I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope and joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume of her autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evoker her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother’s lover. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • White supremacy & mentions of the Klu Klux Klan
  • Sexism
  • Rape of a child
  • Sexual assault
  • Chronic bronchitis
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Dead body
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews

Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews

Scarred, solitary Derek Gaunt has separated from his Pack, and is truly a lone wolf. With no family he answers to no one; but is fiercely loyal to a chosen few. So, when several of those close to him are murdered, he’ll stop at nothing to hunt their killer through the magic-drenched streets of Atlanta.

Never one to be left on the sidelines, equally determined—some might say stubborn—Julie Lennart-Olsen soon joins in his pursuit; and what began as revenge turns into a race to save the city. Their search pits them against powers they never imagined and magic so old, it predates history. It may cost Derek his life, but there are things for which even he would risk everything.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

What Happened That Night by Deanna Cameron

What Happened That Night by Deanna Cameron

Four months after the murder, the entire town of Shiloh is still in shock. For Clara Porterfield, the normal world has crumbled around her in a million chaotic pieces. Now Clara lives in a new reality, where her sister awaits trial for murder, her mother obsessively digs in a dead, frozen garden, and her father lives and breathes denial. At school, Clara is haunted by her classmates’ morbid curiosity—and all of the unspoken questions they won’t ask.

Now Clara’s sister wants something from her—the one thing in all of this that Clara isn’t ready to face: the truth about what really happened that night. Because this story didn’t die with Griffin Tomlin. There’s another story that needs to be told. And sometimes, the lies we’re told are nowhere near as deadly as the lies we tell ourselves . . .

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews

Atlanta was always a dangerous city. Now, as waves of magic and technology compete for supremacy, it’s a place caught in a slow apocalypse, where monsters spawn among the crumbling skyscrapers and supernatural factions struggle for power and survival.

Eight years ago, Julie Lennart left Atlanta to find out who she was. Now she’s back with a new face, a new magic, and a new name—Aurelia Ryder—drawn by the urgent need to protect the family she left behind. An ancient power is stalking her adopted mother, Kate Daniels, an enemy unlike any other, and a string of horrifying murders is its opening gambit… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Eyeball trauma
  • Serious injury of a child
  • Death of a spouse recounted
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Soft Thorns Vol. II by Bridgett Devoue

soft thorns vol. ii by bridgett devoue

Soft Thorns Vol. II is a continuation of the deep and emotional journey author Bridgett Devoue started with her debut poetry collection Soft Thorns. Similar to her first book, Devoue’s lyrical and comforting writing is perfectly complemented by gorgeous illustrations.  Focusing on themes of online bullying, abusive relationships, and unrequited love, Devoue’s topics resonate.  As she explores and elaborates on these issues over eight chapters of poems, the reader will discover all the knowledge and power to be gained from facing hardships head on. Soft Thorns Vol. II is for those who are struggling to reckon with their past, apprehensive of what is to come, and a little nervous about everything in between.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Toxic relationship
  • Cyberbullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Soft Thorns by Bridgett Devoue

soft thorns by bridgett devoue

the poetry living within these pages tells stories of love, heartbreak, freedom, oppression, sexual assault, sexism, hope and humanity. our darkest times are where we grow the most, so in this book, i share mine, and together, we learn how to heal.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Eating disorder (anorexia)
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

If My Body Could Speak by Blythe Baird

If My Body Could Speak by Blythe Baird

If My Body Could Speak is about fighting for the space one takes up in a world that would rather they take up none at all. Blythe Baird deftly and uniquely charts a course through various modes of womanhood and women’s bodies. Through love, loss, and the struggles of disordered eating, If My Body Could Speak uses sharp narratives and visceral imagery to get to the heart of a many-layered existence, speaking to many generations at once.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Eating disorder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Damage Control by Jess Anastasi

Damage Control by Jess Anastasi

Nick-named Captain Hardass by the new recruits, Captain Leigh Alphin is captain of the Fighter Force of the battleship Valiant Knox. He’s honorable, straightforward, and hard as nails – except for the soft spot he has for a young woman he rescued off a transport that was under attack. Now that she’s one of his new recruits, it’s imperative he stop thinking about her in that way. Especially now that the Knox has been secretly infiltrated by the enemy.

Mia Wolf’s new commander is icy, no-BS, and completely gorgeous. His glances send heat searing through her. Neither of them can afford to make this mistake, yet desire takes hold, consuming them. For the first time, Leigh’s iron sense of honor falters as his heart fights for love… and against an enemy trying to destroy everything they hold dear. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted rape, on-page
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Skyler, Ellie, Scarlett and Amelia Grace are forced to spend In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Pregnancy from rape
  • Graphic abortion
  • Autopsy
  • Decapitation
  • Death of a sister
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Car accident
  • Imprisonment
  • Earthquake
  • Death of a pet
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Devil’s Blade by Mark Alder

The Devil’s Blade by Mark Alder

The story of Julie D’Aubigny is well known. Her tumultuous childhood, her powerful lovers, her celebrated voice. Connected to most of the nobility of 17th century Paris, feted for her performance, unwilling to live by the rules of her society, she took female lovers, fought duels with noblemen and fled from city to country and back again.

But now the real truth can be told. She also made a deal with the devil. He gave her no powers or help, but he kept her alive for only one reason. To take revenge… 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted rape
  • Statutory rape mentioned
  • Gore depiction
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com