Literary Fiction – Page 17 – Trigger Warning Database

Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman

Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman

For fatefully observant Adeline, growing up carries an ominous warning from her adulterous mother: don’t say a word. Adeline vows to never speak again. But that’s not her only secret. After her mother takes a housekeeping job at a lighthouse off the tip of Cape Ann, a local woman vanishes. The key to the mystery lies with Adeline, the silent witness. New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic Alice Hoffman crafts a beautiful, heart-wrenching short story.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental infidelity
Death of a father

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

In Baxter Beach, Barbados, moneyed ex-pats clash with the locals who often end up serving them: braiding their hair, minding their children, and selling them drugs. Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the Baxter Beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom — and their lives.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Sexual assault
Incest
Domestic abuse

Waiting by Ha Jin

Waiting by Ha Jin

For more than seventeen years, this devoted and ambitious doctor has been in love with an educated, clever, modern woman, Manna Wu. But back in the traditional world of his home village lives the wife his family chose for him when he was young—a humble and touchingly loyal woman, whom he visits in order to ask, again and again, for a divorce. In a culture in which the ancient ties of tradition and family still hold sway and where adultery discovered by the Party can ruin lives forever, Lin’s passionate love is stretched ever more taut by the passing years. Every summer… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape, on-page

Scorpionfish by Natalie Bakopoulos

Scorpionfish by Natalie Bakopoulos

After the unexpected deaths of her parents, young academic Mira returns to her childhood home in Athens. On her first night back, she encounters a new neighbour, a longtime ship captain who has found himself no longer at sea for the first time in years. As one summer night tumbles into another, Mira and the Captain’s voices drift across the balconies of their apartments, disclosing details and stories: of careers, families, of love. For Mira, love has so often meant Aris, an ex-boyfriend and rising Greek politician who has recently become engaged to a movie star. There is, too, her love for her dear friend Nefeli—a well… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Cheating
Suicide

The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferré

The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferré

A gentle maiden aunt who has been victimized for years unexpectedly retaliates through her talent for making life-sized dolls filled with honey. “The Youngest Doll,” based on a family anecdote, is a stunning literary expression of Rosario Ferré’s feminist and social concerns. It is the premier story in a collection that was originally published in Spanish in 1976 as Papeles de Pandora and is now translated into English by the author. The daughter of a former governor of Puerto Rico, Ferré portrays women loosening the constraints that have bound them to a patriarchal culture. Anger takes creative rather than polemical form… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Slut shaming
Cheating
Car accident

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league. So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no…Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Substance addiction
Emesis
Cancer
Hospital
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother
Death of a partner
Car accident
Earthquake

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

When you sit down with Lily and the Octopus, you will be taken on an unforgettable ride. The magic of this novel is in the read, and we don’t want to spoil it by giving away too many details. We can tell you that this is a story about that special someone: the one you trust, the one you can’t live without. For Ted Flask, that someone special is his aging companion Lily, who happens to be a dog. Lily and the Octopus reminds us how it feels to love fiercely, how difficult it can be to let go, and how the fight for those we love is the greatest fight of all.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Animal illness

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor by Kim Hooper

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor by Kim Hooper

A couple brimming with the hope of a new pregnancy. A woman coming to terms with the truth behind her adoption. A husband trying to save his marriage from the despair of infertility. These are just a few of the stories in All the Acorns on the Forest Floor, a book about the lengths we go to for the love of our children, our spouses, our mothers, our daughters. All the Acorns on the Forest Floor is a book of connections between people, connections lost and found, across time and space. There are stories of women who never became mothers (by choice or by fate), women who became mothers in unexpected or nontraditional…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Miscarriage
Terminal illness

We Light Up the Sky by Lilliam Rivera

We Light Up the Sky by Lilliam Rivera

Pedro, Luna, and Rafa may attend Fairfax High School together in Los Angeles, but they run in separate spheres. Pedro is often told that he’s “too much” and seeks refuge from his home life in a local drag bar. Luna is pretending to go along with the popular crowd but is still grieving the unexpected passing of her beloved cousin Tasha. Then there’s Rafa, the quiet new kid who is hiding the fact that his family is homeless. But Pedro, Luna, and Rafa find themselves thrown together when an extraterrestrial visitor lands in their city… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Recreational drug use & alcohol mentioned
Body horror
Police brutality & violence
Physical assault
Bullying
Animal attack

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn’t hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men. Ames isn’t happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Transmisia
Deadnaming
Outing
Cheating
Graphic miscarriage
Abortion discussed