • Death of a foster mother, off-page and discussed
  • Death of a wife from cancer mentioned
  • Death of a wife from suicide mentioned
  • Accidental infanticide
  • Murder by stabbing, on-page
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping and captivity of a child
  • Incarceration
  • Graphic animal death and hunting
  • Animal dead bodies and butchery, on-page

Context : The story follows a private investigator trying to find a missing child. The book is told from her POV, the missing child, and the predator who kidnapped and held the child captive. While there are no on-page scenes of sexual violence, it is clear that the captor sexually abuses and rapes the child. It is vaguely mentioned through metaphors and lyrical writing from the child’s perspective; as well as mentions of pain and blood on her legs. The predator was also raped by his captor as a child. Again, there are no on-page scenes of this.

A secondary character leaves her baby in their stroller on a bus that is parked in storage. It is unclear how the baby dies but the protagonist finds his body (off-page, no descriptions).

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These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly. Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism & ableism
  • Slavery
  • Forced sex work
  • Suicide
  • Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation
  • Murder of a father
  • Physical assault & kidnapping

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted. Frightened and alone, Enne has only one lead: the name Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unravelling investment scam, so he doesn’t have time to investigate… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia
  • Gambling & mentions of past substance addiction
  • Blood & injury depiction including burns
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a friend in a fire
  • Murder & regicide (on-page)
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Poisoning
  • Bullying

Finn and the Subatomic Slip-And-Slide by Michael Buckley

Finn and the Subatomic Slip-And-Slide by Michael Buckley

After his adventures through time, Finn returns home to a world he doesn’t recognize. Changing the past has created an all-new present, one in which he and his friends never vanquished the Plague. Now the giant bugs rule Earth from their spaceship! What’s an intergalactic traveler to do? The answer is obvious. Finn, Lincoln and Julep must defeat the Plague. Again. But how? Julep and Lincoln don’t remember Finn or their friendships. In fact, they’ve changed just as much as the world itself has, and they want nothing to do with his dangerous plan to save humankind … Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical assault
  • Explosion
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White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to “talk.” Things couldn’t get much worse, right? But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Drug use
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Arson
  • Bullying
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A Clash of Steel by CB Lee

A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee

1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Head of the Dragon, is now only a story, like the ones Xiang has grown up with all her life. She desperately wants to prove her worth, especially to her mother, a shrewd businesswoman who never seems to have enough time for Xiang. Her father is also only a story, dead at sea before Xiang was born. Her single memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewellery… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Gun & sword violence
  • Physical assault
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When You Look Like Us by Pamela Harris

When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris

When you look like us—brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades—people think you’re trouble. No one looks twice at a missing black girl from the projects because she must’ve brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister, Nicole, got too caught up with her boyfriend—a drug dealer—and his friends. But she’s been gone too long now. If I hadn’t hung up on her that night, she’d be spending time with our grandma. If I was a better brother, she’d be finishing senior year instead of being another name on a… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Death of a husband recounted
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
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