Category Archives: Historical Fiction

Blameless by Gail Carriger 

Blameless by Gail Carriger

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London’s vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatmisia & body-shaming
  • Classism
  • Racism
  • Cheating discussed
  • Disownment
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drugging
  • Pregnancy (theme)
  • Miscarriage discussed in-depth
  • Forced ‘breeding’ programs discussed
  • Physical injuries, including graphic eyeball trauma
  • Blood & gore depiction, including on-page blood-drinking
  • Emesis
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Forced human medical experiments recounted
  • Eugenics discussed
  • Death of a father mentioned
  • Death of a girlfriend recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Hostage situation
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Paradise by Toni Morrison

Paradise by Toni Morrison

They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.”

Founded by the descendants of freed slaves and survivors in exodus from a hostile world, the patriarchal community of Ruby is built on righteousness, rigidly enforced moral law, and fear. But seventeen miles away, another group of exiles has gathered in a promised land of their own. And it is upon these women in flight from death and despair that nine male citizens of Ruby will lay their pain, their terror, and their murderous rage.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Abortion
  • Miscarriage
  • Gun violence
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Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labour camp on charges of having helped the Nazis–with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Paedophilia & sexual assault
  • Childbirth
  • Starvation
  • Physical illness
  • Torture
  • Word War Two (theme)
  • Concentration camps
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Stephen King

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Stephen King

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism
  • Antisemitism
  • Nazism
  • Rape
  • Genital mutilation
  • Gun violence
  • Chemical gassing (gas chambers)
  • World War Two & the Holocaust (theme)
  • Concentration camps (theme)
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A Master of Djinn by P Djèlí Clark 

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Colourism
  • Colonialism
  • Disfigurmisia
  • Gambling addiction
  • Self-mutilation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Police brutality
  • Immolation
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The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene

The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew is alarmed when Nathan Gombet threatens her father. Gombet sold a piece of land for a railroad bridge through Carson Drew and now believes that he was cheated. Meanwhile, valuable objects are disappearing from rooms in the Turnbull mansion even while the Turnbull sisters, Rosemary and Florette, are at home in their locked house. Having heard about her reputation for solving mysteries, the sisters invite Nancy Drew to stay in the mansion and discover the thief.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Drugging
  • Attempted murder by a truck accident
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Disappearance of a father
  • Home invasion
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The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P Djèlí Clark 

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark’s short fiction, where humans live and work alongside otherworldly beings; the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities handles the issues that can arise between the magical and the mundane. Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr shows his new partner Agent Onsi the ropes of investigation when they are called to subdue a dangerous, possessed tram car. What starts off as a simple matter of exorcism, however, becomes more complicated as the origins of the demon inside are revealed.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Animal death (chicken)
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A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P Djèlí Clark 

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark

Egypt, 1912. In an alternate Cairo infused with the otherworldly, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine. What starts off as an odd suicide case for Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha’arawi leads her through the city’s underbelly as she encounters rampaging ghouls, saucy assassins, clockwork angels, and plot that could unravel time itself. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
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The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make…

It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio — a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Death of a child
  • Gun violence
  • Labour camps mentioned
  • World War Two & the Holocaust
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A Dark and Stormy Knight by Kerrigan Byrne 

A Dark and Stormy Knight by Kerrigan Byrne

Sir Carlton Morley is famously possessed of extraordinary will, singular focus, and a merciless sense of justice. As a man, he secured his fortune and his preeminence as Scotland Yard’s ruthless Chief Inspector. As a decorated soldier, he was a legend for his unflinching trigger finger, his precision in battle, and his imperturbable strength. But as a boy, he was someone else. A twin, a thief, and a murderer until tragedy reshaped him.

Now he stalks the night, in search of redemp…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse mentioned, off-page
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