Historical Fiction – Page 45 – Trigger Warning Database

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric—a masterpiece of suspense San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man’s guilt. For on San Pedro, memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo’s wife; memories of land desired, paid for and lost….. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Gun violence
Wrongful imprisonment
War themes

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide ‘physical, intellectual and moral training’ which will equip its inmates to become ‘honourable and… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Paedophilia & child sexual abuse mentioned
Blood depiction
Murder
Torture
Physical assault
Whipping

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotion… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide

Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly

Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly

It is 1914 and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanov’s. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia’s Imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire. …. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Incestuous sexual assault of a minor (half-siblings)
Sexual harassment
Death of a child
Murder
Gun violence
Kidnapping
World War I

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury’s to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne’er-do-wells by night. Now there’s a new item on the list. He needs an heir—which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she’ll do.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Slut-shaming
Disfigurmisia
Emotional abuse
Scars
Explosion recounted
War themes recounted

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Seventeen-year-old Molly Gibson worships her widowed father. But when he decides to remarry, Molly’s life is thrown off course by the arrival of her vain, shallow, and selfish stepmother. There is some solace in the shape of her new stepsister Cynthia, who is beautiful, sophisticated, and irresistible to every man she meets. Soon the girls become close, and Molly finds herself cajoled into becoming a go-between in Cynthia’s love affairs. But in doing so, Molly risks ruining her reputation in the gossiping village of Hollingford – and jeopardizing everything with the man she is secretly in love with.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Death of a friend
Blackmail

The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton

The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton

The Tell Tale has been watching and waiting because there’s something queer about the village of Foel. Beth Griffiths has returned home to raise her daughter in the Welsh hills. They arrive to the open arms of the community, but not all is what it seems and Beth isn’t home for the reason she pretends either.

Vicious notes start appearing that reveal harsh truths about the village inhabitants, stirring up ancient past and old loves. Not even local dignitary, the… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Hate crime
Outing
Cheating mentioned
Domestic abuse
Alcohol consumption
Drugging
Blood depiction
Gun violence
Homelessness
Hunting

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

Young, bookish Sylvia Beach knows there is no greater city in the world than Paris. But when she opens an English-language bookshop on the bohemian Left Bank, Sylvia can’t yet know she is making history.

Many leading writers of the day, from Ernest Hemingway to Gertrude Stein, consider Shakespeare and Company a second home. Here some of the most profound literary friendships blossom – and none more so than between James Joyce and Sylvia herself… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse & neglect

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange. She is certainly a strange sight for leering British audiences always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture… She cannot die.

Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Slavery
Human trafficking
Eugenics mentioned
Sex work mentioned
Sexual harassment
Domestic abuse
Amnesia
Suicide
Drugging
Blood & gore depiction
Involuntary medical experimentation
Hospitalisation
Cannibalism
Murder
Torture
Kidnapping
Police brutality
Fire
Poverty