The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (on-page)
  • Graphic animal death

The Second Home by Christina Clancy

After a disastrous summer spent at her family’s home on Cape Cod when she is seventeen, Ann Gordon is very happy to never visit Wellfleet again. If only she’d stayed in Wisconsin, she might never have met Anthony Shaw, and she would have held onto the future she’d so carefully planned for herself. Instead, Ann ends up harboring a devastating secret that strains her relationship with her parents, sends her sister Poppy to every corner of the world chasing waves (and her next fling), and leaves her adopted brother Michael estranged from the family…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Infidelity
  • Suicide

Ghosted by Rina Kent

Dark. Dangerous. Deadly. Those facts should’ve kept me away from this underground world where people disappear and never return. They didn’t. His mistake: Taking Zoe, someone I consider a sister. I will stop at nothing to get her back. Even if it means infiltrating a notorious organised crime ring in search of the faceless ghost who plucked her away. My mistake: Not expecting him. Julian—the guard surrounded by a shroud of darkness and mystery. I’m helplessly and dangerously drawn to the man within. The more I get lost in him, the riskier my mission becomes. What if Julian is more than a mere guard? What if he’s related to this man called Ghost?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape

Cruel King by Rina Kent

Levi Here, little princess. I’m your king. You have three rules. Bow. Break. Bend the knee. Fight me all you want, but soon enough, you’ll be chanting long live the king. Astrid One day I’m Royal Elite School’s small fly, the next I’m hunted and left to die. He doesn’t only shred my life to parts, but he’s also coming after my heart. He thinks he broke me, but the new princess will bring the king to his knees.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Threats of rape
  • Cheating*
  • Dubious consent scenes
  • Drugging
  • Death of a parent (off-page)
  • Car accident (hit-and-run)
  • Bullying

*Context: The heroine catches the hero about to have oral sex with her step-sister; whether or not the characters were already in a relationship is left to the reader’s discretion. In an on-page sex scene, the hero refuses to stop or ‘pull out’ when the heroine asks repeatedly.

Black Thorns by Rina Kent

She broke my heart. Broke me. Broke us. Only one thing could mend the gaping wound she left behind. Her.
Naomi. All mine for the taking. All mine for owning. All mine.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Forced arranged marriage (protagonist)
  • Consensual non-consent & rape play
  • Kidnapping & blackmail

Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent

I’m a golden boy. A genius law student, the heir to the Carson empire, and the dutiful son. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like from the outside. Deep inside, I have the urge to set the world on fire. I keep these impulses in check, rarely indulging in mayhem. Until one night of debauchery backfires, and I’m caught by a villain. I bury the entire ordeal with the rest of my skeletons. That is, until that night walks into my classroom in the form of my new professor. Kayden Lockwood. A criminal who’s teaching criminal law. I can’t expose what he’s done without unmasking my secret life. What I can do, however, is force him to taste the poison… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (protagonist) including dubious consent scenarios, consensual non-consent (cnc), mentions of the protagonist’s wife being gang-raped and murdered, and mentions of the rape of the protagonist’s high school girlfriend by her father
  • Intimate partner abuse including one partner shooting the other with an arrow (twice)
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Self-harm
  • Drugging
  • Murder of a wife recounted
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping

The Champions by Kara Thomas

It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls’ killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school’s championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes–something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past. Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team’s latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poison… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & gang rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Hospitalisation
  • Emesis
  • Gun violence
  • Bullying & hazing mentioned

Missing Clarissa by Ripley Jones

In August of 1999, dazzlingly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington and is never seen again. The police question her friends, teachers, and the adults who knew her—who all have something to hide. And thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation. But with no leads and no body, the case soon grows cold. Despite the efforts of internet sleuths and true-crime aficionados, Clarissa is never found—dead or alive. Over twenty years later, Oreville high school… Read more,

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, racism & homophobia mentioned
  • Adult-minor teacher-student relationship & statutory rape
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping

Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

Tessa Ensler loves her job. She’s worked her way up to being a top criminal defense barrister against all the odds, and fights to defend those pleading not guilty. Tessa believes in the law, believes in the system. Her quick-witted cross-examinations and intelligence in the courtroom see her clocking up win after win – including securing freedom for men accused of rape and sexual assault. Innocence until proven guilty is, after all, the bedrock of a civilized society. But when Tessa is raped by a coworker, she struggles to find the strength to bring him to justice in the face of the barriers and opposition within that same system… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic rape (discussed, theme)

Save the Game by J.J. Mulder

After a traumatizing event and rough sophomore year, Max Kuemper does his best to keep his head down and not draw attention to himself. School and hockey are the only two things he can handle; it’s all he can do to keep himself afloat. He wants to forget about what happened to him and bring the secret to his grave. Confident and flirty Luke Kelly likes to play the field—dating as well as baseball. When he meets Max during a night shift at work, he takes an instant liking to him, despite the other man’s reserved exterior and shy personality. But secrets have a way… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drug-facilitated rape recounted (protagonist)
  • Panic attacks (on-page)
  • Emesis (on-page)