One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia discussed
  • Racism & gentrification mentioned
  • Hate crimes, including the UpStairs Lounge fire, recounted (chp. 11)
  • Anxiety
  • Hurricane Katrina discussed
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Minor mention of blood
  • Death of a grandparent mentioned (chps. 11 & 16)
  • Car accident mentioned (chp. 16)
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Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Andrea Oliver’s mother, Laura, is the perfect small-town mum. Laura lives a quiet but happy life in sleepy beachside Belle Isle. She’s a pillar of the community: a speech therapist, business owner and everybody’s friend. And she’s never kept a secret from anyone. Or so Andrea thinks.

When Andrea is caught in a random violent attack at a shopping mall, Laura intervenes and acts in a way that is unrecognisable to her daughter. It’s like Laura is a completely different person – and that’s because she was. Thirty years ago. Before Andrea. Before Belle Isle… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicide
  • Drug abuse
  • Loss of a pregnancy
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • AIDS
  • Emesis
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Explosions
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A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

Cameron doesn’t want to go to prom. Not with his boyfriend, Shane, and definitely not with his fake date, Virginia. Sure, it’s senior prom, it’s the end of high school, and Virginia’s drop-dead gorgeous. But none of that matters to Cam, who’s never liked any high school dance. Ever.

Then an unexpected kiss changes everything, and Cam needs to make a quick exit. After teaming up with a waiter who’s been dealing drugs in the bathroom, Cam leaves the prom. But his night is far from over. From a high-speed car chase, to a stop at the after-prom party, to a bar with a wild dance contest… Cam’s night finally ends in the most unlikely of romances.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Emesis
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Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley

Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley

Nate never imagined that he would be attacked by his best friend, Cam.

Now, Nate is being called to deliver a sworn statement that will get Cam convicted. The problem is, the real story isn’t that easy or convenient—just like Nate and Cam’s friendship. Cam challenged Nate on every level from the day the boys met. He pushed him to break the rules, to dream, and to accept himself. But Nate—armed with a fierce moral code and conflicted by his own beliefs—started to push back. With each push, Nate and Cam moved closer to each other—but also spiraled closer to their breaking points.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Internalised bimisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Cheating
  • Panic attack
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Stabbing
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Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Decapitation
  • Loss of limb
  • Bullying
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Stick by Andrew Smith

Stick by Andrew Smith

Fourteen-year-old Stark McClellan (nicknamed Stick because he’s tall and thin) is bullied for being “deformed” – he was born with only one ear. His older brother Bosten is always there to defend Stick. But the boys can’t defend one another from their abusive parents.

When Stick realizes Bosten is gay, he knows that to survive his father’s anger, Bosten must leave home. Stick has to find his brother, or he will never feel whole again. In his search, he will encounter good people, bad people, and people who are simply indifferent to kids from the wrong side of the tracks. But he never loses hope of finding love – and his brother. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Disfigurmisia
  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Bullying
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Stand Off by Andrew Smith

Stand Off by Andrew Smith

It’s his last year at Pine Mountain, and Ryan Dean should be focused on his future, but instead, he’s haunted by his past. His rugby coach expects him to fill the roles once played by his lost friend, Joey, as the rugby team’s stand-off and new captain. And somehow he’s stuck rooming with twelve-year-old freshman Sam Abernathy, a cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a serious crush on Annie Altman—aka Ryan Dean’s girlfriend, for now, anyway.

Equally distressing, Ryan Dean’s doodles and drawings don’t offer the relief they used to… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend recounted*
  • Murder by physical assault recounted

*Note: The protagonist’s gay best friend was beaten to death in a brutal hate crime in the previous book.

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Winger by Andrew Smith

Winger by Andrew Smith

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bury Your Gays trope
  • Homomisia
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

*Note: The protagonist’s gay best friend is beaten to death in a brutal hate crime within the last fifty pages of the book.

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent, harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Queermisia
  • Misogyny
  • Eugenics
  • Cheating
  • Suicide
  • Self harm, including self-flagellation
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Child abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Hanging
  • Electrocution
  • Animal neglect
  • Animal death & dead bodies
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The Last to Let Go by Amber Smith

The Last to Let Go by Amber Smith

Junior year for Brooke Winters is supposed to be about change. She’s transferring schools, starting fresh, and making plans for college. But all of her dreams are shattered one hot summer afternoon when her mother is arrested for killing Brooke’s abusive father. No one really knows what happened that day, if it was premeditated or self-defense, whether it was right or wrong. And now Brooke and her siblings are on their own.

In a year of firsts—the first year without parents, first love, first heartbreak, and her first taste of freedom—Brooke must confront the shadow of her family’s violence and dysfunction, as she struggles to finds her true place in the world, and learns how to let go.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Overdose discussed
  • Death of a father
  • Murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Incarceration (parent)
  • Bullying
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