Literary Fiction – Page 25 – Trigger Warning Database

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.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Abandonment
Death of a parent
Murder
Car accident

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.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse & neglect

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

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

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)

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero. Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Classism
Sexual assault
Domestic violence
Child abuse
Poverty

Three O’Clock in the Morning by Gianrico Carofiglio

Three O’Clock in the Morning by Gianrico Carofiglio

Antonio is eighteen years old and on the cusp of adulthood. His father, a brilliant mathematician, hasn’t played a large part in his life since divorcing Antonio’s mother but when Antonio is diagnosed with epilepsy, they travel to Marseille to visit a doctor who may hold the hope for an effective treatment. It is there, in a foreign city, under strained circumstances, that they will get to know each other and connect for the first time. A beautiful, gritty, and charming port city… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Police violence mentioned

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Darling is only ten years old, yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen. Before the school closed before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.

But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Rape
Abortion
Physical assault

Animal death
Animal cruelty
War themes

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

Everyone knew bestselling novelist Cassandra Tipp had twice got away with murder. Even her family were convinced of her guilt. So when she disappears, leaving only a long letter behind, they can but suspect that her conscience finally killed her.

But the letter is not what anyone expected. It tells two chilling, darkly disturbing stories. One is a story of bloody nights and magical gifts, of children lost to the woods, of husbands made from twigs and feathers and bones . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Sexual assault
Self-harm
Suicide
Abortion mentioned
Dismemberment
Murder

sourced from amy imogene read, jo ladzinski, and schizanthus nerd