Historical Fiction – Page 33 – Trigger Warning Database

The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy

The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis

It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks. Yet Charlie is less alarmed than intrigued. This is the most thrilling thing that’s happened to him since he came to France with his father,… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption mentioned
Physical assault

Mayhem by Estelle Laure

Mayhem by Estelle Laure

It’s 1987 and unfortunately it’s not all Madonna and cherry lip balm. Mayhem Brayburn has always known there was something off about her and her mother, Roxy. Maybe it has to do with Roxy’s constant physical pain, or maybe with Mayhem’s own irresistible pull to water. Either way, she knows they aren’t like everyone else. But when May’s stepfather finally goes too far, Roxy and Mayhem flee to Santa Maria, California, the coastal beach town that holds the answers to all of Mayhem’s questions about who her mother is, her estranged family, and the mysteries of her own self. There she meets the kids who live with… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Slut-shaming
Rape
Domestic violence
Physical & emotional child abuse
Alcoholism
Substance addiction
Drug use & abuse
Suicide, off-page
Murder
Kidnapping
Physical assault

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The letter waits in a book, in a box, in an attic, in an old house in Lambert, South Carolina. It’s waiting for Candice Miller. When Candice finds the letter, she isn’t sure she should read it. It’s addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. But the letter describes a young woman named Siobhan Washington. An injustice that happened decades ago. A mystery enfolding the letter-writer. And the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle. Grandma tried and failed. But now Candice has another chance. So with the help of Bran… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Eye trauma mentioned
Physical assault
Threat of lynching
Bullying

The Black Lily by Juliette Cross

The Black Lily by Juliette Cross

Every day, the threat the Varis family poses to the humans they rule over grows stronger. Every minute that Arabelle spends doing chores for vain, entitled aristocrats, her resolve to overthrow the vampire monarchy increases. She is the leader of the underground resistance, The Black Lily. And she’s waited long enough. Now is the perfect time to ignite the rebellion. The plan? Attend the vampire prince’s blood ball. And kill him. Dagger in hand, Arabelle is caught off guard by the immediate spark she shares with Prince Marius. It doesn’t help that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood depiction & blood-letting
Death of a lover recounted

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly. Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical sexism & ableism
Slavery
Forced sex work
Suicide
Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation
Murder of a father
Physical assault & kidnapping

Accidentally Compromising the Duke by Stacy Reid

Accidentally Compromising the Duke by Stacy Reid

England, 1817. Miss Adeline Hays is out of options. Determined to escape marriage to a repugnant earl, Adeline plans to deliberately allow herself to be caught in a compromising position at a house party with the much kinder man she’d hoped to marry. Instead, Adeline accidentally enters the wrong chamber and tumbles into the bed of the mad duke. Edmond Rochester, the duke of Wolverton, is seeking a wife to care for his two daughters. A young lady of sensibilities, accomplishment, and most importantly, one who he is not attracted to—a complete opposite…. Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical sexism & ableism
Attempted sexual assault mentioned
Unplanned pregnancy mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother mentioned
Death of a wife in childbirth & stillborn son mentioned

The Abstainer by Ian McGuire

The Abstainer by Ian McGuire

Stephen Doyle, an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War, arrives in Manchester from New York with a thirst for blood. He has joined the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary. Head Constable James O’Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester, and connections with his fellow Irishmen are proving to be particularly advantageous in spying on Fenian activity. When a long-lost nephew returns from America and arrives on O’Connor’s doorstep looking for work, O’Connor cannot foresee the way his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Murder

The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan

The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan

A photograph is hung on a gallery wall for the very first time since it was taken two decades before. It shows a slaughterhouse in rural Ireland, a painting of the Virgin Mary on the wall, a meat hook suspended from the ceiling – and, from its sharp point, the lifeless body of a man hanging by his feet. The story of who he is and how he got there casts back into Irish folklore, of widows cursing the land and of the men who slaughter its cattle by hand. But modern Ireland is distrustful of ancient traditions, and as the BSE crisis in England presents get-rich opportunities in Ireland, few care… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood & gore depiction
Knife violence

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr Fakhri’s neighbourhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-coloured ink. Then Mr Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favourite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms and the little stationery shop remains their favourite place in all of Tehran… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Self-induced abortion mentioned

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Bergensdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Northern town of Vardø must fend for themselves. Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Persecution for witchcraft
Martial rape & sexual assault
Arranged marriage
Miscarriage
Murder
Immolation
Drowning
Torture