The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago. Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self harm
  • PTSD & trauma
  • Physical injuries & illness
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Starvation
  • Drowning
  • War themes
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Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby

Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby

Growing up in the Cinzio Traveling Players circus, Genevieve Flannery is accustomed to a life most teenagers could never imagine. Her mother Delia’s ghostly hallucinations never seemed all that strange . . . until the evening Geni and her mother are performing an aerial routine they’ve done hundreds of times, and Delia falls to her death.

That night, a dark curtain in Geni’s life opens. Everything has changed. As they reel from the tragedy, the Cinzio Traveling Players are also grappling with the circus’s new owner: a generous, mysterious man whose connection to the circus—Geni suspects—has a dark history. And suddenly, Geni is stumbling into a new reality of her own, her life interrupted daily by the terrors only Delia used to see.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language,
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Graphic physical injuries
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Torture mentioned
  • Car accident
  • Imprisonment
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal cruelty
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Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

In the city of Eldra, people are ruled by ancient prophecies. For centuries, the high council has stayed in power by virtue of the prophecies of the elder seers. After the last infallible prophecy came to pass, growing unrest led to murders and an eventual rebellion that raged for more than a decade.

In the present day, Cassa, the orphaned daughter of rebels, is determined to fight back against the high council, which governs Eldra from behind the walls of the citadel. Her only allies are no-nonsense Alys, easygoing Evander, and perpetually underestimated Newt, and Cassa struggles to come to terms with the legacy of rebellion her dead parents have left her — and the fear that she may be inadequate to shoulder the burden. But by the time Cassa and her friends uncover the mystery of the final infallible prophecy, it may be too late to save the city — or themselves.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Memory loss
  • Suicide (on-page)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a friend
  • Physical injuries depiction
  • Medical experimentation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Fire recounted
  • Blackmail
  • Poisoning
  • Poverty themes
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If the Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

If the Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

Linny has been fascinated by disappearances, ever since her sister Grace ran away in the middle of the night without saying goodbye.

Sebastian can tell you how many galaxies there are, and knows how much plutonium weighs. But the one thing he can’t figure out is the identity of his birth father.

They’ve never met, but Linny and Sebastian have one thing in common: an obsession with famous novelist and filmmaker Alvaro Herrera, who went missing three years ago and has just reappeared. As they learn more about the mystery of Alvaro, Linny and Sebastian uncover the answers they’ve been searching for.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Physical injury (fall)
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Disappearance of a sister
  • Death of a pet
  • Animal illness
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Merlin in the Library by Ada Maria Soto

Merlin in the Library by Ada Maria Soto

Agent Martin Grove is in pain every minute of the day while his wounds slowly heal. As soon as one injury starts to fade another that was hidden presents itself, but despite that Martin is, above all, a man who appreciates routine. For him that means ‘Merlin’ must return to the regularly scheduled Saturday Children’s’ Story Hour at the library. He’s been absent for too long and his body is still a technicolor canvas of physical damage, but as long as he has his Arthur by his side, he just might make it.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Physical injury recovery (theme)
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His Quiet Agent by Ada Maria Soto

His Quiet Agent by Ada Maria Soto

Arthur Drams works for a secret government security agency, but all he really does is spend his days in a cubicle writing reports no one reads. After getting another “lateral promotion” by a supervisor who barely remembers his name, it’s suggested that Arthur try to ‘make friends’ and ‘get noticed’ in order to move up the ladder. In a last-ditch attempt to be seen as friendly and outgoing, he decides to make friends with The Alien, aka Agent Martin Grove, known for the fact that no one has spoken to him in three years.

Starting with a short, surprisingly interesting conversation on sociology books, Arthur slowly begins to chip away at The Alien’s walls using home-cooked meals to lure the secretive agent out of his abrasive shell. Except Martin just might be something closer to an actual secret agent than paper-pusher Arthur is, and it might be more than hearts at risk when something more than friendship begins to develop.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injuries
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
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Hunted by Meagan Spooner

Hunted by Meagan Spooner

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.

Despite her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Physical injury & illness, including hypothermia
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder
  • Near-drowning
  • Animal death & hunting
  • Animal injury
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A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier

A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier

Some people knit socks by the fire at night. Gyssha Blackbone made monsters. But the old witch is dead now, and somehow it’s Elodie’s job to clean up the mess. When she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, Elodie had no idea she’d find herself working for a witch; and her acid-tongued new mistress, Aleida, was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep.

Gyssha’s final curse left Aleida practically dead on her feet, and now, with huge monsters roaming the woods, a demonic tree lurking in the orchard and an angry warlock demanding repayment of a debt, Aleida needs Elodie’s help, whether she likes it or not. And no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it’s still better than going back home.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Graphic verbal & emotional child abuse
  • Physical child abuse mentioned
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Misogyny
  • Dissociation
  • Suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping mentioned
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
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When My Heart Joins the Thousand by AJ Steiger

When My Heart Joins the Thousand by A.J. Steiger

Alvie Fitz doesn’t fit in, and she doesn’t care. She’s spent years swallowing meds and bad advice from doctors and social workers. Adjust, adapt. Pretend to be normal. It sounds so easy. If she can make it to her eighteenth birthday without any major mishaps, she’ll be legally emancipated. Free. But if she fails, she’ll become a ward of the state and be sent back to the group home.

All she wants is to be left alone to spend time with her friend, Chance, the one-winged hawk at the zoo where she works. She can bide her time with him until her emancipation. Humans are overrated anyway… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist slurs
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Parental abuse
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide mentioned & recounted
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction & physical injuries
  • Surgery
  • Emesis
  • Hospitalisation
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Police brutality
  • Drowning recounted
  • Bullying
  • Attempted murder of an autistic child by a parent
  • Poverty themes & homelessness
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Lumberjanes, Vol 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson

Lumberjanes, Vol. 1 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters & illustrated by Brooklyn Allen

At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way!

Collects Lumberjanes No. 1-4.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Minor blood depiction & physical injury
  • Drowning
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