“Horse Crazy” isn’t a description; it’s a way of life for me. I’ve loved horses since I could remember, selling Girl Scout cookies to finance my way through three years of horse camp, working weekends cleaning stalls, even pursing a degree in Equine Science. Discovering fantasy books with magical, sentient horses not only introduced me to fantasy fiction, but also just made my own experience with horses seem real. Currently, I write equestrian fantasy as well as equestrian literature (horse books for those who chose not to grow out of being horse crazy” and live on my homestead with my herd of rescue horses, who inspire me every day.
Having enjoyed Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, and again finding a horse on the cover, I remember picking up this story at Waldenbooks. (Oh look, I’ve dated myself again!). In this case, the book requires a content warning for mental health issues and self-harm, but the heroine struck a note with me, and when she befriends a telepathic horse and goes on adventures, I was hooked.
Romance, danger, adventure, and intrigue intertwine as fourteen-year-old Colene and Darius, a stranger who dresses oddly and speaks an unfamiliar language, travel through alternate realities where anything is possible
I’m not sure why the dark side of humanity has always fascinated me, as it does so many others. I’ve read mystery and horror stories ever since I was a young boy, gravitating to ever darker books as I aged. I’m a pantser—that means that I don’t totally know where a story is going when I start, so I discover it right along with the characters. I think evoking emotion is key to writing a riveting tale, so I try to imagine what my character is feeling as I chronicle their experience. Part of being able to do this well is reading other writers who can, such as the authors on this list.
Kisscut is the second book in Karen Slaughter’s Grant County series.
Slaughter’s books are dark, and this one is no exception. The darkness is magnified because I think her heroine, Dr. Sarah Linton, is an innocent at heart.
Even though Sarah, a pediatrician, doubles as the Grant County coroner, she tends to see the best in people until the worst appears before her in a way she can’t ignore.
After her ex-husband commits a necessary but appalling act, Sarah discovers a threat to the community’s children which she’s compelled to follow until its unspeakable end is revealed.
The depravity she uncovered haunted me long after I finished the book.
When a teenage quarrel in the small town of Heartsdale explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton -- paediatrician and medical examiner --finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. And what seems at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications when the autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse and ritualistic self-mutilation.
Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, but the children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. Then a young girl is abducted, and it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal…
I’ve been fascinated by sisters, siblings, and my place in the family since I was old enough to realize I had an older sister and a younger brother. I asked my parents a lot of questions. Why am I blonde? Why is my sister taller? Lots of questions my parents didn’t have answers for. At school in biology, we studied genes, familial traits, and nature versus nurture. I was fascinated, and still am today. Why does my sister behave the way she does? Why do I? Is it because of our upbringing, or was she just born with an aversion to cheese? I wanted to know the answers. I’m still searching.
This gripping and heartbreaking YA novel about Lily and her older, bipolar sister, Alice, has stayed with me. I found the plot and characters so realistic and absorbing that I forgot I was reading fiction.
This book is an intense read, but set in a world I became thoroughly immersed in. I connected with Lily’s compulsion to be the perfect daughter and straight-A student. I cried for her having to swallow her emotions and words, while internally struggling with her own demons.
It’s a must-read for anyone who has survived their teenage years. It’s considered, wholehearted, and delivers a convincing portrayal of sisterly bonds, mental health issues, and the people who are courageous enough to confront them. I’m teary now just thinking about it.
A beautifully realistic, relatable story about mental health—anxiety, perfectionism, depression—and the healing powers of art--perfect for fans of Girl in Pieces and How it Feels to Float. Whatever you struggle with, you are not alone and you are already enough—just the way you are.
It's been three months since The Night on the Bathroom Floor--when Lily found her older sister Alice hurting herself. Ever since then, Lily has been desperately trying to keep things together, for herself and for her family. But now Alice is coming home from her treatment program and it is becoming harder for Lily to ignore…
I am an African Australian author of several novels and fiction collections, and a finalist in the 2022 World Fantasy Award. I was announced in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. I have a master's degree with distinction in distributed computer systems, a master's degree in creative writing, and a PhD in creative writing. The short story is my sweetest spot. I have a deep passion for the literary speculative, and I write across genres and forms, with award-winning genre-bending works. I am especially curious about stories of culture, diversity, climate change, writing the other and betwixt.
