Category Archives: Historical Fiction

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness is the thrilling tale of Marlow, a seaman and wanderer recounting his physical and psychological journey in search of the infamous ivory trader Kurtz. Traveling upriver into the heart of the African continent, he gradually becomes obsessed by this enigmatic, wraith-like figure. Marlow’s discovery of how Kurtz has gained his position of power over the local people involves him in a radical questioning, not only of his own nature and values, but of those that underpin Western civilization itself.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic racism & racial slurs
  • Slavery including death of slaves from exhaustion and malnourishment
  • Gun, cannon & arrow violence

Teach the Torches to Burn by Caleb Roehrig

Verona, Italy. Seventeen-year-old aspiring artist Romeo dreams of a quiet life with someone who loves him just as he is. But as the heir to the Montague family, he is expected to give up his womanly artistic pursuits and uphold the family honor–particularly in their centuries-old blood feud with a rival family, the Capulets. Worse still, he is also expected to marry a well-bred girl approved by his parents and produce heirs. But the more Romeo is forced to mingle with eligible maidens, the harder it is to keep his deepest secret: He only feels attracted to other boys. In an attempt to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Poisoning

Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo

Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it’s not running away. It’s leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mom, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn’t want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn’t want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can’t… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Bullying
  • Animal death (pet dog)

The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo

In a time of war, a mysterious child appears at the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Gentle Brother Edik finds the girl, Beatryce, curled in a stall, wracked with fever, coated in dirt and blood and holding fast to the ear of Answelica the recalcitrant goat. As the monk nurses Beatryce to health, he uncovers her dangerous secret – one that imperils them all. And so it is that a girl with a head full of stories must venture into a dark wood in search of the castle of a king who wishes her dead. But should… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Murder of a brother recounted
  • War themes

Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

It’s the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she’s always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn’t appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend. Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love. Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical lesbophobia & slurs

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

This is the story of Macon “Milkman” Dead, heir to the richest black family in a Midwestern town, as he makes a voyage of rediscovery, travelling southwards geographically and inwards spiritually. Through the enlightenment of one man, the novel recapitulates the history of slavery and liberation.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hate crimes including mentions of the real-life murder of Emmett Till
  • Incest mentioned (cousin, father-daughter)
  • Suicide by jumping from a building
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking
  • Attempted murder by strangulation
  • Gun & knife violence

Sula by Toni Morrison

Sula and Nel are two young black girls: clever and poor. They grow up together sharing their secrets, dreams and happiness. Then Sula breaks free from their small-town community in the uplands of Ohio to roam the cities of America. When she returns ten years later much has changed. Including Nel, who now has a husband and three children. The friendship between the two women becomes strained and the whole town grows wary as Sula continues in her wayward, vagabond and uncompromising ways.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racial slurs (n slur)
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse mentioned
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Death of a mother from suicide by fire (self-immolation)
  • Death of a man from being set on fire by his mother
  • Death of a child from an accidental drowning including further mentions of people drowning during a tunnel collapse
  • Physical assault of children mentioned
  • Battle scene recounted with mentions of the bloody death of a solider from gun violence

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s debut novel immerses us in the tragic, torn lives of a poor black family – Pauline, Cholly, Sam and Pecola – in post-Depression 1940s Ohio. Unlovely and unloved, Pecola prays each night for blue eyes like those of her privileged white schoolfellows. At once intimate and expansive, unsparing in its truth-telling, The Bluest Eye shows how the past savagely defines the present.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Racism & colourism (theme)
  • Graphic rape of an 11-year-old child (on-page)*
  • Sex work mentioned
  • Physical, emotional & psychological child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of an infant
  • Housefire mentioned
  • Animal abuse, injury & death mentioned

Context: Includes passages from the paedophilic rapist’s perspective.

Mrs England by Stacey Halls

West Yorkshire, 1904. When newly graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England, a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners, she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, it becomes clear there’s something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious Mrs England. Ostracised by the servants and feeling increasingly uneasy, Ruby is forced to confront her own demons in order to prevent history from repeating itself. After all, there’s no such thing as the perfect family – and she should know.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Attempted murder of a child

The Familiars by Stacey Halls

Young Fleetwood Shuttleworth, a noblewoman, is with child again. None of her previous pregnancies have borne fruit, and her husband, Richard, is anxious for an heir. Then Fleetwood discovers a hidden doctor’s letter that carries a dire prediction: she will not survive another birth. By chance she meets a midwife named Alice Grey, who promises to help her deliver a healthy baby. But Alice soon stands accused of witchcraft. Is there more to Alice than meets the eye? Fleetwood must risk everything to prove her innocence. As the two women’s lives become intertwined, the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism & misogyny
  • Adult-minor abusive marriage
  • Lancashire witch trials (theme)
  • Teen pregnancy (protagonist)
  • Infertility & miscarriages recounted

Context : The 17-year-old protagonist is pregnant and married to an adult man. She has had two miscarriages in the past, and is advised to not get pregnant again.