The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods

Violet is a smart, funny, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl in a family of blonds. Her mom is white, and her dad, who died before she was born, was black. She attends a mostly white school where she sometimes feels like a brown leaf on a pile of snow. She’s tired of people asking if she’s adopted. Now that Violet’s eleven, she decides it’s time to learn about her African American heritage. And despite getting off to a rocky start trying to reclaim her dad’s side of the family, she can feel her confidence growing as the puzzle pieces of her life finally start coming together. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father in a car accident
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Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Effia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery; one a slave trader’s wife. The consequences of their fate reverberate through the generations that follow. Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous novel – the intimate, gripping story of a brilliantly vivid cast of characters and through their lives the very story of America itself.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Colonialism
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Rape
  • Arranged marriage
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War themes
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The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ story lines intersect? … Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Colourism
  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Death of a parent
  • Lynching
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The Hundred Wells of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah

The Hundred Wells of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah

Based on true events, a story of courage, forgiveness, love, and freedom in precolonial Ghana, told through the eyes of two women born to vastly different fates.

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that transforms her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father’s court. These two women’s lives converge as infighting among Wurche’s people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Slut shaming
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Suicide
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Future Girl by Asphyxia

Future Girl by Asphyxia

Piper’s mum wants her to be ‘normal’, to pass as hearing and get a good job. But when peak oil hits and Melbourne lurches towards environmental catastrophe, Piper has more important things to worry about, such as how to get food.

When she meets Marley, a CODA (child of Deaf adult), a door opens into a new world – where Deafness is something to celebrate rather than hide, and where resilience is created through growing your own food rather than it being delivered on a truck… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Abusive relationship
  • Animal death
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The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe

The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe

Teancum Leon, who goes by Tean, is a wildlife veterinarian. His life has settled into a holding pattern: he loves his job, he hates first dates, and he only occasionally has to deal with his neighbor Mrs. Wish’s cat-related disasters.

All of that changes, though, when a man appears in his office, asking for help to find his brother. Jem is convinced that something bad has happened to Benny, and he thinks Tean might be able to help. Tean isn’t sure, but he’s willing to try. After all, Jem is charming and sweet and surprisingly vulnerable. Oh. And hot… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Fatmisia
  • Racism
  • Homomisia
  • Rape mentioned
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Animal death
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Stray Fears by Gregory Ashe

Stray Fears by Gregory Ashe

Elien Martel is a survivor, but surviving, he’s beginning to discover, isn’t the same thing as living. In the house he shares with his much older boyfriend, Elien spends his days trying to stay as far away from living as possible. Living, he has learned, means that sooner or later you’ll get hurt.

When a member of Elien’s support group dies under strange circumstances, though, Elien finds himself in a web of bizarre coincidences. The responding officer turns out to be another member of Elien’s support group—a man named Mason, who has made no effort to hide his dislike of Elien. Then, just a few days later, Mason tries to kill Elien in front of dozens of witnesses… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Transmisia
  • Homomisia
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Body dysphoria
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Graphic suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Murder
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City of Betrayal by Claudie Arseneault

City of Betrayal by Claudie Arseneault

The whole city is searching for Hasryan—some for revenge and justice, others to save their friends. Yet no one knows where to find him except Lord Arathiel Brasten, who vanished 130 years ago only to magically return.

Lord Diel Dathirii’s struggle to free his city from the neighbouring imperialistic enclave is far from over. Enemies gather around him, and without allies in Isandor’s upper spheres, he must place his fate in Lower City residents. Little does he know, the city he’s trying to save might well save him in return.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Verbal & physical abuse
  • Burns
  • Torture
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
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City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

A hundred and thirty years have passed since Arathiel last set foot in his home city. Isandor hasn’t changed—bickering merchant families still vie for power through eccentric shows of wealth—but he has. His family is long dead, a magical trap has dulled his senses, and he returns seeking a sense of belonging now long lost.

Arathiel hides in the Lower City, piecing together a new life among in a shelter dedicated to the homeless and the poor, befriending an uncommon trio: the Shelter’s rageful owner, Larryn, his dark elven friend Hasryan, and Cal the cheese-loving halfling. When Hasryan is accused of Isandor’s most infamous assassination of the last decade, what little… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Physical & emotional abuse
  • Memory loss
  • Torture
  • Police brutality
  • Hanging
  • Death by fire mentioned
  • Homelessness
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The F Team by Rawah Arja

The F Team by Rawah Arja

Meet Tariq Nader, leader of ‘The Wolf Pack’ at Punchbowl High, who has been commanded by the new principal to join a football competition with his mates in order to rehabilitate the public image of their school. When the team is formed, Tariq learns there’s a major catch – half of the team is made up of white boys from Cronulla, aka enemy territory – and he must compete with their strongest player for captaincy of the team.

At school Tariq thinks he has life all figured out until he falls for a new girl called Jamila, who challenges everything he thought he knew. At home, his outspoken ways have brought him into conflict with his family. Now, with complications on all fronts, he has to dig deep to control his anger, and find what it takes to be a leader.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Islamomisia
  • Drug addiction mentioned
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Incarceration of a parent mentioned
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