The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black book cover

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming and body-shaming
  • Slavery
  • Physical & psychological child abuse
  • Infidelity
  • Disownment
  • Nightmares mentioned
  • Coerced self-harm & suicide (on-page) and self-harm through mithridatism (the practice of building a tolerance to a poison by taking small, increasing amounts over time)
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug use & drugging
  • Death of a pregnant character mentioned*
  • Graphic blood, gore & injury depiction, including dead bodies, mentions of decapitation & dismemberment, & emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of mother & father (prologue, on-page)
  • Death of friend
  • Death of a sister & brother
  • Death by a fall mentioned
  • Drowning
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife and sword violence & stabbing
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Loss of autonomy (glamour magic)
  • War themes discussed
  • Bullying

*Context: A secondary character poisons his pregnant consort in an attempt to murder her and their unborn child.

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas book cover

When children go missing, people want answers. When children go missing in the small coastal town of Astoria, people look to Wendy for answers. It’s been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road, and gets pulled into the mystery haunting the town. Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don’t do something, the missing child… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety, trauma & flashbacks
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a children (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of a child & family members
  • Car accident

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, classism & persecution for witchcraft
  • Indentured servitude discussed
  • Forced underaged sex work & rape of a child recounted
  • Parental abandonment & disownment and child abuse
  • Gambling addiction & gambling (protagonist)
  • Drug dependency & withdrawal discussed (on-page)
  • Recreational drug use recounted & alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction, consensual body modification, mentions of plague, and protagonist with chronic illness & pain
  • Death of a boyfriend & friend (on-page)
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture (on-page)
  • Gun violence, explosions & knife violence & stabbing
  • Kidnapping & captivity (on-page)
  • Imprisonment
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail & death threats
  • Poverty themes & debt collection mentioned

Absent by Katie Williams

When seventeen-year-old Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumour that her death wasn’t an accident–that she supposedly jumped on purpose–she can’t bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumours once and for all.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Recreational drug use
  • Death by a fall (protagonist)
  • Murder
  • Bullying

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the air, and people of all faiths weave their lives together. However, the city bears scars of its recent past, when the chaotic tribe of Shayateen djinn slaughtered its entire population — except for Fatima and two other humans. Now ruled by a new maharajah, Noor is protected from the Shayateen by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reason, and by their commander, Zulfikar. But when one of the most potent of the Ifrit dies, Fatima is changed in ways she cannot fathom, way… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a brother & father recounted
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Massacres & genocide recounted
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • War themes
  • Poverty themes

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

If you choose to support this author or novel (financially or otherwise), please consider educating yourself about the Quileute tribe’s plight and support their mission.

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him—and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & anti-Native language
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Blood depiction & blood-drinking
  • Hospitalisation for illness & injuries (broken bones, blood loss)
  • Mentions of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic
  • Death of a child recounted
  • Minor car accident
  • Attempted murder
  • Stalking & kidnapping

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & sexism
  • Racism & anti-Native language
  • Rape & paedophilia mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation and attempted suicide mentioned
  • Blood depiction & blood-drinking
  • Stalking
  • Murder
  • Animal death

If you choose to support this author, please consider educating yourself about the Quileute tribe’s plight and support their mission

The Lost Sisters by Holly Black

Sometimes the difference between a love story and a horror story is where the ending comes . . . While Jude fought for power in the Court of Elfhame against the cruel Prince Cardan, her sister Taryn began to fall in love with the trickster, Locke. Half-apology and half-explanation, it turns out that Taryn has some secrets of her own to reveal.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Coerced marriage discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Murder discussed
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Bullying

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves. Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical queerphobia, transphobia & antiziganism, including the g slur
  • Antisemitism recounted
  • Persecution for witchcraft and witch trials
  • Nightmares
  • Blood depiction & minor body horror
  • Death of grandparents recounted
  • Attempted execution
  • Near-drowning incident (on-page)

Hollow by Rhonda Parrish

A car accident shattered sixteen-year-old Morgan’s family. Now her brother’s dead, her mom’s paralyzed in more ways than one, her dad lives at work and her seven-year-old sister Amy tries too freaking hard to salvage everything. What’s more, high school is its own special kind of hell, where her ex-boyfriend delights in spreading rumors that shred her reputation and make her feel like a loser. When she finds an old camera in a creepy abandoned hospital, it seems like her luck is finally changing. And it is changing–from bad to worse. Because of course it is. Each time… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & sexual assault (on- & off-page)
  • Parent with paralysis & depression
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother in a car accident
  • Bullying & slut-shaming

Context : The protagonist’s mother is dealing with depression after being paralysed in the same car accident which killed her son (the protagonist’s brother).