Not many novellas punch their weight this hard as Matthew R. Davis’ The Dark Matter of Natasha.Addressing almost with levity matters of suicide, this tiny book is entrapping with the disquieting dread yet morbid curiosity it rouses in you. It’s an intelligent story oozing with the sexual urgency of young adulthood. An orgasmic psychological thriller amalgamated with deep haunting, The Dark Matter of Natashais a compelling conversation on the topic of teen self-harm. Macabre, intimate and beautiful all at once.
Natasha stalks the quiet streets of dead-end Lunar Bay like doom in a denim jacket. She’s a grim reminder that some teenagers can never escape the ever-tightening noose of their lives. Burned out and benumbed by a traumatic past, dogged by scurrilous small-town gossip, she finds solace in drugs, sex and Slayer.
What horrors have her flat eyes witnessed? And how far will she go in pursuit of the one tiny spark of hope that still flickers in her haunted heart?
When a naïve transplant crosses her path, he's drawn into shadow and doubt. With his girlfriend ghosting him, Natasha’s…
I
am a huge fan of Yoru Sumino’s books, and her sweet MG/YA novel showcases what
a brilliant writer she is.
The story follows Nanoka, a grade-schooler faced
with a tough question for her school assignment—what does ‘happiness’ mean to
her? Throughout the story she makes friends with a troubled girl who engages in
self-harm, a woman ostracized by society, and an old woman looking to live out
her years in peace.
The story handles tough subjects with a beautiful
gentleness and has an almost Studio Ghibli peacefulness to it. It’s a wonderful
story of family, life, and what happiness really means.
An unhappy girl who engages in self-harm, a high schooler ostracised by her classmates, and an old woman looking to live out her twilight years in peace - what could three such different people have in common? That's what grade schooler Nanoka Koyanagi is trying to find out. Assigned by her teacher to define what "happiness" means to her, Nanoka tries to find her place in the world by exploring her relationships with these three strangers, and through them, comes to know herself.
I am, first and foremost, a reader. I started writing because my debut novel, releasing September 7, wouldn’t leave me alone. Dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction tends to have that impact on me as a reader, so I wanted to create that same impact in other readers. Lately, my TBR has been dominated by indie-authored books, given my own decision to pursue indie publishing. I love the dystopian classics—especially Alduous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, and George Orwell- and I read the latest traditionally published dystopian books. But I find indie authors like the ones I’ve featured here tell compelling stories about important topics that perhaps many traditional publishers won’t publish.
Emma Ellis spins the most horrifying yet hope-filled stories of dystopian societies. In book one of the Eyes Forward series, the world is in a population crisis. Resources are heavily rationed, and the governments of the world are actively taking steps to curb population growth.
That’s when Mae gets pregnant and learns she must find a “life donor”—someone who agrees to die so that the baby may live—or abort her unborn child. I appreciated how Ellis threaded the horror of a forced abortion into a gripping tale of human resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.
The plot twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat, yet the message of the book made me think about how we steward our natural resources. This book is perfect for Octavia Butler, 1984, and Brave New World fans.
★★★★★ Utterly terrifying, addictive and yet so full of love. -Amazon review
★★★★★ Great writing and a truly gripping story. -Amazon review
★★★★★ Dark, disturbing and deeply compelling. -Amazon review
Mae finds herself pregnant in a world where the global population has hit twenty billion, and governments decree that no child may be born without a life being sacrificed in return.
With growing unrest and violence towards pregnant women, Mae must navigate a hostile world to secure a future for her unborn child — no matter the cost. When the stakes are so high, how far would you go to…
I started to experiment at a very early age with alcohol. During my teen years, like so many of my peers, I had low self-esteem. I wanted to fit in so I understand firsthand the effects that peer pressure can have on a teenager. When I think back to those years, I sometimes wonder: what if? There were so many terrible outcomes that could have occurred in my life. These novels show their readers a “what if.” I hope that teens who read these books think twice before following a crowd and stand firmly with what they know is right in their heart as well as hope for healing.
Willow is such an important novel for any teen who has gone through a traumatic event.
Willow, a 17-year-old girl is dealing with grief over the death of her parents and the fact that she was driving the car that killed them. She’s had to leave behind her old home, friends, and school. But Willow has found a way to survive, to numb the new reality of her life, she is secretly cutting herself.
For every teen that has either cut themselves, drank to numb the pain, starved themselves, or done any sort of self-harm in order to protect themselves from their inward pain, this book is for you. Not only is this story about grief and guilt, but it is also about love and never giving up.
Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, sixteen year- old Willow?s parents died in a horrible car accident. Willow was driving. Now her older brother barely speaks to her, her new classmates know her as the killer orphan girl, and Willow is blocking the pain by secretly cutting herself. But when one boy ?one sensitive, soulful boy?discovers Willow?s secret, it sparks an intense relationship that turns the ?safe? world Willow has created for herself upside down.
Told in an extraordinary fresh voice, Willow is an unforgettable novel about one girl?s struggle to cope with tragedy, and one boy?s refusal…
I knew when I was in elementary school that I wanted to be a therapist when I grew up, but I took a slight detour after finishing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology to work as a line cook, retail manager, veterinary assistant, freelance editor, and registered nurse before finding my way back to graduate school. I also released ten young adult novels, many of them populated by characters struggling with mental illness. I understand anxiety, survivor’s guilt, grief, and loss as both a counselor and a human being, and I selected these books because they resonated deeply with me. I hope readers find comfort and connection in their pages.
This book is so ambitious! The author tackles emotional abuse, trauma, grief, survivor’s guilt, self-harm, complicated family relationships, and more without anything feeling glossed over. Main character Daya is prickly and hostile and can be difficult to root for at times, but her portrayal feels spot-on given all she has endured in her life. I’ve always been fascinated by roller derby and it’s brilliant the way the author built her plot around the sport so it is truly integral to Daya’s character’s growth and healing.
“A searing portrait of self-discovery; soulful and captivating.” —Kirkus Reviews
Whip It meets We Are Okay in this vibrant coming-of-age story about a teen girl navigating first love, identity, and grief as she immerses herself in the colorful, brutal, beautiful world of roller derby—from the acclaimed author of Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens.
To Daya Wijesinghe, a bruise is a mixture of comfort and control. Since her parents died in an accident she survived, bruises have become a way to keep her pain on the surface of her skin so she doesn’t need to deal with the ache deep in her…
Since 2001 I’ve been working in the field of mental health and I am passionate about finding new and better ways of helping my clients – to understand themselves, to find the energy and power within themselves to keep going and make positive changes, and to reduce their suffering and build a life worth living. I’ve often found that when I can ground the skills I’m teaching or the strategies I’m using with my client to science, I get more buy-in and follow-through from people.
The memoir of world-renowned psychologist Marsha Linehan, who happens to be someone I greatly admire for creating the treatment that I use: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This book relays Linehan’s struggles as a teen and adult with her own mental health condition, including self-harming behaviors and thoughts of suicide, and how her experience contributed to her creation of a therapy that has likely saved millions of lives.
Marsha Linehan tells the story of her journey from suicidal teenager to world-renowned developer of the life-saving behavioral therapy DBT, using her own struggle to develop life skills for others.
“This book is a victory on both sides of the page.”—Gloria Steinem
“Are you one of us?” a patient once asked Marsha Linehan, the world-renowned psychologist who developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy. “Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope.”
Over the years, DBT had saved the lives of countless people fighting depression and suicidal thoughts, but Linehan had never revealed that her pioneering work was…
I’ve always had stronger and more intense emotions than my peers. In childhood, I spent hours poring over medical textbooks to try to figure out exactly what was wrong with me. At 28, after years of navigating the mental health industry, I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Now, as a writer, my lived experience informs my passion to educate others about the disorder and show the world that people who live with BPD aren’t all bad—in fact, there are many unique gifts people with the disorder possess. I hope this reading list helps others who are on similar journeys.
One of the scariest symptoms of BPD is living with self-harm. I loved this book because it tackled non-suicidal self-injury in a nonjudgmental manner, which allowed me to reflect on and better understand the role non-suicidal self-injury plays in my life. This book helped me replace self-harming behavior with healthy coping strategies.
Self-injury can be as addictive as any drug, and the secrecy and shame many sufferers feel about this behavior can keep them feeling trapped. But if you're ready to replace self-harm with a set of healthy coping skills, this compassionate and practical book can help. This complete guide to stopping self-injury gives you the facts about self-harm, corrects common myths about this behavior, and provides self-soothing techniques you can begin using right away for regulating difficult or overwhelming emotions.
Freedom from Self-Harm also includes self-assessment worksheets, guidance for seeking professional help, and information about the most effective therapies and medications.…
