People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins

People Kil People by Ellen Hopkins

A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?

One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & white supremacy
  • Rape & attempted rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Gun violence (theme)
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Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Holly: Filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, she sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Will it bring the fulfillment she is searching for? Andrea: A single mom and avowed celibate, she watches her friend Holly’s meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for – a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly’s castaway husband? Marissa: She has more than her fair share of challenges – a gay, rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts.

As one woman’s marriage unravels, another’s rekindles. As one woman’s family comes apart at the seams, another’s reconfigures into something bigger and better.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Attempted suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug abuse
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Terminal illness
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Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that fatal night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated.

Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life as a migrant worker on a California ranch. But is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Lesbomisia & lesbomisic slurs
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Hate crimes discussed
  • Victim blaming
  • Slut shaming
  • Rape & attempted rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy loss
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a boyfriend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions & bombings
  • Animal death
  • Bullying
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Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it’s all the same: a monster. And once it’s got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.

Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she’s determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life. She needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina’s life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves — her baby.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Substance addiction (theme)
  • Teen pregnancy
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Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Crank chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, and the “monster,” the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or “crank.” Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne’er-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree, Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won’t, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Rape & rape by coercion
  • Self-harm
  • Substance addiction (theme)
  • Recreational drug abuse
  • Blood depiction & blood-drinking
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Incarceration
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Dustborn by Erin Bowman

Dustborn by Erin Bowman

Delta of Dead River has always been told to hide her back, where a map is branded on her skin to a rumored paradise called the Verdant. In a wasteland plagued by dust squalls, geomagnetic storms, and solar flares, many would kill for it—even if no one can read it. So when raiders sent by a man known as the General attack her village, Delta suspects he is searching for her. 

Delta sets out to rescue her family but quickly learns that in the Wastes no one can be trusted—perhaps not even her childhood friend, Asher, who has been missing for nearly a decade. If Delta can trust Asher, she just might decode the map and trade evidence of the Verdant to the General for her family. What Delta doesn’t count on is what waits at the Verdant: a long-forgotten secret that will shake the foundation of her entire world.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Pregnancy
  • Death during childbirth
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Amputation
  • Death of a mother (on-page)
  • Death of a sister
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Imprisonment
  • Kidnapping
  • Death of a pet
  • Hunting
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The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.

Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Kraków restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism
  • Homomisia
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Chronic illness
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Drowning
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Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

Rosaline Palmer has always lived by the rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show. Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory.  Suave Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Biphobia & classism
  • Infidelity by ex-partner recounted (protagonist)
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Protagonist with anxiety
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Unplanned pregnancy recounted with mentions of consideration of an abortion
  • Physical assault (on-page)

The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp

The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp

The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp book cover

Larry is a Dogrib Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, his hallucinations and his fantasies are hotter than the sun. At sixteen, he loves Iron Maiden, the North and Juliet Hope, the high school “tramp.” When Johnny Beck, a Metis from Hay River, moves to town, Larry is ready for almost anything.

In this powerful and often very funny first novel, Richard Van Camp gives us one of the most original teenage characters in fiction. Skinny as spaghetti, nervy and self-deprecating, Larry is an appealing mixture of bravado and vulnerability. His past holds many terrors: an abusive father, blackouts from sniffing gasoline, an accident that killed several of his cousins. But through his friendship with Johnny, he’s ready now to face his memories—and his future.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny and sexism
  • Paedophilia
  • Child sexual assault
  • Abusive relationships
  • Domestic violence
  • Incest
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug abuse
  • Depersonalization
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Child pregnancy
  • Fire
  • Animal death
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The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.

Assume nothing.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Martial rape
  • Domestic abuse (on-page)
  • Cheating
  • Panic attack
  • Nightmares
  • Claustrophobia
  • Attempted suicide (on-page)
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Abortion recounted
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Infertility & pregnancy discussed
  • Physical injuries, including vision loss
  • Emesis
  • Cancer recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Strangulation
  • Drowning recounted
  • Stalking
  • Car accident mentioned
  • Death of a pet mentioned
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