Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand & Tara Anand

All Nitasha’s parents want is for her to be the perfect Indian daughter—something she is decidedly not. Everything she does seems to disappoint them, especially her mom. They just don’t get that she’ll never be like her doctor older brother. To make matters worse, she’s never quite felt like she belongs at school either, and lately, her best friend, Ava, and her crush, Henry, seem to be more interested in the rich new girl than in her. Alcohol takes the edge off, but when that doesn’t work, Nitasha turns to cutting. She can’t stop asking herself: Will she ever be enough for her friends or her family? Or even for herself?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse (protagonist)
  • Self-harm & attempted suicide (on-page, protagonist)
  • Cyberbullying

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki & Nicole Goux

At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society—a.k.a. the WTS—and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward. Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it’s no surprise she’s starring as Juliet in the WTS’s performance of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. But when she’s found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos. Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Sexual assault of a minor & grooming
  • Suicide
  • Bullying

Halfway There by Christine Mari

Christine has always felt she is just Half American, half Japanese. As a biracial Japanese American who was born in Tokyo but raised in the US, she knows all too well what it’s like to be a part of two different worlds but never feeling as though you belong to either. Now on the brink of adulthood, Christine decides it’s time to return to the place she once called home. So she sets forth on a year abroad in Tokyo, believing that this is where she truly belongs. After years of feeling like an outsider, now she will finally be complete. Except…Tokyo isn’t the answer she thought it… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Depression (protagonist) & panic attacks
  • Suicidal ideation &attempted suicide
  • Self-harm

Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar

When the famed photographer Miranda Brand died mysteriously at the height of her career, it sent shock waves through Callinas, California. Decades later, old wounds are reopened when her son, Theo, hires ex-journalist Kate Aitken to create an archive of his mother’s work. From Miranda’s vast maze of personal effects, Kate pieces together a portrait of a vibrant artist buckling under the pressures of ambition, motherhood, and marriage. As the summer progresses, Kate navigates vicious local rumors and… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide & mentions of self-harm
  • Postpartum psychosis & depression

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Graphic medical treatment
  • Death of a child

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened? It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger. She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder by stabbing
  • Kidnapping of a child
  • Blackmail

Clever Little Thing by Helena Echlin

Charlotte’s daughter Stella is sensitive and brilliant, perhaps even a genius, but a recent change in her behavior has alarmed her mother. Following the sudden death of Stella’s babysitter, Blanka, the once disruptive and anti-social child has become docile and agreeable. But what’s unsettling is that she has begun to mirror Blanka’s personality, from Blanka’s repetitive phrases to her accent, to fierce cravings for Armenian meat stew after being raised a vegetarian. Charlotte is pregnant with her second child, and depleted and sick with the pregnancy. She is convinced that Blanka… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Infidelity
  • Suicide

The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose

It’s been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress. Sarah has long since moved on, starting a family with her new husband, Bob Miller, and changing careers. Her life is back to being exactly how she always wanted … or is it? After discovering Bob engaged in a one-night stand, Sarah wastes no time filing for divorce. However, amid their ugly separation, new DNA evidence is uncovered in the case against Adam, forcing the police to reopen the investigation and putting Sarah right back in the spotlight. Everyone wants to know… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce
  • Suicide
  • Gun violence
  • Fatal hit-and-run car accident mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail mentioned

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England. Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison. As Susan begins to read the manuscript’s opening chapters, the skeptical editor… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Alcoholism & substance addiction
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Terminal illness
  • Knife violence
  • Animal injury

The Surf House by Lucy Clarke

High on the wave-pounded cliffs, far from the bustling souks of Marrakech, sits The Surf House. A hidden gem on Morocco’s shores, the house is a sanctuary for the surfers, travellers and dreamers who wash in. But the idyll is built on something rotten. And when Bea arrives, relieved to find refuge after a dangerous encounter in a Marrakech alleyway, she soon gets caught in the swell of a deep, dark mystery. Because another young woman went missing one year ago – and the last place she was sighted was The Surf House.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault & sexual harassment
  • Infidelity
  • Suicide
  • Knife & gun violence
  • Drowning
  • Blackmail