Starvation, Food Scarcity & Famine – Page 9

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

In the spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home. She has no fondness for the Germans who patrol her streets and impose their curfews, but has never given much thought to what goes on behind the walls that contain her Jewish neighbors. She knows all too well about German brutality–and that it’s the reason she must conceal her true identity. But in befriending Sara, a nurse who shares her apartment floor, Elzbieta makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism.

Using Sara’s credentials to smuggle children out of the ghetto brings Elzbieta face-to-face with the reality of the war behind its walls, and to the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antisemitism
Rape
Sexual assault mentioned
Pregnancy
Starvation

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There’s no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again.

Crenshaw is a cat. He’s large, he’s outspoken, and he’s imaginary. He has come back into Jackson’s life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Starvation
Homelessness discussed

Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora

Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora

Ren Kolins is a silver wielder—a dangerous thing to be in the kingdom of Erdis, where magic has been outlawed for a Sixteen-year-old Nate is a GEM—Genetically Engineered Medi-tissue created by the scientists of Gathos City as a cure for the elite from the fatal lung rot ravaging the population. As a child, he was smuggled out of the laboratory where he was held captive and into the Withers—a quarantined, lawless region. Nate manages to survive by using his engineering skills to become a Tinker, fixing broken tech in exchange for food or a safe place to sleep. When he meets Reed, a kind and fiercely protective boy that makes his heart race, and his misfit gang of scavengers, Nate finds the family he’s always longed for—even if he can’t risk telling them what he is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Human medical experimentation, implied
Substance addiction
Drug abuse
Blood & gore depiction
Starvation
Torture

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Statutory rape mentioned
Sexual assault mentioned
Suicide
Childbirth
Scalping & skinning, off-page
Dismemberment mentioned
Cannibalism mentioned
Starvation
Death of a friend
Poisoning
Torture
Lynching
Animal death & abuse

Bright Burning Stars by AK Small

Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Eating disorder (anorexia)
Restrictive & disordered eating (theme)
Disordered food & weight thoughts
Suicide & attempted suicide
Self harm
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Body dysmorphia
Abortion
Death from starvation
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a sibling

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Starvation mentioned
Blood depiction
Death of a brother mentioned
Mass murder by gun violence & poison gas recounted
Knife violence & stabbing
Explosions
Physical assault mentioned
Refugee experiences

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

There is a hint of Armageddon in the air. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world will end on a Saturday. So the Armies of Good and Evil are massing, and the world’s last two remaining witchfinders are getting ready to Fight the Good Fight. Atlantis is rising. Frogs are falling. Tempers are flaring, and everything appears to be going to Divine Plan.

Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. They’ve lived amongst Humanity for millennia, and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle. So if Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they’ve got to find and kill the AntiChrist (which is a shame, really, as he’s a nice kid). There’s just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Fatmisia & body shaming
Racism & racist language
Starvation
Eating disorder
Childbirth
Blood depiction
Gun violence
Car accident
Animal abuse
Animal death

The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth

The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth

The lives of Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth are ruled by their fates, spoken by the oracles at their births. The fates, once determined, are inescapable.

Akos is in love with Cyra, in spite of his fate: He will die in service to Cyra’s family. And when Cyra’s father, Lazmet Noavek—a soulless tyrant, thought to be dead—reclaims the Shotet throne, Akos believes his end is closer than ever.

As Lazmet ignites a barbaric war, Cyra and Akos are desperate to stop him at any cost. For Cyra, that could mean taking the life of the man who may—or may not—be her father. For Akos, it could mean giving his own. In a stunning twist, the two will discover how fate defines their lives in ways most unexpected.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Chronic pain
Starvation
Murder
Torture
Poisoning
War themes

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child neglect & abandonment
Claustrophobia
Hallucinations & delusions
Nonconsensual administrations of drugs & medical treatment
Blood & gore depiction
Physical injury & illness
Dead bodies
Emesis
Needles
Surgery
Hospital mentioned
Death from starvation
Amputation & loss of limb
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father recounted
Death from a fall
Drowning
Cave disasters
Loss of bodily autonomy

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin’s orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father’s prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual assault
Forced sex work
Starvation
Dead bodies
Recreational drug use (smoking)
Alcohol consumption
Gun violence
Deportation
Forced labour in work camps
World War Two (theme)