Danced Close by Annabeth Albert

Danced Close by Annabeth Albert

Newly clean and sober, Todd’s taken a shine to his job at Portland’s most talked about bakery. It’s not just the delicious desserts they sell, but the tasty treats who keep walking through the door. That certainly includes Kendall Rose, a wedding planner. Todd doesn’t try to hide his attraction to Kendall’s elegant confidence, even as he worries about exposing the secrets of his past.

For Kendall, the attention is just part of the anything-goes Portland he’s grown to love. But he’s still looking for that special someone who will embrace all of him—including his gender fluidity. So he takes a chance and asks Todd to be his partner in a dance class leading to a fundraiser. When the music starts and he takes Todd in his arms, Kendall is shocked at how good it feels.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Addiction recovery (theme)
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a friend from an overdose
  • Homelessness mentioned
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Loner by Georgina Young

Loner by Georgina Young

Lona kills her days by sneaking into the dark room at her old art school to develop photographs. She kills her nights DJ-ing the roller disco at Planet Skate. She is in inexplicably, debilitatingly love with a bespectacled Doctor Who-obsessed former classmate, and in comfortable, platonic love with her best friend Tab. Lona works hard to portray a permanent attitude of cynicism and ennui but will her carefully constructed persona be enough to protect her from the inevitable sorrows and unexpected joys of adult life?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Transmisia
  • Hospitals
  • Car accident
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Fin and Rye and Fireflies by Harry Cook

Fin & Rye & Fireflies by Harry Cook

Then, only a few days later, Fin’s world is turned upside down – and not in a good head-over-heels-in-love way – when Jesse cruelly outs him. An event which ultimately leads to his family leaving town.

But a fresh start isn’t going to change the truth of who Fin is. And it’s not going to stop his sexuality causing everyone all sorts of problems. Everyone, that is, apart from his new best friend Poppy, her girlfriend-in-waiting June, and his new crush Rye… So, while Fin and Rye are enjoying some seriously intimate moonlit moments together, Fin’s parents decide to pack him off to the local ReSouled ‘therapy camp’.

It’s a nightmare – and there’s no easy way out. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Conversion therapy
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
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She Rises by Kate Worsley

She Rises by Kate Worsley

It is 1740 and Louise Fletcher, a young dairy maid on an Essex farm, has been warned of the lure of the sea for as long as she can remember–after all, it stole away her father and brother. But when she is offered work in the bustling naval port of Harwich, as a lady’s maid to a wealthy captain’s daughter, she leaps at the chance to see more of the world. There she meets Rebecca, her haughty young mistress, who is unlike anyone Louise has encountered before: as unexpected as she is fascinating… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Deadnaming & misgendering
  • Paedophilia
  • Sexual harassment
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A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Transphobia & misgendering
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Rape & rape of a child
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Child neglect & abandonment
  • Intimate partner violence & abuse
  • Eating disorder
  • Graphic attempted suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm
  • Drug abuse
  • Graphic death of a child

Camp by Lev AC Rosen

Camp by Lev A.C. Rosen

Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It’s where he met his best friends. It’s where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it’s where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim – who’s only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists.

This year, though, it’s going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as ‘Del’ – buff, masculine, and on the market. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish, and his unicorn bedsheets, he’s determined to get Hudson to fall for him… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Bimisia
  • Transmisia
  • Death of a grandparent, off-page
  • Bullying
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The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean

The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean

The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean book cover

“Sometimes I have trouble filling out tests when the name part feels like a test too. . . . When I write letters, I love that you have to read all of my thoughts and stories before I say any name at all. You have to make it to the very end to know.”

Rowan has too many secrets to write down in the pages of a diary. And if he did, he wouldn’t want anyone he knows to discover them. He understands who he is and what he likes, but it’s not safe for others to know. Now, the kids at school say he’s too different to spend time with. He’s not the “right kind” of girl, and he’s not the “right kind” of boy. His mom ignores him. And at night, his dad hurts him in ways he’s not ready to talk about yet.

But Rowan discovers another way to share his secrets: letters. Letters he attaches to balloons and releases into the universe, hoping someone new will read them and understand. But when he befriends a classmate who knows what it’s like to be lonely and scared, even at home, Rowan realizes that there might already be a person he can trust right by his side.

Tender and wise, The Ship We Built is about the bravery it takes to stand up for yourself–even to those you love–and the power of finding someone who treasures you for everything you are.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia and transmisic language
  • Misgendering and deadnaming
  • Paedophilia
  • Child sexual assault and grooming
  • Bullying
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Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn’t stick out more if she tried. Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book – he thinks he’s made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor… never to Eleanor. Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you’re young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs, including the fetishization of Asian characters
  • Ableism & ableist slur
  • Fatphobia & body shaming
  • Transphobia
  • Domestic abuse & child abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Recreational drug use
  • Bullying

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Coming out themes
  • Hate crimes
  • Physical parental abuse
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Eating disorders mentioned
  • AIDS
  • Bullying
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May the Best Man Win by ZR Ellor

May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, won’t let coming out as a transgender boy ruin his senior year. Instead of bowing to the bigots and outdate school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend, Lukas for the title of Homecoming King? Lukas Rivers, football star and head of the Homecoming Committee, is just trying to find order in his life after his older brother’s funeral and the loss long-term girlfriend—who turned out to be a boy. But when Jeremy threatens to break his heart and steal his crown, Lukas kick starts a plot to sabotage Jeremy’s campaign.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language (r slur)
  • Racism mentioned
  • Classism
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia including misgendering and deadnaming
  • Dysphoria
  • Sexual harassment mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a sibling
  • Graphic physical assault
  • Bullying
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