The Girl from Snowy River by Jackie French

The year is 1919. Thirty years have passed since the man from Snowy River made his famous ride. But World War I still casts its shadow across a valley in the heart of Australia, particularly for orphaned sixteen-year-old Flinty McAlpine, who lost a brother when the Snowy River men marched away to war. Why has the man Flinty loves returned from the war so changed and distant? Why has her brother Andy ′gone with cattle′, leaving Flinty in charge of their younger brother and sister and with the threat of eviction from the farm she loves so dearly? A brumby muster held… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Attempted rape
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • War World I (aftermath)

Treacherous by Chloe Walsh

When seventeen year old Teagan loses her mother in tragic circumstances, she is forced to move to America to live with her uncle. Worlds apart from her home in Ireland, Teagan struggles to find her feet in Colorado. Struggling to fit into her new high school, and warring with her troubled next-door neighbor, Teagan is in for a wild senior year.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & drugged rape of a minor (on-page)
  • Incarceration recounted

Taming 7 by Chloe Walsh

She’s the quintessential sunshine girl. He’s the lovable class clown. But storm clouds are rolling in, and this Tommen boy is about to get serious. Tommen’s cheeky lad, Gerard ‘Gibsie’ Gibson, is a comedian at heart, but underneath his happy-go-lucky-nature lurks a broken boy, tortured by the events of his past. Using humour to cope with his demons, Gibsie hides everything from the world. Tommen’s cheeky lad, Gerard ‘Gibsie’ Gibson, is a comedian at heart, but underneath his happy-go-lucky-nature lurks a broken boy, tortured by the events of his past. Using humour to cope with his demons, Gibsie hides everything from the world. Envelope… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia, rape & child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a sister from suicide
  • Drowning

Redeeming 6 by Chloe Walsh

With his world unravelling around him, and pressure rising at home, Joey Lynch’s life has never been in more turmoil. Desperate to prove himself worthy of the only person he’s ever put his trust in, Joey fights to stay away from a world that threatens to destroy everything. But with the odds stacking against him by the day, can he keep his head above water? Unwilling to give up on the boy she loves, Aoife Molloy fights to save her best friend from the edge of self-destruction. Drowning in a world she doesn’t understand, with only her heart to guide her, Aoife refuses to turn her back on Joey, no matter how badly the odds are stacked against them.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & attempted rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Parental infidelity
  • Substance addiction & parent with alcoholism
  • Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Arson
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)

Saving 6 by Chloe Walsh

The second born son in a broken marriage, Joey Lynch has spent a lifetime picking up the pieces of a family unravelling. When his older brother Darren skips town, twelve-year-old Joey finds himself thrown into the role of protector to his younger siblings and mother. Plagued by self-loathing, and furious with the world, he grapples with teenage life, his unwavering sense of duty to his family, while balancing precariously close to a life of addiction that threatens to swallow him whole. The only light in his sea of darkness is his boss’s firecracker of a daughter who refuses to back down. A girl who just so happens to be his classmate. Aoife Mol… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Parental infidelity
  • Postnatral depression
  • Substance addiction & parent with alcoholism
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Teen pregnancy (14-year-old)
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

Chicago, 1893. For Alter Rosen, this is the land of opportunity, and he dreams of the day he’ll have enough money to bring his mother and sisters to America, freeing them from the oppression they face in his native Romania. But when Alter’s best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, his dream begins to slip away. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the World’s Fair, Alter is now living a nightmare: possessed by Yakov’s dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and deceit, and thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past. A boy who means more to Alter than… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antisemitism
  • Hate crime
  • Rape & paedophilia recounted
  • Sexual assault
  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction and body horror
  • Hospitalisation & emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Drowning & consensual near-drowning
  • Fire & immolation

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling

They thought he was a helpless old man. They were wrong. When two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of prescription drugs, what starts as a simple burglary turns into a nightmare for all involved. Emmett Burr has secrets he’s been keeping in his basement for more than two decades, and he’ll do anything to keep his past from being revealed. As he gets the upper hand on his tormentors, the lines blur between victim, abuser, and protector. Personal tragedy has sent former police officer Ben Packard back to the small Minnesota town of Sandy Lake in search of a fresh start. Now a sheriff’s deputy, Packard is… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Drug use
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

Lesson #1: Trust no one. Eve has a good life. She wakes up each day, kisses her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except… Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. Addie can’t be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that’s what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Teacher-student relationship & grooming
  • Statutory rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Blood & injury including concussion
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder by strangulation

Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier

Welcome to Wonderland. By day, it’s a magical place boasting a certain retro charm. Excited children, hands sticky with cotton candy, run frenetically from the Giant Octopus ride to the Spinning Sombrero, while the tinkling carnival music of the giant Wonder Wheel—the oldest Ferris wheel in the Pacific Northwest—fills the air. But before daybreak, an eerie feeling descends. Maybe it’s the Clown Museum, home to creepy wax replicas of movie stars and a massive collection of antique porcelain dolls. Or maybe it’s the terrifyingly real House of Horrors. Or…maybe it’s the dead, decaying body left in the midway for all the Wonder Workers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia & deadnaming
  • Fatphobia
  • Paedophilia & grooming
  • Child abuse (on-page)
  • Domestic violence
  • Drugging
  • Sexual assault & attempted rape (on-page)
  • Infidelity
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Death of a parent & spouse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Abortion
  • School shooting mentioned

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, LaPointe explores themes ranging from indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty. Unapologetically punk, the essays segue between the miraculous and the mundane, the spiritual and the physical, as they examine the role of art and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Parent with substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Abortion & miscarriage
  • COVID-19 pandemic discussed