Midnight Beauties by Megan Shepherd

Midnight Beauties by Megan Shepherd

Ever since she discovered her affinity for magic, seventeen-year-old Anouk has been desperate to become a witch. It’s the only way to save her friends who, like Anouk, are beasties: animals enchanted into humans. But unlike Anouk, the other beasties didn’t make it out of the battle at Montélimar in one piece.

With her friends now trapped in their animal forms, Anouk is forced into a sinister deal involving a political marriage with her sworn enemy, a wicked plot to overthrow London’s fiercest coven of witches, and a deadly trial of fire to become a witch. The price for power has always been steep in the world of the Haute. Now, it will cost Anouk everything.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Animal death
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Grim Lovelies by Megan Shepherd

Grim Lovelies by Megan Shepherd

Seventeen-year-old Anouk envies the human world, where people known as Pretties lavish themselves in fast cars, high fashion, and have the freedom to fall in love. But Anouk can never have those things, because she is not really human. Enchanted from animal to human girl and forbidden to venture beyond her familiar Parisian prison, Anouk is a Beastie: destined for a life surrounded by dust bunnies and cinders serving Mada Vittora, the evil witch who spelled her into existence. That is, until one day she finds her mistress murdered in a pool of blood—and Anouk is accused of the crime.

Now, the world she always dreamed of is rife with danger. Pursued through Paris by the underground magical society known as the Haute, Anouk and her fellow Beasties only have three days to find the real killer before the spell keeping them human fades away. If they fail, they will lose the only lives they’ve ever known…but if they succeed, they could be more powerful than anyone ever bargained for.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Transmisic language, and the Bury Your Gays & Tragic Gay tropes*
  • Sexual harassment
  • Blood & gore depiction, and dead bodies mentioned
  • Murder
  • Imprisonment
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Animal death and animal cruelty

*The only queer (cis) character dies as a sacrifice for the straight characters 80% of the way into the book, almost immediately after being revealed to be gay; it is also revealed that he was in love with a straight boy who would never love him back.

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Sweatpants Season by Danielle Allen

Sweatpants Season by Danielle Allen

Sweatpants Season by Danielle Allen book cover

He has a big…smile. It was the first thing I noticed that day until he stood. His grey sweatpants hung off his hips and I didn’t want to look. I really didn’t.

I’m a feminist. I don’t believe in objectifying men. I don’t catcall men. I don’t ogle the bodies of men. I don’t view men as objects of my affection rather than complex people with feelings, wants, and needs of their own. I don’t treat men the way society often treats women. I treat men the way I want to be treated as a woman—with respect!

So, when Carlos ran into me while I was reviewing my interview questions in the park, it surprised me to see my photography classmate out of context. I was also surprised to see as much of him as I did. It wasn’t just that it caught my eye. It was the fact that it held my attention. It wasn’t just that it was large. It was the fact that it was visibly large.
It wasn’t just that it was Carlos Richmond. It was the fact that I am Akila Bishara. And I am not seduced by anything other than intelligent conversation, witty rapport, and meaningful actions. I am not seduced by a dick print. I am not. Seriously, I’m not.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny (central theme)
  • Sexual harassment and threats of sexual assault
  • Threat of doxxing
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American Street by Ibi Zoboi

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life.

But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own.

Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment mentioned
  • Abusive relationship
  • Physical intimate partner abuse, on-page
  • Deportation (theme)
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
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Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.

But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Gentrification & classism
  • Cheating
  • Slut-shaming
  • Sexual harassment and the non-consensual distribution of private photos
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a family member
  • Physical assault
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Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

It’s 200 years since Cinderella found her prince, but the fairytale is over. Sophia knows the story though, off by heart. Because every girl has to recite it daily, from when she’s tiny until the night she’s sent to the royal ball for choosing. And every girl knows that she has only one chance. For the lives of those not chosen by a man at the ball are forfeit. But Sophia doesn’t want to be chosen – she’s in love with her best friend, Erin, and hates the idea of being traded like cattle. And when Sophia’s night at the ball goes horribly wrong, she must run for her life. Alone and terrified, she finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s tomb. And there… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny (central theme)
  • Racism & queerphobia (specifically lesbophobia & homophobia)
  • Nonconsensual and coerced marriage of teenage girls to adult men (theme), including ‘corrective’ marriage & nonconsensual polygamy
  • Sexual harassment & sexual assault (on-page)
  • Physical & financial domestic abuse (on-page & off-page)
  • Child abuse
  • Implied suicide
  • Food deprivation mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • Explosion & fire
  • Imprisonment
  • Animal death & animal attack

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom’s borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution–send in Guinevere to be Arthur’s wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king’s idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere’s real name–and her true identity–is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot. To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old–including Arthur’s own family–demand things continue as they have been, and the new–those…. Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Misogyny
  • Rape by coercion recounted & disccussed
  • Paedophilia mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
  • Aquaphobia & related anxiety attacks
  • Amnesia
  • Death of a mother & a newborn son mentioned
  • Exile & banishment
  • Kidnapping
  • Military violence mentioned & recounted
  • Cave collapse
  • Animal death & animal attack

A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguicha

A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguicha

A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguicha book cover

There’s a famine plaguing the land, and Princess Yzabel is wasting food simply by trying to eat. Before she can even swallow, her magic—her curse—has turned her meal into a bouquet. She’s on the verge of starving, which only reminds her that the people of Portugal have been enduring the same pain. If only it were possible to reverse her magic. Then she could turn flowers…into food.

Fatyan, a beautiful Enchanted Moura, is the only one who can help. But she is trapped by magical binds. She can teach Yzabel how to control her curse—if Yzabel sets her free with a kiss. As the King of Portugal’s betrothed, Yzabel would be committing treason, but what good is a king if his country has starved to death?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Sexism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Ritualistic self-harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Body horror
  • Murder
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The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the air, and people of all faiths weave their lives together. However, the city bears scars of its recent past, when the chaotic tribe of Shayateen djinn slaughtered its entire population — except for Fatima and two other humans. Now ruled by a new maharajah, Noor is protected from the Shayateen by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reason, and by their commander, Zulfikar.

But when one of the most potent of the Ifrit dies, Fatima is changed in ways she cannot fathom, ways that scare even those who love her. Oud in hand, Fatima is drawn into the intrigues of the maharajah and his sister, the affairs of Zulfikar and the djinn, and the dangers of a magical battlefield.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Massacre and genocide recounted
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • War themes
  • Poverty themes
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Little Creeping Things by Chelsea Ichaso

Little Creeping Things by Chelsea Ichaso

When she was a child, Cassidy Pratt accidentally started a fire that killed her neighbor. She’s pretty sure she didn’t mean to do it, and she’d give anything to forget that awful day. But her town’s bullies, particularly the cruel and beautiful Melody Davenport, have never let her live it down. In Melody’s eyes, Cassidy is a murderer and always will be.

Then Melody goes missing, and Cassidy thinks she may have information about what happened. She knows she should go to the cops, but she recently joked about how much she’d like to get rid of Melody… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alleged sexual harassment
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Death of a friend & neighbour recounted
  • Fire recounted
  • Bullying
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