Literary Fiction – Page 28 – Trigger Warning Database

Social Creature byTara Isabella Burton

Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton

They go through both bottles of champagne right there on the High Line, with nothing but the stars over them… They drink and Lavinia tells Louise about all the places they will go together when they finish their stories when they are both great writers-to Paris and to Rome and to Trieste… Lavinia will never go. She is going to die soon.

Louise has nothing. Lavinia has everything. After a chance encounter, the two spiral into an intimate, intense, and possibly toxic friendship.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slut-shaming
Sexual assault
Suicide
Self-harm
Alcohol consumption
Drug abuse
Murder

Shiner by Amy Jo Burns

Shiner by Amy Jo Burns

An hour from the closest West Virginia mining town, fifteen-year-old Wren Bird lives in a cloistered mountain cabin with her parents. They have no car, no mailbox, and no visitors-except for her mother’s lifelong best friend. Every Sunday, Wren’s father delivers winding sermons in an abandoned gas station, where he takes up serpents and praises the Lord for his blighted white eye, proof of his divinity and key to the hold he has over the community, over Wren and her mother… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Incest

Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed his father his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Homomisia
Transmisia
Deadnaming
Body horror
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a child
Torture
Gun violence

Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Beauregard “Bug” Montage: husband, father, honest car mechanic. But he was once known – from North Carolina to the beaches of Florida – as the best getaway driver on the East Coast. Just like his father, who disappeared many years ago. After a series of financial calamities, Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles – and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, he’s sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Human trafficking
Misogyny
Racism
Fatmisia
Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Hate crime
Emotional & physical child abuse
Alcoholism
Substance addiction
Drug use & abuse
Emesis
Torture
Gun violence
Kidnapping
Car accident

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

It begins in a big yellow house, with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden-boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and to ask what, exactly, they are willing to do for love.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Substance addiction
Drug use & abuse
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Cheating
Anxiety
Depression
Alcoholism
Attempted suicide
Terrorism

Afterland by Lauren Beukes

Afterland by Lauren Beukes

Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole’s own ruthless sister, Billie — all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won’t be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.

To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Cancer

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Drug use
Child soldiers
Poverty
Refugee experiences

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Homomisia
Sexism
Sexual harassment
Divorce
Coming out themes
Anxiety attack
Suicide & attempted suicide
Miscarriage
AIDS
Car accident

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker

Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc. for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, swept under the rug, hidden away by those in charge.

But the world has changed, and the women are watching this promotion differently. This time… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Workplace sexual harassment (theme)
Postpartum depression
Cyberbullying