In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Cannibalism
  • Starvation & dehydration
  • Whale hunting & butchering
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Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labour camp on charges of having helped the Nazis–with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Paedophilia & sexual assault
  • Childbirth
  • Starvation
  • Physical illness
  • Torture
  • Word War Two (theme)
  • Concentration camps
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Frostblood by Elly Blake 

Frostblood by Elly Blake

In a land governed by the cruel Frostblood ruling class, seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has spent most of her life hiding her ability to manipulate heat and light – until the day the soldiers come to raid her village and kill her mother. Ruby vows revenge on the tyrannous Frost King responsible for the massacre of her people.

But Ruby’s powers are unpredictable and so are the feelings she has for Arcus, the scarred. .. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Starvation & food deprivation
  • Burn scars
  • Death of a mother*
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault*
  • Gladiator-style fight rings
  • Imprisonment
  • Fire (theme)
  • Animal death

*Explanation : The heroine’s mother is bludgeoned to death, and she hears her neighbouring cellmate being beaten to death by guards.

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The Night Burns Bright by Ross Barkan

The Night Burns Bright by Ross Barkan

Lucien has everything he needs: a loving mama, a library full of books, and House of Earth, a private school nestled safely in the woods of upstate New York. It’s where Lucien is taught the importance of living in harmony with nature and building a peaceful and sustainable future. But when his youthful curiosity draws him into town and to Gabrielle, a public-school student living a life wholly different from his own, Lucien’s inquisitiveness about life beyond the commune and questions regarding the events of 9/11 threaten to unbalance everything he thought he knew… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Parental abandonment
  • Dead bodies
  • Starvation
  • Branding
  • Murder
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A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer Armentrout 

Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort.   

However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania—she’s not the well-protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission—one target. Make the Primal of Death fall in love. … Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Forced sex work mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
  • Child abuse
  • Arranged marriage
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Suicide, off-page
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-mutilation
  • Death of a parent in childbirth
  • Blood & gore decapitation
  • Dead bodies
  • Decapitation
  • Amputation
  • Death of a father from suicide, off-page
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder
  • Torture, including restricted access to food
  • Whipping, on-page
  • Imprisonment
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal abuse
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Renegade Love by Ann Aguirre 

Renegade Love by Ann Aguirre

He’s relentless. He’s aggressive. His armour is scarred to hell. Toth Krag is infamous among bounty hunters. Nobody has ever seen his face and lived to tell the tale. He doesn’t fail. He doesn’t quit. And he doesn’t take prisoners. But maybe he’s getting soft. For once, he showed mercy, and no good deed goes unpunished, so now he’s tracking the deadbeats who run Volant’s Fabulous Spectacle.

She’s casual. She’s spontaneous. She never liked Earth that much anyway. Yara Duncan is always at the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s how she….. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Starvation recounted
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder
  • Battle scenes
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge – and continues to torment those in the present. How love can transgress authority, convention, even death.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Indentured servitude
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Arranged marriage
  • Abusive relationship
  • Gambling addiction
  • Hallucinations & delusions
  • Suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy
  • Death from childbirth
  • Death from starvation
  • Desecration of a corpse
  • Captivity & confinement
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How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference by Rebecca Huntley

How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference by Rebecca Huntley

Why is it so hard to talk about climate change? While scientists double down on the shocking figures, we still find ourselves unable to discuss climate change meaningfully among friends and neighbours – or even to grapple with it ourselves.

The key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change. Whether you’re already alarmed and engaged with the issue, concerned but disengaged, a passive skeptic or an active denier, understanding our emotional reactions to climate change – why it makes us anxious, fearful, angry or detached – is critical to coping on an individual level and convincing each other to act.

This book is about understanding why people… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Eco-anxiety & climate depression discussed
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Displacement and loss of property & land discussed
  • Food insecurity & water scarcity discussed
  • Poverty discussed
  • Natural disasters, including hurricanes, drought, bushfire, & floods, discussed at length
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The Rise of Kyoshi by FC Yee

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee with Michael Dante DiMartino

F. C. Yee’s The Rise of Kyoshi delves into the story of Kyoshi, the Earth Kingdom–born Avatar. The longest-living Avatar in this beloved world’s history, Kyoshi established the brave and respected Kyoshi Warriors, but also founded the secretive Dai Li, which led to the corruption, decline, and fall of her own nation. The first of two novels based on Kyoshi, The Rise of Kyoshi maps her journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Child neglect
  • Starvation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of the Château d’If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racial slurs & antiziganism (g slur)
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage
  • Death by starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Death of a child & attempted infanticide
  • Torture
  • Wrongful imprisonment