Slavery & Indentured Servitude – Page 30

The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

The Wold in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

Born with the soul of a hunter and the spirit of the Wolf, Omat is destined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps-invoking the spirits of the land, sea, and sky to protect her people.

But the gods have stopped listening and Omat’s family is starving. Alone at the edge of the world, hope is all they have left.

Desperate to save them, Omat journeys across the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she meets a Viking warrior and his strange new gods, they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world…or save it.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Transmisia
Misogyny
Slavery
Domestic violence
Rape
Death of a child mentioned
Body horror
Graphic murder
Graphic animal death, including the death of a dog
Animal injury & illness

Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon

Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon

Anger is an energy. A young girl, a slave in the South, is presented with a moment where she can grasp for freedom, for change, for life. She grabs it with both hands, fiercely and intensely, and the spirit world is shaken.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Pregnancy
Graphic childbirth
Blood depiction

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago. Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Self harm
PTSD & trauma
Physical injuries & illness
Blood depiction
Emesis
Pregnancy mentioned
Starvation
Drowning
War themes

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Misogyny
Homomisia
Transmisia & misgendering
Racism & racial slurs
Slavery
Graphic rape
Sexual assault mentioned
Child sexual abuse implied
Suicide & attempted suicide
Self harm
Abortion
Forced sterilization
Medical procedures, including graphic surgery & amputation
Needles
Death of a child
Death of a parent
Police brutality
Torture
Lynching
Fire
Captivity

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism mentioned
Slavery
Child neglect mentioned
Substance abuse mentioned
Eating disorder
Blood & gore depiction
Police brutality
Gun violence
Whipping

Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier

Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier

Sierra has a despised and forbidden gift — she raises power from the suffering of others. Enslaved by the King’s Torturer, Sierra escapes, barely keeping ahead of Rasten, the man sent to hunt her down. Then she falls in with dangerous company: the fugitive Prince Cammarian and his crippled foster-brother, Isidro.

But Rasten is not the only enemy hunting them in the frozen north and as Sierra’s new allies struggle to identify friend from foe, Rasten approaches her with a plan to kill the master they both abhor. Sierra is forced to decide what price she is willing to pay for her freedom and her life …

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Slavery
Graphic rape
Paedophilia
Dismemberment
Chronic pain
Graphic torture

Darksoul by Anna Stephens

Darksoul by Anna Stephens

The Wolves lie dead beside Rilpor’s soldiers, slaughtered at the hands of the Mireces and their fanatical army. The veil that once kept the Red Gods at bay has been left in tatters as the Dark Lady’s plans for the world come to fruition. Where the gods walk, blood is spilled on the earth.

All that stands between the Mireces army and complete control of the Kingdom of Rilpor are the walls of its capital, Rilporin, and those besieged inside. But hope might yet bloom in the unlikeliest of places: in the heart of a former slave, in the mind of a soldier with the eyes of a fox, and in the hands of a general destined to be king.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Rape & attempted rape
Torture

Godblind by Anna Stephens

Godblind by Anna Stephens

The Mireces worship the bloodthirsty Red Gods. Exiled from Rilpor a thousand years ago, and left to suffer a harsh life in the cold mountains, a new Mireces king now plots an invasion of Rilpor’s thriving cities and fertile earth.

Dom Templeson is a Watcher, a civilian warrior guarding Rilpor’s border. He is also the most powerful seer in generations, plagued with visions and prophecies. His people are devoted followers of the god of light and life, but Dom harbours deep secrets, which threaten to be exposed when Rillirin, an escaped Mireces slave, stumbles broken and bleeding into his village… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Rape & attempted rape
Sexual assault of a minor
Genital mutilation
Graphic torture
War themes
Animal death
Animal injury

The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens

The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens

For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain. The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.

As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Blood & gore depiction
Cannibalism
Death of a child
Torture
Animal death

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexism (theme)
Forced servitude
Parental abandonment
Alcohol consumption mentioned
Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
Physical injuries
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father
Death of a friend
Animal death & dead bodies
Animal injury
Animal attack
Hunting
Poverty themes, including threat of eviction