Contemporary – Page 98 – Trigger Warning Database

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there’s more at stake than merely winning and losing.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Substance addiction
Death of a parent

A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

When seventeen-year-old Rune Kristiansen returns from his native Norway to the sleepy town of Blossom Grove, Georgia, where he befriended Poppy Litchfield as a child, he has just one thing on his mind. Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation? Rune’s heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent. When he discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Terminal cancer, on-page

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is go back home.

But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s un… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape. Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart. But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest: A crack. A melt. A fire that could end his world as he knew it. Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Death of a mother
Murder
Kidnapping
Near-drowning

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn

I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please. At the urge of her lucky-in-love brother, sixteen-year-old Lily has left a red notebook full of dares on her favourite bookshop shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept. Curious, snarky Dash isn’t one to back down from a challenge – and the Book of Dares is the perfect distraction he’s been… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Animal death recounted

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms

Overworked and underappreciated, single mom Amy Byler needs a break. So when the guilt-ridden husband who abandoned her shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer, she accepts his offer and escapes rural Pennsylvania for New York City.

Usually grounded and mild-mannered, Amy finally lets her hair down in the city that never sleeps. She discovers a life filled with culture, sophist… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Spousal abandonment
Miscarriage recounted

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Owen Pick’s life is falling apart. In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel—involuntary celibate—forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault mentioned

To The End by J Bree

To The End by J. Bree

Joey is dead. His head was delivered to me in a box, wrapped with a bow and an ominous card tucked inside. One of the biggest threats has been removed from the board but it hasn’t made us any safer. The Jackal has teamed up with the notorious sadistic killer Joseph Beaumont Sr. to take my family out, sure that we’re responsible for the death of his favoured child. The body count is only getting higher. Can I get us all through graduation alive? And who the hell is sending me heads in boxes?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Murder

The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

When his girlfriend throws him out during the pandemic, Bambi has to go to his Uncle’s house in lock-down Lagos. He arrives during a blackout and is surprised to find his Aunty Bidemi sitting in a candlelit room with another woman. They both claim to be the mother of the baby boy, fast asleep in his crib. At night Bambi is kept awake by the baby’s cries, and during the days he is disturbed by a cockerel that stalks the garden. There is sand in the rice. A blood stain appears on the wall. Someone scores tribal markings into the baby’s cheeks. Who is lying and who is telling the truth?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Child neglect
Cheating
Alcohol consumption, on-page
Recreational drug use, on-page
COVID-19 (theme)
Emesis
Physical illness & tribal marking disfigurement of a baby
Blood depiction
Grief & loss depiction
Death of an uncle & husband recounted
Animal slaughter, on-page

In The Weeds by BK Borison

In The Weeds by B.K. Borison

Evelyn St. James isn’t the kind of woman you forget. Beckett Porter certainly hasn’t. One incredible weekend in Maine, and he’s officially a man distracted. He’s not unfamiliar with hot and heavy flings. He knows how it goes. But Evie wove some sort of magic over him during their tumble in the sheets. He can’t stop thinking about her laugh. Her hand pressed flat against his chest. Her smiling mouth at his neck. So when she suddenly appears on his farm as part of a social media contest, he is confused… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Social anxiety