Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness

Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness

Before he stole our hearts as the grooming and self-care expert on Netflix’s hit show Queer Eye, Jonathan was growing up in a small Midwestern town that didn’t understand why he was so…over the top. From choreographed carpet figure skating routines to the unavoidable fact that he was Just. So. Gay., Jonathan was an easy target and endured years of judgement, ridicule and trauma—yet none of it crushed his uniquely effervescent spirit.

Over the Top uncovers the pain and passion it took to end up becoming the model of self-love and acceptance that Jonathan is today. In this revelatory, raw, and rambunctious memoir, Jonathan shares never-before-told secrets and reveals sides of himself that the public has never seen. JVN fans may think they know the man behind the stiletto heels, the crop tops, and the iconic sayings, but there’s much more to him than meets the Queer Eye.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Child sexual abuse
  • Cheating
  • Drug use
  • Substance addiction
  • Sex addiction
  • Disordered eating
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandparent
  • Death of a step-parent
  • Bullying
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Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

After the traumatic events of the War for Phang, Hazel, her parents, and their surviving companions embark on a life-changing adventure at the westernmost edge of the universe.

CollectingSaga 43-48.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Transmisia
  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Paedophilia mentioned & implied child sexual abuse
  • Physical child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Abortion discussed & abortion procedures (on-page)
  • Miscarriage & pregnancy-related medical trauma (theme)
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Hospital
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a wife
  • Death of a friend
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Hanging
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War & military violence (theme)
  • Death of a pet dog
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The Elizas by Sara Shepard

The Elizas by Sara Shepard

When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.

Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?

The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.

Goodreads The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide attempt
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Brain tumour
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The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent (off-page)
  • Terminal illness
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Emesis
  • Attempted murder
  • Drowning
  • Asphyxiation
  • Natural disasters
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Mark of Cain by Kate Sherwood

Mark of Cain by Kate Sherwood

Mark of Cain by Kate Sherwood book cover

After a tough day of counseling sessions, Anglican priest Mark Webber is looking forward to a relaxing dinner at a local restaurant. When he sees who’s bellied up to the bar, though, he reaches for his cell phone to call the police.

It’s Lucas Cain, the man who killed Mark’s brother three years ago. Apparently he’s out of jail and hanging out with his old crowd, which has to be a breach of parole, right?

Pulled over upon leaving the bar, Lucas blows a clean breathalyzer and hopes this isn’t a harbinger of things to come…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Fatmisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Parental abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief depiction
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
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Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

*Also titled One Past Midnight

Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington book coverx

Sabine isn’t like anyone else. For as long as she can remember, she’s had two lives. Every twenty-four hours she “shifts,” living each day twice. In one life, Sabine has everything: popular friends, perfect grades, expensive clothes, and the guy everyone wants. In the other, Sabine’s family struggles financially, and her friends are considered rebels. But then she meets Ethan. He’s gorgeous and challenging, and he makes her feel like she’s never felt before.

All Sabine really wants is the chance to live only one life. But when this finally becomes possible, is she willing to risk everything – including losing the one person who might actually believe her – to make it happen?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableiest language
  • Self-harm
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Overdose
  • Psychiatric hospital
  • Forced hospitalisation
  • Emesis
  • Cancer
  • Death of a loved one
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100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis’s entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami’s predictable social scene with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends. While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty—like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens. But paradise has its price. Dragged from their tents under the cover of dark, Genesis, Maddie, and their friends are kidnapped and held for ransom deep inside the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Statutory sexual assault
  • Abusive relationship
  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including emesis & needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent, brother & cousin
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Explosions
  • Psychological torture

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures… until the day their adventures turn all too real.

They stumble upon the Dark Library and discover secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies. Father forbids them from ever entering the room again, but when Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is drawn back to the Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life… Read more.

Determined to save Konrad, Victor, along with his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry, scale the highest trees in Strumwald, dive into the deepest lakes, and even make an unthinkable sacrifice in their quest for the elixir’s ingredients. And as if their task was not complicated enough, a new realm of danger—that of illicit love—threatens to end the ordeal in tragedy.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Ableism, including the Disabled Villain trope
  • Sexual assault*
  • Incest*
  • Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
  • Serious illness of a child
  • Medical treatment & procedures, including consensual amputation
  • Needles
  • Emesis
  • Death of a brother
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack

* Explanation : There are two on-page sexual assault scenes, including one where the main character pretends to be his identical twin to trick his brother’s girlfriend into kissing him, and another where he forces a kiss on her. The romance subplot involves a love triangle between the two Frankenstein twins and their cousin.

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Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Adult-minor relationship discussed
  • Parental abandonment
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Physical injuries
  • Death of a father & husband
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning
  • Torture
  • Whipping
  • War themes
  • Graphic animal death, including multiple death of pet dogs
  • Animal cruelty & abuse
  • Hunting
  • Animal attack mentioned

Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis book cover

Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the realization that she’s alone – and far off-trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Physical child abuse recounted (secondary character)
  • Cheating
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use (off-page)
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction
  • Death of a friend mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death & dead bodies