One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, racism, sexism & slut-shaming
  • Homophobia & coming out themes
  • Dubious consent scenarios involving minors discussed, including mentions of nonconsensual voyeurism*
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Infidelity, recounted & discussed
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Suicide & attempted suicide and self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse and recreational drug use
  • Death from anaphylaxis
  • Cancer mentioned and heart attack
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a classmate (on-page)
  • Death of an uncle mentioned
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • School shooting & gun violence discussed
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault
  • Car accident recounted
  • Blackmail
  • Bullying

*Context: Characters under the influence of alcohol recount having sex, and a protagonist recounts coerced ‘consent’ to sex with her boyfriend.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires – the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them. After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & slut-shaming
  • Sexual harassment
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Depression & self-harm by cutting (secondary character, on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction & blood-drinking (on-page)
  • Animal death

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, travelling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequen… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Attempted rape
  • Self-harm for magic
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
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The Haunting by Alex Bell

Some curses grow stronger with time…People say that all Cornish inns are haunted, but the Waterwitch’s history is particularly chilling. Built from the salvaged timber of a cursed ship, the guest house’s dark secrets go further back than anyone can remember. Emma is permanently confined to a wheelchair after an accident at the Waterwitch which took place when she was ten. Seven years later, she decides to return to the place where the awful event occurred. But the ancient inn still has its ghosts, and one particular spirit is more vengeful than ever…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Self-harm
  • Serious physical injury, burns & body horror
  • Death of a parent & grandparent
  • Torture recounted
  • Animal injury

What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra

Hayden tried to put the past behind her, and it worked. She’s getting ready for college, living in a Brooklyn apartment, and hanging out with her best friend and roommate Del. But now it’s all catching up with her: her mother’s mysterious disappearance a decade before, her father’s outlandish theories about a lost supernatural race, and Hayden’s own dark dreams of strange symbols and rituals in the Colorado woods where she grew up. As soon as Hayden arrives at her hometown, her friend Del in tow, it begins: Neighbors whisper secrets about Hayden’s mother… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Sleep disorders
  • Graphic self-harm
  • Graphic consensual & nonconsensual medical treatment and needles
  • Burns
  • Physical assault
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Captivity mentioned
  • Bullying recounted

Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

A strange darkness grows in Allward. Even Corayne an-Amarat can feel it, tucked away in her small town at the edge of the sea. She soon discovers the truth: She is the last of an ancient lineage—and the last hope to save the world from destruction. But she won’t be alone. Even as darkness falls, she is joined by a band of unlikely companions: A squire, forced to choose between home and honor. An immortal, avenging a broken promise. An assassin, exiled and bloodthirsty. An ancient sorceress, whose riddles hide an eerie foresight. A forger with a secret past. A bounty hunter with a score to settle. Together they stand against a vicious… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Minor self-injury for blood mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Mentions of drugging via poisonous gas
  • War themes & fantasy violence with knife & sword
  • Animal death

I am J by Cris Beam

J always felt different. He was certain that eventually everyone would understand who he really was: a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet as he grew up, his body began to betray him; eventually J stopped praying to wake up a “real boy” and started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible – from his family, from his friends…from the world. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he’s done hiding – it’s time to be who he really is. And this time he is determined not to give up, no matter the cost.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm

To Stand in the Light by Kayla Bashe

To Stand in the Light by Kayla Bashe

Answering a distress call in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, teenage half-demon Shadow finds a scene of carnage where their superheroine foster parents once lived. Only one thing holds them back from seeking death: the unexpected discovery of a small, scruffy girl. Bean, an acid-green-haired high school dropout, is feral and whimsical by turns. As they travel home, she slowly grows to trust Shadow, and wriggles into their closed-off heart.

Dangerous secrets and painful memories drive Shadow away from New York again and again, but their friendship with Bean only grows. When they return home, though, it’s to a grown-up Bean who finds herself falling for her former mentor — and tumbling headlong into much bigger trouble than anyone suspects…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse
  • Forced starvation
  • Self harm
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Homelessness
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The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess

Victoria Parker knew her dad’s behavior toward her was a little unusual, but she convinced herself everything was fine—until she found herself locked out of the house at 3:00 a.m., surrounded by flashing police lights. Now, dumped into a crowded, chaotic foster home, Victoria has to tiptoe around her domineering foster mother, get through senior year at a new school, and somehow salvage her college dreams . . . all while keeping her past hidden. But some secrets won’t stay buried—especially when unwanted memories make Victoria freeze up at random moments and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Incestuous sexual assault (father-daughter), and subsequent foster care experiences
  • Attempted suicide by drinking bleach & self-harm
  • Eating disorder, trauma & nightmares

Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker

Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker 

Year: 2083. Location: London. Mission: Wake Romeo.

It’s the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forwards. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the ‘now’, living off the scraps that were left behind. Among these are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo is in a coma and she’s estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance. Then a handsome time traveller, Ellis, arrives with an important mission that makes Jules question everything she knows about life and love. Can Jules wake Romeo and rewrite her future?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Ableism
  • Suicide recounted
  • Self harm
  • Coma
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