Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Ableist language
  • Fatmisia
  • Slavery (mentioned)
  • Kiss without consent
  • Blood and gore depiction, dead bodies and physical injuries
  • Death of a friend and parents (recounted)
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Kidnapping, hostage situation and blackmail
  • War themes
  • Graphic animal death
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Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo book cover

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Victim blaming
  • Facial difference discrimination
  • Persecution for witchcraft (mentioned)
  • Rape and sexual assault (recounted)
  • Parental abandonment (implied)
  • Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide attempt as self-sacrifice (recounted)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood and gore depiction, dead bodies, eyeball trauma and branding
  • Physical sickness and scars
  • Death of a brother, son, girlfriend and friend (recounted)
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Explosion, knife violence, physical assault and poisoning
  • Captivity, blackmail, hostage situation, exile and banishment
  • War themes
  • Animal death and bodies (recounted), hunting
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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The Testament's by Margaret Atwood book cover

When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her–freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse
  • Death from childbirth
  • Death of an infant and parent
  • Murder
  • Explosion
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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood book cover

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now . . .

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia
  • Misogyny (central theme)
  • Slavery
  • Racism and anti-semitism
  • Rape, sexual assault and non-consensual polygamy
  • Domestic abuse
  • Depression and suicide
  • Forced pregnancy and miscarriage
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
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He Must Like You by Danielle Younge-Ullman

He Must Like You by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Libby’s having a rough senior year. Her older brother absconded with his college money and is bartending on a Greek island. Her dad just told her she’s got to pay for college herself, and he’s evicting her when she graduates so he can Airbnb her room. A drunken hook-up with her coworker Kyle has left her upset and confused. So when Perry Ackerman, serial harasser and the most handsy customer at The Goat where she waitresses, pushes her over the edge, she can hardly be blamed for dumping a pitcher of sangria on his head.

Unfortunately, Perry is a local industry hero, the restaurant’s most important customer, and Libby’s mom’s boss. Now Libby has to navigate the fallout of her outburst, find an apartment, and deal with her increasing rage at the guys who’ve screwed up her life–and her increasing crush on the one guy who truly gets her. As timely as it is timeless, He Must Like You is a story about consent, rage, and revenge, and the potential we all have to be better people.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Victim-blaming
  • Rape and sexual assault
  • Workplace sexual harassment
  • Depression & PTSD
  • Cyberbullying
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Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Then. Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music.

Now. Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She’s fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her.

Then. When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia’s singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered.

Now. Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can’t figure out why she’s here . . . and why the music really stopped.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Sexual assault
  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Bullying
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Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer

Witches of Ash & Ruin by E. Latimer

Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.

And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. The killer’s motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, and Dayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. If they don’t stop the Butcher, one of them will be next.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & forced outing recounted (off-page)
  • Conversion therapy mentioned
  • Physical & emotional abuse mentioned
  • Rape mentioned
  • Self-harm
  • OCD
  • Panic attacks
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Remina by Junji Ito

Remina by Junji Ito

Also known as Hellstar Remina.

An unknown planet emerges from inside a wormhole, and its discoverer, Dr. Oguro, christens the celestial body “Remina” after his own daughter. His finding is met with great fanfare, and Remina herself rises to fame. However, the planet picks up speed as it moves along in its curious orbit, eliminating planets and stars one after another until finally Earth itself faces extinction…

Is the girl Remina the true cause of the catastrophe? A masterwork of horror from Junji Ito, unfolding on a universal scale.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Blood & gore depiction, and body horror
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Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg & Chancellorsville—derailing the War and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism (theme), colourism & racial slurs
  • Sexism
  • Slavery
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Sexual assault
  • Forced use of medication
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • War themes & military violence
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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape & sexual assault
  • Torture
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death
  • Poverty themes
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