Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects (abuse, suicide, grief etc or something personal hard for you)

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay: There's not much I can say without giving the story away, but it deals with the aftermath of abuse. We see how the character deals after going through a horrible situation, and how it affects everyone around said character. It's downright brilliant and one of my favorite books ever.

Dare You To by Katie McGary: This story is such a wonderful sequel to her first book Pushing the Limits. It gives us an in to Beth and Ryan's story, dealing with alcohol and drug abuse, physical abuse, homophobia, and childhood traumas. It's so amazingly written that I actually like this one more than I did the first.

Going Under by S. Walden: It took me a while to get around to reading this story, but I'm so glad I did. S. Walden writes about sexual abuse, depression, and suicide in a way that's more real than what we find in books these days. It also brings awareness to things that are happening today, and I thank her for it.

Find You in the Dark by A. Meredith Walters: Mental illness is a touchy subject for me, and the way Walters portraits it in this story is possibly one of my most favorite things about it. It shows the ups and downs of what is like to know someone with manic depression and that, even though you might really want to, sometimes love doesn't have the power to fix everything.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover: Colleen owns my soul. And she managed to rip it all in pieces as I read about all of the traumatic experiences Sky suffered through as a child. From sexual abuse to kidnapping to feeling so utterly and completely broken at finding out the truth, this book is one of the best I've ever got my hands on.

Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder: This book will gut you right from the start. And then it will just keep kicking you while you're already down. Reading about self-harm as a way to coping with grief always gets to me, because it's so easy to see where the person is coming from. Best thing about the entire story, though, is that Colton never tries to fix Nell. He only tries to help her heal.

The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen: I'll never get over how great this story is. The story tackles physical and sexual abuse, showing us the aftermath of it all, how the characters are dealing with what they've been through. My favorite thing about it is how the author chose to deal with the aftermath of it all, sexual abuse, the way it forces the female lead characters to come out of her shell and push her boundaries, make new memories, and learn how to trust people again. 

Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker: Here we see grief when it's bottled up, pushed away, and ignored. Kacey's way of not-coping is possibly one of the saddest things I've ever read, specially when she sees herself being forced to deal with it. And with Trent we learn about what guilt can do to a person, how it can make them obsessive and drag them down and make them and others hurt.

Easy by Tammara Webber: This story is about standing up for yourself. It shows how common it is for a woman not to report being assaulted, but then it gives us the lead female character deciding to take self-defense classes to make sure that, if it does happen again, she'll be able to protect herself. The reason why Lucas is the one to teach the class is also deeply rooted to a traumatizing situation he went through as a child, and it's great reading about how he takes all of that anger and turns it into something good.

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: I cried like a baby reading this. This is a cancer book, but from the perspective of a daughter watching her father wither away. It's grief in its most pure form, reading about Taylor trying to come to terms with the fact that this is the last summer she's going to have with her father, and it's heartbreaking.