Literary Fiction – Trigger Warning Database

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

In her brilliantly inventive and haunting debut collection of stories, Julia Armfield explores bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia (Cassandra After)
Body-shaming (Mantis)
Infidelity (Cassandra After)
Divorce (Formally Feral, Smack)
Depression (Smack, Cassandra After)
Suicide mentioned (The Collectables)
Self-harm mentioned (Cassandra After)
Alcohol consumption & smoking (The Collectables)
Pregnancy & mention of miscarriage/pregnancy loss (Salt Slow)
Blood & injury depiction (Mantis, Formally Feral, Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax, Granite, Salt Slow)
Heart attack mentioned (The Collectables)
Weight loss, dieting & starvation mentioned (Mantis, Salt Slow)
Emesis (Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax)
Death of a parent recounted (Smack)
Death of a partner (Cassandra After)
Car accident mentioned (Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax)
Fire (The Collectables)
Drowning (Salt Slow)
Bullying (Formally Feral)

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and arcane rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father dies. An architect as cruel as he was revered, his death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revel.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse recounted
Parental infidelity mentioned
Anxiety & panic attacks
Nightmares & sleep issues mentioned
Pica mentioned (recovery)
Attempted suicide & self-harm recounted
Alcohol consumption & smoking
Emesis
Death of a father from a stroke & heart attack mentioned
Death of a mother recounted
Drowning
Cults discussed
Animal injury (fish

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Kipling’s epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Two men – Kim, a boy growing into early manhood, and the lama, an old ascetic priest – are fired by a quest. Kim is white, although born in India. While he wants to play the Great Game of imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama and he tries to reconcile these opposing strands. A celebration of their friendship in an often hostile environment, Kim captures the opulence of India’s exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Recreational drug use
Blood depiction
Gun violence
Knife violence & stabbing
War themes

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

In Life After Life Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy – would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse
Drug use
Cancer
Genocide
Animal death

The Winter Garden by Alexandra Bell

Welcome to the Winter Gardens of Half Moon House. Please do not mishandle the exhibits. (The owners accept no liability for any events that occur, magical or otherwise…) The Winter Garden open at the stroke of midnight with no great fanfare – after all, this is a time when all virtuous folk should be in bed. But for the few curious souls that brave the opening of its gates what enchantments await. There is all manner of strange and spectacular flora and fauna collected on her travels by the scandalous Lady Beatrice Sitwell and exhibited for the delight of paying customers. By… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape & sexual assault
Domestic abuse
Drug abuse
Depression
Death of a child & parent
Animal abuse

Rock the Boat by Beck Dorey-Stein

When Kate Campbell’s life in Manhattan suddenly implodes, she is forced to return to Sea Point, the small town full of quirky locals, quaint bungalows, and beautiful beaches where she grew up. She knows she won’t be home for long; she’s got every intention (and a three-point plan) to win back everything she thinks she’s lost. Meanwhile, Miles Hoffman–aka “The Prince of Sea Point”–has also returned home to prove to his mother that he’s capable of taking over the family business, and he’s promised to help his childhood best friend, Ziggy Miller, with his own financial… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father

Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein

Mia and Cricket have always been close. The gifted daughters of a young single mother, the “Lowe girls” are well-known in the small Maine town they call home. Each sister has a role to fill: The responsible and academically minded Mia assumes the position of caregiver far too young, while Cricket, a bouncing ball of energy and talent, seems born for soccer stardom. But the cost of achieving athletic greatness comes at a steep price. As Mia and Cricket grow up, they must grapple with the legacy of their mother’s secret past while navigating their own precarious… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Pregnancy mentioned
Traumatic childbirth resulting in chronic kidney disease and a need for a transplant
Secondary character with Type-1 Diabetes
Death of a mother

Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily R. Austin

Darcy’s life turned out better than she could have ever imagined. She is a librarian at the local branch, while her wife Joy runs a book binding service. Between the two of them, there is no more room on their shelves with their ample book collections, various knickknacks and bobbles, and dried bouquets. Rounding out their ideal life is two cats and a sun-soaked house by the lake. But when Darcy receives the news that her ex-boyfriend, Ben, has passed away, she spirals into a pit of guilt and regret, resulting in a mental breakdown and medical leave from the library. When she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia & transphobia
Image based sexual abuse (protagonist is threatened by a secondary character when she accidentally uploads an unintentionally intimate photo)
Emotional parental abuse
Infidelity recounted (the protagonist cheated on her boyfriend in the past; mentions of a secondary character’s husband cheating)
Anxiety, insomnia & panic disorder (protagonist) with mentions of dissociation and panic attacks
Parent with postpartum depression recounted
Psychiatric hospitalisation for acute stress reaction recounted (protagonist)
Disordered eating mentioned & recounted, including attempted purging & dieting
Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
Abortion recounted
Pregnancy & teen pregnancy mentioned (brief, secondary characters)
Death of an ex-boyfriend from a brain aneurysm discussed

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Erica and Laure meet on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, 1978. Erica is a student, relishing her first summer abroad before beginning university at home in England. Laure is studying for her PhD at the Sorbonne, drinking and smoking far too much, and sleeping with a married woman. The moment the two women meet, the spark is undeniable, but their encounter turns into far more than a summer of love. It is the beginning of a relationship that will define their lives and every decision they have yet to make. Erica and Laure’s love story spans decades, marriage, children… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Death of a friend from AIDS

The Crustacean by Jang Jinyeong

Chichirim is a plain 13-year-old girl. An ordinary, misunderstood, lonely seventh-grader. A girl with a terrible secret. Her dad is worse than useless. And her mum spends all her days tattooing thick ugly eyebrows on old women. Her parents forget her birthday and her sister hates them so much she wishes they were dead. Chichirim does bad things at school. And still, no one cares. Until, one day, an older man picks her up on the side of the road. He tells her she is pretty. Her tells her what to do. Underneath her hard outer shell, her softness is being exploited and destroyed by the people she trusts and loves the most.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child neglect
Child sexual assault & grooming (on-page)