You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend, Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cell phone to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone. What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a boyfriend in a car accident
  • Physical assault

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

A year after an accidentally whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. However, her intellect and passion will never be enough in the eyes of the administrators, who see men as the sole guardians of science.

But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolizes is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Misogyny
  • Amisia
  • Racism
  • Forced marriage
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Drug abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Medical procedures & surgery
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Explosion
  • Colonialism
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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Bimisia
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Blood & physical injury depiction
  • Epilepsy
  • Needles
  • Medical procedures
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Torture mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Sexual assault
  • Statutory rape
  • Rape recounted
  • Student-teacher relationship
  • Suicide
  • Disordered eating mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Nonconsensual drugging (roofies)
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Car accident recounted
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail
  • Animal death
  • Bullying
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Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave.

When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he’s drowning. She saves his life – and it will happen again and again. Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them. And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it’s even begun.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
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Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Death of a child
  • Kidnapping

There There by Tommy Orange

There There by Tommy Orange 

Tommy Orange’s wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American–grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Gun violence & mass shooting
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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

This is Britain as you’ve never seen it.
This is Britain as it has never been told.

From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl Woman Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They’re each looking for something – a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Misgendering
  • Deadnaming
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Emotional & physical abuse
  • Cheating
  • Drug use
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The Alienist by Caleb Carr

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night “New York Times” reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or “alienist.” On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan’s infamous brothels.

The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler’s intellect and Moore’s knowledge of New York’s vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • Attempted rape
  • Suicide
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