Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao

In the Cyrilian Empire, Affinites are reviled. Their varied gifts to control the world around them are deemed unnatural–even dangerous. And Anastacya Mikhailov, the crown princess, is one of the most terrifying Affinites.

Ana’s ability to control blood has long been kept secret, but when her father, the emperor, is murdered, she is the only suspect. Now, to save her own life, Ana must find her father’s killer. But the Cyrilia beyond the palace walls is one where corruption rules and a greater conspiracy is at work–one that threatens the very balance of Ana’s world.

There is only one person corrupt enough to help Ana get to the conspiracy’s core: Ramson Quicktongue. Ramson is a cunning crime lord with sinister plans–though he might have met his match in Ana. Because in this story, the princess might be the most dangerous player of all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & colourism
  • Human trafficking and indentured servitude
  • Child emotional & physical abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Attempted suicide
  • Terminal illness
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Torture, including water torture
  • Whipping
  • Royal coup
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The Cage by Megan Shepherd

The Cage by Megan Shepherd

When Cora Mason wakes in a desert, she doesn’t know where she is or who put her there. As she explores, she finds an impossible mix of environments—tundra next to desert, farm next to jungle, and a strangely empty town cobbled together from different cultures, all watched over by eerie black windows. And she isn’t alone.

Four other teenagers have also been taken: a beautiful model, a tattooed smuggler, a secretive genius, and an army brat who seems to know too much about Cora’s past. None of them have a clue as to what happened, and all of them have secrets. As the unlikely group struggles for leadership, they slowly start to trust each other. But when their mysterious jailer appears—a handsome young guard called Cassian—they realize that their captivity is more terrifying than they could ever imagine: their captors aren’t from Earth. And they have taken the five teenagers for an otherworldly zoo—where the exhibits are humans.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableist language
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Imprisonment
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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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Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins

Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins

A reporter has come to Wyoming to do a story on doctors for his Black newspaper back east. He thinks Colton Lee will be an interesting subject…until he meets Colton’s sister, Spring. She runs her own ranch, wears denim pants instead of dresses, and is the most fascinating woman he’s ever met.

But Spring, who has overcome a raucous and scandalous past, isn’t looking for, nor does she want, love. As their attraction grows, will their differences come between them or unite them for an everlasting love?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism, specifically anti-Blackness & anti-Native, & racial slurs
  • Enslavement recounted
  • Rape and sexual assault discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Gun violence
  • Cancer & chronic illness
  • Hospital & surgery
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Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighbourhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyper-empathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery
  • Child sexual assault & abuse
  • Rape, including statutory rape
  • Abusive relationship
  • Adult-minor relationships
  • Arranged, forced & coerced marriage
  • Domestic abuse
  • Estrangement
  • Physical child abuse & neglect
  • Addiction
  • Drug abuse
  • Blood and gore depiction including dead bodies and body parts
  • Cannibalism
  • Physical injuries
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Bushfire
  • Earthquake
  • Home invasion
  • Homelessness
  • Poverty themes
  • Hunting

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Persecution for ‘witchcraft’ (theme)
  • Indentured servitude and slavery
  • Forced underaged sex work recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Disownment
  • Substance and gambling addiction
  • Nightmares
  • Coerced suicide (implied)
  • Alcohol consumption, recreational drug use & non-consensual drugging including forced and coerced drug dependency
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including dead bodies, emesis, medical experimentation, plague, eyeball trauma, and non-consensual body modifications
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & brother recounted
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Knife and gun violence
  • Torture
  • Strangulation
  • Explosions
  • Kidnapping and captivity
  • Incarceration
  • Drowning
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack & death by an animal attack
  • Bullying

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo book cover

The dashing young king, Nikolai Lantsov, has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war–and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, Nikolai must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army. Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threat-ening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha general, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible…. Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Slavery
  • Sexual assault (implied)
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Suicide
  • Torture
  • Captivity
  • War themes
  • Bullying

The Perfect Assassin by KA Doore

The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore

Or so Amastan has been taught. As a new assassin in the Basbowen family, he’s already having second thoughts about taking a life. A scarcity of contracts ends up being just what he needs. Until, unexpectedly, Amastan finds the body of a very important drum chief. Until, impossibly, Basbowen’s finest start showing up dead, with their murderous jaan running wild in the dusty streets of Ghadid. Until, inevitably, Amastan is ordered to solve these murders, before the family gets blamed. Every life has its price, but when the tables are turned, Amastan must find this perfect assassin or be their next target.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Blood, injury & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of an uncle & brother (off-page)
  • Death of a mother, wife & stepmother recounted
  • Murder & assassination (theme)
  • Poisoning
  • Attempted murder by fire
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Dehydration & death from dehydration mentioned

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Classism
  • Indentured servitude discussed
  • Forced underaged sex work recounted
  • Child rape recounted
  • Child abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Disownment
  • Drug addiction
  • Gambling addiction
  • Drug dependency and withdrawal discussed
  • Recreational drug use recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
  • Blood and gore depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries
  • Chronic illness and pain
  • Plague mentioned
  • Consensual body modification
  • Death of a boyfriend and death of a friend, on-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture, on-page
  • Explosions
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Imprisonment
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail and death threats
  • Poverty themes and debt collection mentioned