Historical Fiction – Page 50 – Trigger Warning Database

The Binding by Bridget Collins

The Binding by Bridget Collins

Books are dangerous things in Collins’s alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It’s a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them.

After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Rape & rape of a minor
Incest mentioned
Suicide
Animal cruelty
Animal death
Fire

That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole

That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole

Mercy Alston knows the best thing to do with pesky feelings like “love” and “hope”: avoid them at all cost. Serving as a maid to Eliza Hamilton, and an assistant in the woman’s stubborn desire to preserve her late husband’s legacy, has driven that point home for Mercy—as have her own previous heartbreaks.

When Andromeda Stiel shows up at Hamilton Grange for an interview in her grandfather’s stead, Mercy’s resolution to live a quiet, pain-free life is tested by the beautiful, flirtatious, and entirely overwhelming dressmaker.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Queermisia
Death of a parent

An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole

An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole

Daniel Cumberland’s uneventful life as a freed man in Massachusetts ended the night he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. To then have his freedom restored by the very man who stole his beloved’s heart is almost too much to bear. When he’s offered entry into the Loyal League, the covert organization of spies who helped free him, Daniel seizes the opportunity to help take down the Confederacy and vent the rage that consumes him.

When the Union Army occupies Janeta Sanchez’s small Florida town, her family’s goodwill… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Slavery
Threats of rape & sexual assault
Suicidal ideation
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Death of a parent mentioned

A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole

A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole

For three years of the War Between the States, Marlie Lynch has helped the cause in peace: with coded letters about anti-Rebel uprisings in her Carolina woods, tisanes and poultices for Union prisoners, and silent aid to fleeing slave and Freeman alike. Her formerly enslaved mother’s traditions and the name of a white father she never knew have protected her–until the vicious Confederate Home Guard claims Marlie’s home for their new base of operations in the guerilla war against Southern resistors of the Rebel cause… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Threats of sexual assault & rape
Blood depiction
Death of a parent
Torture
War themes

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

Elle Burns is a former slave with a passion for justice and an eidetic memory. Trading in her life of freedom in Massachusetts, she returns to the indignity of slavery in the South—to spy for the Union Army.

Malcolm McCall is a detective for Pinkerton’s Secret Service. Subterfuge is his calling, but he’s facing his deadliest mission yet—risking his life to infiltrate a Rebel enclave in Virginia… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Slavery
Rape mentioned
Gun violence
Physical assault
Near-drowning incident
War themes

Be Not Afraid by Alyssa Cole

Be Not Afraid by Alyssa Cole

Elijah Sutton is no fool, despite his love of a country that enslaves people like him. When he’s offered land, livestock, and—most importantly—his freedom if he fights in his Patriot owner’s stead, Elijah believes he’ll soon have everything he ever wanted…and then he meets Kate.

The Crown has promised freedom to slaves who escape their Patriot masters and join the British side, and Kate intends to take them up on it. She’s eager to leave America—and the painful memories it holds for her—far behind…and then she meets Elijah… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Rape recounted

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe

The only life Mae has ever known is on the island, living on the charity of the wealthy Prosper family who control the magic on the island and the spirits who inhabit it. Mae longs for magic of her own and to have a place among the Prosper family, where her best friend, Coco, will see her as an equal, and her crush, Miles, will finally see her. Now that she’s eighteen, Mae knows her time with the Prospers may soon come to an end.

But tonight is First Night, when the Prospers and their high-society friends return to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Outing
Parental abandonment
Suicidal ideation
Suicide mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Drug abuse mentioned
Loss of autonomy (possession)

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Physical & emotional parental abuse
Hallucinations
Attempted suicide by drowning
Self-harm
Murder
Torture
Physical assault

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission – to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested – the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Murder
Near-drowning

The Odyssey by Homer

The Odyssey by Homer

The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats – shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon – Odysseus must use his wit and native cunning if he is to reach his homeland safely and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Murder
Kidnapping & captivity
Shipwreck
Trojan War