Tag Archives: Racism

The Sweetness of Waterby Nathan Harris

The Sweetness of Waterby Nathan Harris

In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry—freed by the Emancipation Proclamation—seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm, hoping through an unexpected friendship to stanch their grief. Prentiss and Landry, meanwhile, plan to save money for the journey north and a chance to reunite with their mother, who was sold away when they were boys. Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. The… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Racism

Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill

Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill

This summer, Reese Camden is trading sweet tea and Southern hospitality for cold brew and crisp coastal air. She’s landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the relentlessly charming, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing culinary intern–and her main competition for the fall job. Reese’s plan to keep work a No Feelings Zone crumbles like a day-old muffin when she and Benny are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, making them the internet’s newest ship. Audiences are… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut -shaming
  • Homomisia mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
  • Cyberbullying & online harassment

The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbour, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day.. hen, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Racism & n slur
  • Blood & injury depiction including loss of limb
  • Torture
  • Animal death

Through the Storm by Beverly Jenkins

Through the Storm by Beverly Jenkins

Sable, a slave on the run to escape the cruel man she’s been sold to is forced to betray the charming Union officer Raimond LeVeq, who had romanced her and championed her. Brought together again by fate and an arranged marriage, she must try and win the trust of LeVeq–the man she truly loves.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Slavery
  • Child abuse
  • Arson
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning mentioned

And The Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando

And The Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando

When fifteen-year-old Nathan discovers that his older brother Al has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart. Al was special. Al was talented. Al was full of passion and light…so why did he do it? Convinced that his brother was in trouble, Nathan begins to retrace his footsteps. And along the way, he meets Megan. Al’s former classmate, who burns with the same fire and hope, who is determined to keep Al’s memory alive. But when Nathan learns the horrifying truth behind his brother’s suicide, one question remains – how do you survive, when you’re growing up in the age of social media?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Depression
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother from suicide
  • Bullying & cyberbullying (theme)
  • Catfishing

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook. As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her taboo and psychologically harrowing ability was.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Drug use
  • Pregnancy
  • Murder

What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri

What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri

As the abandoned son of a Lascar—a sailor from India—Heathcliff has spent most of his young life maligned as an “outsider.” Now he’s been flung into an alien life in the Yorkshire moors, where he clings to his birth father’s language even though it makes the children of the house call him an animal, and the maids claim he speaks gibberish. Catherine is the younger child of the estate’s owner, a daughter with light skin and brown curls and a mother that nobody talks about. Her father is grooming her for a place in proper society, and that’s all that matters. Catherine knows she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Starvation
  • Illness-related weight loss mentioned
  • Death of a sister-in-law from childbirth mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Gun violence

The Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis and Vivian Truong

City of Dragons: The Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis and illustrated by Vivian Truong

When Grace moves to Hong Kong with her mom and new stepdad, her biggest concern is making friends at her fancy new boarding school. But when a mysterious old woman gifts her a dragon egg during a field trip, Grace discovers that the wonderful stories of dragons she heard when she was a young girl might actually be real–especially when the egg hatches overnight. The dragon has immense powers that Grace has yet to understand. And that puts them both in danger from mysterious forces intent on abusing the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Death of a father from cancer in hospital, on-page
  • Bullying

The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller

The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller

Ronan Szepessy promised himself he’d never return to Hudson. The sleepy upstate town was no place for a restless gay photographer. But his father is ill and New York City’s distractions have become too much for him. He hopes that a quick visit will help him recharge. Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, his first love, and Dom’s wife, Attalah. The three former misfits mourn what their town has become—overrun by gentrifiers and corporate interests. With friends and neighbours getting evicted en masse and a mayoral election coming up, Ronan and Attalah craft a plan to rattle the newcomers and expose… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Queermisia
  • Suicide
  • Drug abuse
  • Arson

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Those 2300 words were life-altering for the People.com editor, turning her into an influential and outspoken public figure and a desperately needed voice for an often voiceless community. In these pages, she offers a bold and inspiring perspective on being young, multicultural, economically challenged, and transgender in America. Welcomed into the world as her parents’ firstborn son, Mock decided early on that she would be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Racism
  • Gender dysphoria
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Sex work
  • Cheating
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Self-harm
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Emesis
  • Gun violence