Poverty & Financial Difficulties – Page 14

Halt’s Peril by John Flanagan

Halt’s Peril by John Flanagan

The renegade outlaw group known as the Outsiders has journeyed from kingdom to kingdom, conning the innocent out of their few valuables. Will and Halt, his mentor, are ambushed by the cult’s deadly assassins when Halt is pierced by a poisoned arrow. Now Will must travel day and night in search of the one person with the power to cure Halt: Malkallam the Sorcerer.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Alcohol consumption
Blood and gore depiction
Captivity
Cave collapse
Cult
Dead bodies and body parts
Grief and loss depiction
Knife violence
Medical treatment/procedures and physical injuries
Murder and attempted murder
Nightmares and night terrors
Phobias
Animal death
Poverty themes
Stalking

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan

Mankind puts its faith in many things–gods, kings, money–anything for protection from the world’s many dangers. When a cult springs up in neighboring Clonmel, promising to quell the recent attacks by lawless marauders, people flock from all over to offer gold in exchange for protection. But this particular group, with which Halt is all too familiar, has a less than charitable agenda. Secrets will be unveiled and battles fought to the death as Will and Horace help Halt in ridding the land of a dangerous enemy.The worldwide phenomenon is back with a gripping new adventure. Yet for these Rangers, the peril is only beginning. . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Verbal abuse
Alcohol consumption and non-consensual drugging
Estrangement
Animal death and hunting
Building collapse and fire
Cults
Dead bodies and body parts
Death of a sibling
Knife violence, regicide, murder and attempted murder
Physical injuries
Poverty themes
War and military themes

The Icebound Land by John Flanagan

The Icebound Land by John Flanagan

Kidnapped after the fierce battle with Lord Morgarath, Will and Evanlyn are bound for Skandia as captives aboard a fearsome wolfship. Halt has sworn to rescue Will, and he will do anything to keep his promise–even defy his King. Expelled from the Rangers he has served so loyally, Halt is joined by Will’s friend Horace as he travels toward Skandia. On their way, they are challenged constantly by freelance knights–but Horace knows a thing or two about combat. Soon he begins to attract the attention of knights and warlords for miles around with his uncanny skill. Even so, will they be in time to rescue Will from a horrific life of slavery?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Alcohol consumption, addiction and non-consensual drugging
Body horror, physical injuries, physical illness and dead bodies/body parts
Verbal abuse
Hallucinations, delusions and suicide
Knife violence, murder and attempted murder
Banishment, exile and captivity
Blizzard
Whipping and flogging
Poverty themes
Animal death and hunting
War and military themes

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape & sexual assault
Torture
Murder
Kidnapping
Animal death
Poverty themes

Now Entering Addamsville by Francesca Zappia

Now Entering Addamsville by Francesca Zappia

Zora Novak has been framed.

When someone burns down the home of the school janitor and he dies in the blaze, everyone in Addamsville, Indiana, points a finger at Zora. Never mind that Zora has been on the straight and narrow since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to uncover the identity of the real killer. There’s one big problem—Zora has no leads. No one does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and thirty years ago a similar string of fires left several townspeople dead. The arsonist was never caught.

Now, Zora must team up with her cousin Artemis—an annoying self-proclaimed Addamsville historian—to clear her name. But with a popular ghost-hunting television show riling up the townspeople, almost no support from her family and friends, and rumors spinning out of control, things aren’t looking good. Zora will have to read between the lines of Addamsville’s ghost stories before she becomes one herself.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Classism
Suicide mentioned
Blood & gore depiction
Decapitation
Murder & attempted murder
Torture mentioned
Incarceration of a parent mentioned
Disappearance of a parent
Fire & arson
Animal death
Poverty themes
Bullying
Homelessness

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. The end of high school will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is happy wherever he is thanks to his obsession with the epic book series Bloodfall and the fangirl who may be turning his harsh reality into real-life fantasy. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia—neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending—one that will rock his life to the core.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableist language
Parental abuse
Depression
Suicidal ideation and attempted suicide
Murder
Gun violence
Attempted kidnapping recounted
Bullying
Poverty themes

Note: A parent incarcerated for possession of chil pornography.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

Down market lanes crammed with too many people, dogs, and rickshaws, past stalls that smell of cardamom and sizzling oil, below a smoggy sky that doesn’t let through a single blade of sunlight, and all the way at the end of the Purple metro line lies a jumble of tin-roofed homes where nine-year-old Jai lives with his family. From his doorway, he can spot the glittering lights of the city’s fancy high-rises, and though his mother works as a maid in one, to him they seem a thousand miles away.

Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.

But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari, and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force, and rumors of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.

Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child sexual abuse
Death of a child
Murder
Disappearance of a child and sibling
Animal death
Poverty themes

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighbourhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyper-empathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Human trafficking
Slavery
Child sexual assault & abuse
Rape, including statutory rape
Abusive relationship
Adult-minor relationships
Arranged, forced & coerced marriage
Domestic abuse
Estrangement
Physical child abuse & neglect
Addiction
Drug abuse
Blood and gore depiction including dead bodies and body parts
Cannibalism
Physical injuries
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a child
Death of a friend
Death of a parent
Death of a sibling
Disappearance of a loved one
Gun & knife violence
Murder
Police brutality
Bushfire
Earthquake
Home invasion
Homelessness
Poverty themes
Hunting

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up, and closed down.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism, including blackface, and antiziganism (g slur)
Anti-semitism and Nazism (theme)
Ableism & ableist language
Parental abandonment & verbal abuse
PTSD & nightmares
Recreational drug use (smoking)
Emesis
Starvation
Gore depiction (dead bodies)
Death of a brother
Death of a child
Death of a father & uncle mentioned
Murder
Explosions, including air raids, and fire
Death by exposure to the cold
War themes* and battle scenes
Poverty themes
Bullying

*Set during WWII and discussed the Holocaust.

The Secret Sky by Atia Abawi

The Secret Sky by Atia Abawi

Fatima is a Hazara girl. She was raised to be obedient, to be dutiful, and to honour the traditions of her family, her village, and her religion. Samiullah is a Pashtun boy. He was raised to be a landowner, to increase his family’s power, and to defend the traditions of his tribe, his village, and his religion.

They were not meant to fall in love.

But they do.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism, slut-shaming and terrorism
Forced and arranged marriages
Child abuse and physical abuse
Physical injuries and graphic burns
Murder
Poverty themes