The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels, The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it ‘the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels’. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the ‘Scotland Yard bungler’ and the skilled, professional detective. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Substance addiction
  • Suicide
  • Recreational drug use
  • Murder
  • Colonialism
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Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. And one thing she’s learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist’s job is to find the facts and not let personal biases affect the story. But all that changes the day she finds the body of a murdered boy. Jawad Ali was fourteen years old when he built a cosplay jetpack that a teacher mistook for a bomb. A jetpack that got him arrested, labeled a terrorist—and eventually killed. But he’s more than a dead body, and more than “Bomb Boy.” He was a person with a life worth… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & white supremacy
  • Islamomisia
  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Hate crime
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Kidnapping
  • Car accident
  • Terrorism
  • Bullying
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Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong

It’s 1931 in Shanghai, and the stage is set for a new decade of intrigue. Four years ago, Rosalind Lang was brought back from the brink of death, but the strange experiment that saved her also stopped her from sleeping and aging—and allows her to heal from any wound. In short, Rosalind cannot die. Now, desperate for redemption from her traitorous past, she uses her abilities as an assassin for her country. Code name: Fortune. But when the Japanese Imperial Army begins its invasion march, Rosalind’s mission pivots. A series of murders is causing unrest in Shanghai, and the Japanese are under suspicion. Rosalind’s… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Blood depiction
  • Medical experimentation mentioned
  • Needles
  • Murder

Red Island House by Andrea Lee

Red Island House by Andrea Lee

Shay is surprised when her husband Senna declares his intention to build her a spectacular dream house on an idyllic beach in the tropical island nation of Madagascar. Shay is surprised when her husband Senna declares his intention to build her a spectacular dream house on an idyllic beach in the tropical island nation of Madagascar. At first, she’s content to be an observer of the passionate affairs and fierce ambitions and rivalries around her. But as she and her husband raise children and establish their own rituals on the island, Shay finds herself drawn ever deeper into an extra… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Child neglect
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug abuse
  • Miscarriage
  • Lynching
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Sinner by Sierra Simone

Sinner by Sierra Simone

I’m not a good man, and I’ve never pretended to be. I don’t believe in goodness or God or any happy ending that isn’t paid for in advance. What do I believe in? Money. Sex. Macallan 18. They have words for men like me—playboy. Womanizer. Skirt chaser. My brother used to be a priest, and he only has one word for me. Sinner.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Child sexual abuse by a priest recounted
  • Suicide recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent from cancer
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Dr Strange Beard by Penny Reid

Dr. Strange Beard by Penny Reid

Ten years after Simone Payton broke his heart, all Roscoe Winston wants is a doughnut. He’d also like to forget her entirely, but that’s never going to happen. Roscoe remembers everything—every look, every word, every single unrequited second—and the last thing he needs is another memory of Simone. Unfortunately, after one chance encounter, Simone keeps popping up everywhere he happens to be. Ten years after Roscoe Winston dropped out of her life, all Simone Payton wants is to exploit him. She’d also like some answers from her former best friend about why he ghosted her, but if she never gets those answers, that’s a-okay. Simone let go of the past a long time ago… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Parent with cancer
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
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Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout. Guilty or innocent, Steve becomes a pawn in the hands of “the system,” cluttered with cynical authority figures and unscrupulous inmates, who will turn in anyone to shorten their own sentences. For the first time, Steve is forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life. As a way of coping with the horrific events that entangle him, Steve, an amateur filmmaker, decides… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Drug use
  • Dead body mentioned
  • Murder
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Tags by Walter Dean Myers

Tags by Walter Dean Myers

Four New York City teens are shot down in the prime of life. They move through limbo, re-creating their distinctive tags in a Harlem walk-up so that they can “live” forever. But what’s the point? How can you think of living forever if you’re already dead? From Walter Dean Myers, the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, comes an all-new 20-page one-act play. Tags is a look at life and death in New York City, complete with a shocking end.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
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Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

Escaping Exodus is a story of a young woman named Seske Kaleigh, heir to the command of a biological, city-size starship carved up from the insides of a spacefaring beast. Her clan has just now culled their latest ship and the workers are busy stripping down the bone work for building materials, rerouting the circulatory system for mass transit, and preparing the cavernous creature for the onslaught of the general populous still in stasis. It’s all a part of the cycle her clan had instituted centuries ago—excavate the new beast, expand into its barely-living car… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Slavery
  • Body horror
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This Weightless World by Adam Soto

This Weightless World by Adam Soto

From the streets of gentrified Chicago to the tech boom corridors of Silicon Valley, This Weightless World follows a revolving cast of characters after alien contact upends their lives. We are introduced to Sevi, a burned-out music teacher desperate for connection; Ramona, his on-again, off-again computer programmer girlfriend; and Sevi’s cello protege Eason, struggling with the closure of his high school; after a mysterious signal arrives from outer space. When the signal–at first seen as a sign of hope–stops as abruptly as it started, they are all forced to reckon with its aftermath. In San Francisco, Sevi fights to find mean… Read more,

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Drug use
  • Police brutality
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