Where They Wait by Scott Carson

Recently laid-off from his newspaper and desperate for work, war correspondent Nick Bishop takes a humbling job: writing a profile of a new mindfulness app called Clarity. It’s easy money, and a chance to return to his hometown for the first time in years. The app itself seems like a retread of old ideas—relaxing white noise and guided meditations. But then there are the “Sleep Songs.” A woman’s hauntingly beautiful voice sings a ballad that is anything but soothing—it’s disturbing, and more of a warning than a relaxation—but it works. Deep, refreshing sleep follows. So do the night… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • Stalking
  • Fire & arson

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

When Shuos Jedao wakes up for the first time, several things go wrong. His few memories tell him that he’s a seventeen-year-old cadet–but his body belongs to a man decades older.  Hexarch Nirai Kujen orders Jedao to reconquer the fractured hexarchate on his behalf even though Jedao has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general.  Surely a knack for video games doesn’t qualify you to take charge of an army? Soon Jedao learns the situation is even worse.  The Kel soldiers under his command may be compelled to obey him, but they hate him thanks to a mass… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Dubious consent scenarios
  • Memory loss
  • Suicide
  • Body horror
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • War themes

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

The essential short story collection set in the universe of Ninefox Gambit. An ex-Kel art thief has to save the world from a galaxy-shattering prototype weapon. A general outnumbered eight-to-one must outsmart his opponent. A renegade returns from seclusion to bury an old comrade. From the incredible imagination of Hugo- and Arthur C. Clarke-nominated author Yoon Ha Lee comes a collection of stories set in the world of the best-selling Ninefox Gambit. Showcasing Lee’s extraordinary imagination, this collection takes you to the very beginnings of the hexarchate’s history and reveals new never-before-seen stories. 

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Suicide
  • Body horror

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next. Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fort… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & sexual assault, on-page & discussed
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Graphic animal death
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Dismemberment
  • Loss of autonomy (possession & mental manipulation/control)
  • Murder & mass murder, on-page, discussed in-detail
  • Torture mentioned
  • Gun violence, on-page
  • Knife violence
  • Explosions & bombings, on-page
  • War & rebellion (central theme)
  • Battle scenes & military violence, on-page

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This is how a family keeps a secret and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change and then change the world. This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transmisia
  • Homomisia
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Cancer
  • Bullying

The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman

Ella Louise has lived in the woods surrounding Pilot’s Creek, Virginia, for nearly a decade. Publicly, she and her daughter Jessica are shunned by their upper-crust family and the Pilot’s Creek residents. Privately, desperate townspeople visit her apothecary for a cure to what ails them—until Ella Louise is blamed for the death of a prominent customer. Accused of witchcraft, both mother and daughter are burned at the stake in the middle of the night. Ella Louise’s burial site is never found, but the little girl has the most famous grave in the South: a steel-reinforced coffin surrounded by a fence of interconnected white crosses… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcoholism
  • Immolation
  • Bullying

One Great Lie by Deb Caletti

When Charlotte wins a scholarship to a writing workshop in Venice with the charismatic and brilliant Luca Bruni, it’s a dream come true. Writing is her passion, she loves Bruni’s books, and going to that romantic and magical sinking city gives her the chance to solve a long-time family mystery about a Venetian poet deep in their lineage, Isabella Di Angelo, who just might be the real author of a very famous poem. Bruni’s villa on the eerie island of La Calamita is extravagant—lush beyond belief, and the other students are both inspiring and intimidating. Venice itself is beautiful, charming, and seductive, but so is Luca… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Suicide mentioned

Stay by Deb Caletti

Clara’s relationship with Christian is intense from the start, and like nothing she’s ever experienced before. But what starts as devotion quickly becomes obsession, and it’s almost too late before Clara realizes how far gone Christian is and what he’s willing to do to make her stay. Now Clara has left the city and Christian behind. No one back home has any idea where she is, but she still struggles to shake off her fear. She knows Christian won’t let her go that easily, and that no matter how far she runs, it may not be far enough…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship
  • Suicide discussed
  • Death of a parent

Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him… Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Kidnapping

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes. The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in ’80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism
  • Suicide
  • HIV/AIDs
  • Disordered eating
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Gun violence