Tag Archives: Substance Addiction

Lu by Jason Reynolds

Lu by Jason Reynolds

Lu was born to be co-captain of the Defenders. Well, actually, he was born albino, but that’s got nothing to do with being a track star. Lu has swagger, plus the talent to back it up, and with all that—not to mention the gold chains and diamond earrings—no one’s gonna outshine him. Lu knows he can lead Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and the team to victory at the championships, but it might not be as easy as it seems. Suddenly, there are hurdles in Lu’s way—literally and not-so-literally—and Lu needs to figure out, fast, what winning the gold really means.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction mentioned
  • Parental pregnancy mentioned
  • Death of an overdose mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying mentioned including ableist name-calling

When Rain Turns to Snow by Jane Godwin

Lissa is home on her own after school one afternoon when a stranger turns up on the doorstep carrying a baby. Reed is on the run – surely people are looking for him? He’s trying to find out who he really is and thinks Lissa’s mum might have some answers. But how could he be connected to Lissa’s family – and why has he been left in charge of a baby? A baby who is sick, and getting sicker… Reed’s appearance stirs up untold histories in Lissa’s family, and suddenly she is having to make sense of her past in a way she would never have imagined. Meanwhile, her brother is dealing with a devastating secret of his own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Substance addiction mentioned
  • Bullying & cyberbullying

Dark Notes by Pam Godwin

They call me a slut. Maybe I am. Sometimes I do things I despise. Sometimes men take without asking. But I have a musical gift, only a year left of high school, and a plan.
With one obstacle. Emeric Marceaux doesn’t just take.
He seizes my will power and bangs it like a dark note.
When he commands me to play, I want to give him everything. I kneel for his punishments, tremble for his touch, and risk it all for our stolen moments. He’s my obsession, my master, my music. And my teacher…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sibling abuse (protagonist)
  • Rape of a minor (multiple, protagonist)
  • Underrage sex work mentioned
  • Adult-minor teacher-student relationship (theme) between a 17-year-old high school student and her 27-year-old music teacher & mentor
  • Parent with substance addiction (protagonist)
  • Poverty (protagonist)

We Could Be Rats by Emily R. Austin

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society. But Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation

Never Look Back by Alison Gaylin

When website columnist Robin Diamond is contacted by true crime podcast producer Quentin Garrison, she assumes it’s a business matter. It’s not. Quentin’s podcast, Closure, focuses on a series of murders in the 1970s, committed by teen couple April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy. It seems that Quentin has reason to believe Robin’s own mother may be intimately connected with the killings. Robin thinks Quentin’s claim is absolutely absurd. But is it? The more she researches the Cooper/LeRoy murders herself, the more disturbed she becomes by what she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction
  • Murder

The Obsession by Jesse Q Sutanto

Nobody knows Delilah like Logan does. Nobody. He makes sure of it by learning everything he can through her social media and watching her through a hidden camera he has trained on her house. Some might call him a stalker. Logan prefers to be called “romantic.” But after Logan sees Delilah killing her abusive stepfather, he realizes there’s still more about her to discover. His sweet, perfect Delilah isn’t so perfect after all. Delilah knows she should feel guilty, but all she feels is free. She’s so over the men in her life controlling her. Except Logan saw what she did, and he won’t let… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & sexism
  • Attempted suicide
  • Substance addiction
  • Drugging & overdose
  • Stalking

Final Word by Janet Sumner Johnson

Thirteen-year-old twins Hope and Gordon enter a spelling bee in a last-ditch effort to save their family from financial ruin, only to find themselves in a cut-throat competition to uncover a fortune and dark secrets about the wealthy relations they’ve never known. Hope Smith can’t stand rich people—the dictionary magnate family the Wintertons most of all. Not since she and her twin brother, Gordon, learned that their dad was one. So when Gordon enters the family into the Winterton’s charity spelling bee, Hope wants nothing to do with it. But with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement due to substance addiction
  • Gambling addiction mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a teenage boy in a car accident
  • Kidnapping & captivity

The Dryad Storm by Laurie Forest

Black Witch of prophecy Elloren Gardner Grey has unleashed her powers and embraced her legacy as a Dryad and guardian of the Forest. But the losses—of life, of love—have been almost too great to withstand as the Shadow continues to devour the world. With only a tattered shred of hope remaining, the Bearers of the Wand of Myth must battle their way back to each other to mount a final stand. But Elloren and her allies are not only facing Mage Vogel’s advancing forces—the armies of the Eastern Realm will stop at nothing to see the Black Witch struck down. With Elloren’s…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Blood & injury depiction including broken bones and the mutilation of an ear
  • Death of a husband recounted
  • Murder by stabbing & decapitation of a sexual assault perpetrator
  • War themes & battle scenes including soldiers being burned or frozen to death and stabbed with magical ice shards
  • Animal death, cruelty & injury
  • Animal attack including a character being crushed by a dragon
  • Forest fires

The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard

When the gold-dusted court invitation arrives at Suraya Saab’s forge, she believes it’s a joke. Nobles might seek her skills as a bladesmith—one of few who can imbue her work with precious jadu, the last source of magic in the realm—but she has no qualifications as a potential bride for the crown prince. Still, the invitation is the chance at adventure, and the means to finally visit the capital city her late mother loved. But what awaits her in Kaldari is nothing she could have imagined—and fraught with danger. It’s not the crown prince, but his impossibly handsome, illegitimate half-brother, Roshan, who captures her interest…and her ire…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Death of a parent

Queen Bee by Amalie Howard

Lady Ela Dalvi knows the exact moment her life was forever changed—when her best friend, Poppy, betrayed her without qualm over a boy, the son of a duke. She was sent away in disgrace, her reputation ruined. Nearly three years later, eighteen-year-old Ela is consumed with bitterness and a desire for . . . revenge. Her enemy is quickly joining the crème de la crème of high society while she withers away in the English countryside. With an audacious plan to get even, Ela disguises herself as a mysterious heiress and infiltrates London’s elite. But when Ela reunites with the only boy she’s ever loved, she begins to question whether…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism, sexism, classism & slut-shaming
  • Substance addiction discussed
  • Death of a parent