Literary Fiction – Page 28 – Trigger Warning Database

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone.

As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another….. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Graphic rape
Murder
War themes

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” — the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Infidelity
Rape
Cancer
Near-drowning

Grace by Victoria Scott

Grace by Victoria Scott

Nineteen-year-old Michelle has had a tough life, to say the least. Then she gets pregnant. She is convinced she would be a terrible mother but having grown up in care, she cannot bring herself to subject her child to the same fate. Amelia and her husband have dreamed of having a family for years, but have lost all hope after the worst kind of tragedy. Then they are offered the chance to adopt baby Grace, and it feels like they finally have everything they’ve ever wanted… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Classism
Sexual assault
Domestic abuse & violence
Attempted suicide
Drug abuse
Infertility
Stillbirth

The Book of Last Letters by Kerry Barrett

The Book of Last Letters by Kerry Barrett

London, 1940. When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass so that no one is left without a final goodbye. But one message will change Elsie’s life forever. When a patient makes a devastating request, can Elsie find the strength to do the unthinkable? London, present day. Stephanie has a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape mentioned
Dementia
World War Two (theme)

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel

Welcome to Wisewood. We’ll keep your secrets if you keep ours. Natalie Collins hasn’t heard from her sister in more than half a year. The last time they spoke, Kit was slogging from mundane workdays to obligatory happy hours to crying in the shower about their dead mother. She told Natalie she was sure there was something more out there. And then she found Wisewood. On a private island off the coast of Main, Wisewood’s guests commit to six-month stays. During this time, they’re prohibited from contact with the rest… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse
Cults

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wanted it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sets off a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumours of an obscure, formidable beast. But there is also Jake’s past—hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Animal death

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge and translated by Jeremy Tiang

In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. These creatures live alongside humans in near-inconspicuousness—save their greenish skin, serrated earlobes, and strange birthmarks. Aided by her elusive former professor and his enigmatic assistant, our narrator sets off to document each beast, and is slowly drawn deeper into a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide
Pregnancy
Emesis
Body horror
Cannibalism
Forced institutionalisation
Animal cruelty

White Ivy by Susie Yang

White Ivy by Susie Yang

Ivy Lin is a thief and a liar—but you’d never know it by looking at her. Raised outside of Boston, she is taught how to pilfer items from yard sales and second-hand shops by her immigrant grandmother. Thieving allows Ivy to accumulate the trappings of a suburban teen—and, most importantly, to attract the attention of Gideon Speyer, the golden boy of a wealthy political family. But when Ivy’s mother discovers her trespasses, punishment is swift and Ivy is sent to China, where her dream instantly evaporates. Years later, Ivy has grown into a poised yet restless young… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism & ableist language
Fatmisia & body shaming
Classism
Cheating
Dubious consent scenario*
Eating disorder
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Cancer
Murder
Bullying

* Context : Characters have sex while drunk.

No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib

No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib

Hadi and Sama are a young Syrian couple flying high on a whirlwind love, dreaming up a life in the country that brought them together. She had come to Boston years before chasing dreams of a bigger life; he’d landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language would be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly in Jordan, the night before his visa appointment at the embassy. Hadi flies back for the funeral, promising his wife that he’ll only… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Pregnancy & childbirth
Death of a father
Imprisonment recounted
Refugee experiences

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Along the way, he meets a Romany woman, a man who calls himself a king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the right direction for his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or whether Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles in his path; but what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of treasure within.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Poverty