Ship It by Britta Lundin

Ship It by Britta Lundin

CLAIRE is a sixteen-year-old fangirl obsessed with the show Demon Heart. FOREST is an actor on Demon Heart who dreams of bigger roles. When the two meet at a local Comic-Con panel, it’s a dream come true for Claire. Until the Q&A, that is, when Forest laughs off Claire’s assertion that his character is gay.

Claire is devastated. After all, every last word of her super-popular fanfic revolves around the romance between Forest’s character and his male frenemy. She can’t believe her hero turned out to be…. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Queermisia
  • Homomisia
  • Outing
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How to Build a Heart by Maria Padian 

How to Build a Heart by Maria Padian 

All sixteen-year-old Izzy Crawford wants is to feel like she really belongs somewhere. Her father, a marine, died in Iraq six years ago, and Izzy’s moved to a new town nearly every year since, far from the help of her extended family in North Carolina and Puerto Rico. When Izzy’s hardworking mom moves their small family to Virginia, all her dreams start clicking into place. She likes her new school—even if Izzy is careful to keep her scholarship-student status hidden from her well-to-do classmates and her new athletic and popular boyfriend. And best of all: Izzy’s family has been selected by Habitat for Humanity to build and move… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Racism
  • Death of a father during military deployment
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The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

Aware of the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain blissfully focused on her job, her close friendship with the camp foreman’s daughter, and telling stories about Paul Bunyan–reinvented as Po Pan Yin (Auntie Po), an elderly Chinese matriarch. Anchoring herself with stories of Auntie Po, Mei navigates the difficulty and politics of lumber camp work and her growing romantic feelings for her friend Bee.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Hate crime, off-page
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Blood to Poison by Mary Watson

Blood to Poison by Mary Watson

Seventeen-year-old Savannah is cursed. It’s a sinister family heirloom; passed down through the bloodline for hundreds of years, with one woman in every generation destined to die young. The family call them Hella’s girls, named for their ancestor Hella; the enslaved woman with whom it all began. Hella’s girls are always angry, especially in the months before they die. The anger is bursting from Savannah – at the men who cat-call her in the street, at her mother’s disingenuous fiancé, even at her own loving family… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
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Every Variable of Us by Charles Bush 

Every Variable of Us by Charles A. Bush

After Philly teenager Alexis Duncan is injured in a gang shooting, her dreams of a college scholarship and pro basketball career vanish in an instant. To avoid becoming another Black teen trapped in her poverty-stricken neighbourhood, she shifts her focus to the school’s STEM team, a group of nerds seeking their own college scholarships. Academics have never been her thing, but Alexis is freshly motivated by Aamani Chakrabarti, the new Indian student who becomes her mentor (and crush?). Alexis begins to see herself as so much more than an athlete. But just as her future starts to reform, Alexis’s own doubts and old loyalties pull her back into harm’s way. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Islamomisia
  • Classism
  • Hate crime
  • Disownment
  • Substance addiction
  • Gun violence
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Hold Me Down by Jacqueline Woodson

Hold Me Down by Jacqueline Woodson

Talia Benson has always been independent, unafraid to go after what she wants, regardless of setback, injury, or failure. But between her father’s conditional tuition payments and her mother’s nagging concern over her emotional state, Talia’s suffocating. So when Talia meets doctoral student Sean Poole, she can’t figure out why she wants him to control her. Why she wants him to boss her around. Why she wants him to hurt her. Talia learns the hard way that not all control is created equal, and sometimes submitting is the most empowering thing in the world.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism mentioned
  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
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Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

Running into a long-ago friend sets memory from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything—until it wasn’t. For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighbourhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant—a part of a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where.… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Pregnancy
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If You, Then Me by Yvonne Woon

If You, Then Me by Yvonne Woon

Xia is stuck in a lonely, boring loop. Her only escapes are Wiser, an artificial intelligence app she designed to answer questions like her future self, and a mysterious online crush she knows only as ObjectPermanence. And then one day Xia enrols at the Foundry, an app incubator for tech prodigies in Silicon Valley. Suddenly, anything is possible. Flirting with Mast, a classmate also working on AI, leads to a date. Speaking up generates a vindictive nemesis intent on publicly humiliating her. And running into Mitzy Erst, Foundry.… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
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Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley

Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley

Back in high school, Lily Wang wanted to be popular, but she considered herself lucky to be part of a tight group of oddballs and honors students called the Nerd Herd. Now, at twenty-eight, she feels like she’s finally on the cusp of succeeding as a beauty influencer—if she can hit five million subscribers, brands will take notice and she could get her own makeup line. Fellow Nerd Herd alum Tobin Bui has had a lot of success as a YouTube gamer. But the road to online stardom has been rocky. First, he disappointed… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
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Carefree Black Girls by Zeba Blay

Carefree Black Girls by Zeba Blay

In this collection of essays, Blay expands on that initial idea by looking at the significance of influential black women throughout history, including Josephine Baker, Michelle Obama, Rihanna, and Cardi B. Incorporating her own personal experiences as well as astute analysis of these famous women, Blay presents an empowering and celebratory portrait of black women and their effect on American culture. She also examines the many stereotypes that have clung to black women throughout history, whether it is the Mammy, the Angry Black Woman, or more recently, the Thot. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Police brutality
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