Start with high-confidence violence & trauma books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
The Breakable Vow
Kathryn Ann Clarke
Scorpions
Walter Dean Myers
Taste of Salt
Frances Temple
Inside Out
Terry Trueman
Response
Paul Volponi
Buried Onions
Gary Soto
Hate List
Jennifer Brown
Split
Swati Avasthi
Kindness for Weakness
Shawn Goodman
Last Domino
Adam Meyer
Reality Boy
A.S. King
The Radius of US
Marie Marquardt
American Girls
Alison Umminger
Long Way Down
Jason Reynolds
This Is Where It Ends
Marieke Nijkamp
Life Before
Michele Bacon
If Anything Happens I Love You
Will McCormack, Michael Govier
Sad Stories of the Death of Kings
Barry Gifford
