Contemporary – Page 185 – Trigger Warning Database

Neverland by Margot McGovern

When she was twelve, Kit Learmonth watched her parents drown in a storm as their boat sailed over the Tranter Sink Hole. Now seventeen, Kit doesn’t remember the incident, and she doesn’t want to. In fact, her only clear memories from before her parents’ death are of the fantastical stories of pirates and mermaids that she and her dad invented about the small island where she grew up, a place she calls Neverland. Following Kit’s parents’ deaths, her uncle and guardian, Doc, transformed the island into a boarding… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Eating disorder
Suicide discussed
Self-harm
Psychiatric hospitalisation (setting)
Death of a mother & father by drowning in a boating accident recounted

From Here to You by Jamie McGuire

From Here to You by Jamie McGuire

As Darby Dixon sits in a tiny Texas church bathroom on her wedding day holding a positive pregnancy test, she realizes that of all the bad decisions she’s made in her life, marrying her abusive fiancé would be the worst. She’s never been able to stand up for herself, but she’ll sure as hell stand up for her baby. With just the cash she has on hand, she runs to get a bus ticket to the farthest place she can afford. Between her sheer grit and pageant-queen smile, she lands a job as a front desk clerk at the Colorado Springs Hotel. It’s not a glamorous life, but she and her baby are all that matters… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Abusive relationship recounted
Pregnancy

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when her family is struck by tragedy, she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and dea… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism, misogyny & fatphobia
Racism & racial slurs
Sexual harassment
Rape of a minor & sexual assault (on-page)
Cheating recounted
Child abuse & neglect mentioned
Substance addiction discussed
Nightmares
Suicide by gunshot to the head (on-page)
Alcohol consumption
Drug use & abuse (theme) with mentions of overdose
Teen pregnancy recounted
Grandparent recovering from a stroke
Physical injuries, including nerve damage & chronic shoulder injury
Hospitalisation for internalised bleeding & liver damage with mentions of surgery
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of an uncle & father
Murder of a friend & teenager by gun violence (on-page)
Car accident (on- & off-page)
Bullying

Some Places More Than Others by Renée Watson

Some Places More Than Others by Renée Watson

All Amara wants is to visit her father’s family in Harlem. Her wish comes true when her dad decides to bring her along on a business trip. She can’t wait to finally meet her extended family and stay in the brownstone where her dad grew up. Plus, she wants to visit every landmark from the Apollo to Langston Hughes’s home.

But her family, and even the city, is not quite what Amara thought. Her dad doesn’t speak to her grandpa, and the crowded streets can be suffocating as well as inspiring. But as she learns more and more about Harlem—and her father’s history—Amara realizes how, in some ways more than others, she can connect with this other home and family.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Pregnancy
Miscarriage recounted

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. Three years ago, when her older sister, Anna, was murdered and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best—the language of violence. While her own crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people. Not with Jack, the star athlete who wants to really know her but still feels guilty over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered. And not with Peekay, the preacher’s kid with a defiant streak who befriends Alex while they volunteer at an animal shelter… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Misogyny, slut-shaming & victim-blaming
Rape, sexual assault, paedophilia & child pornography
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption
Death of a sister
Murder
Fire (arson)
Animal death
Animal abuse & cruelty

My Summer of Love and Misfortune by Lindsay Wong

Iris Wang is having a bit of a rough start to her summer. In an attempt to snap her out of her funk, Iris’s parents send her away to visit family in Beijing, with the hopes that Iris will “reconnect with her culture” and “find herself.” Iris resents her parents’ high-handedness, but even she admits that this might be a good opportunity to hit the reset button. Iris expects to eat a few dumplings, meet some of her family, and visit a tourist hotspot or two. What she doesn’t expect is to meet a handsome Mandarin-language tutor named Frank and to be swept up in the ridiculous, opulent… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Cheating
Alcohol & drug abuse
Emesis
Car accident

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Child abuse due to Munchausen by Proxy (theme)
Needles & medical procedures for chronic illness (on-page)
Hospitalisation

* Context : The plot revolves around the discovery that the protagonist does not have a chronic illness but is being abused by her mother who has Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (also known as Factitious Disorder).

Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth — and ultimately her life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicidal ideation
Drug abuse, drugging & overdose (theme)

Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert

Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert

Ex-military mountain man Griffin Barrett likes his solitude. It keeps him from falling back into old habits. Bad habits. He’s fought too hard for his sobriety to lose control now. However, his gig as a wildlife guide presents a new kind of temptation in superhot supermodel River Vale. Nothing the Alaskan wilderness has to offer has ever called to Griffin so badly. And that can only lead to trouble… River has his own methods for coping. Chasing adventure means always moving forward. Nobody’s ever made him want to stand still—until Griffin. The rugged bush pilot is the very best kind of distraction, but the emotions he stirs… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism & homophobia
Coerced sexual assault
Eating disorder recovery & disordered eating
Intrusive thoughts
Alcoholism & substance addiction recovery
Substance addiction recovery
Grief depiction and death of mother (recounted)

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised. With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Coming out themes & blackmailed forced outing
Homophobia & slurs
Bullying