Kidlit – Page 197 – Trigger Warning Database

Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardians, the all-girl boarding school offers an array of studies and activities, from “Growing a Beautiful and Prosperous Garden” to “Art Appreciation” and “Interior Design.” The girls learn to be the best society has to offer. Absent is the difficult math coursework, or the unnecessary sciences or current events. They are obedient young ladies, free from arrogance or defiance. Until Mena starts to realize that their carefully controlled existence… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Misogyny, slut-shaming & victim blaming
Emotional abuse & gaslighting
Rape culture (theme), including sexual harassment, sexual assault (on- & off-page) and rape of a minor, implied
PTSD, trauma, nightmares & flashbacks
Dieting & food-shaming
Alcohol consumption & drugging
Infertility mentioned
Blood & injury depiction including body horror, dead bodies, consensual & non-consensual medical treatment, graphic use of needles, and human medical experimentation
Murder & attempted murder
Graphic torture
Knife violence
Strangulation
Physical assault
Loss of autonomy (memory & mind manipulation)
Disappearance of a friend

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Body shaming
Slut-shaming
Slavery
Physical & psychological child abuse
Cheating
Disownment
Nightmares mentioned
Suicide, on-page
Coerced self-harm
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Drug use & drugging
Self-harm (mithridatism)
Death of a pregnant character mentioned*
Blood and gore depiction, including dead bodies & emesis
Graphic physical injuries
Decapitation & dismemberment mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of mother and father, on-page
Death of friend
Death of a sister & brother
Death by a fall mentioned
Drowning
Murder and attempted murder
Knife and sword violence & stabbing
Strangulation
Torture
Kidnapping & captivity
Loss of autonomy (glamour magic)
War themes discussed
Bullying

*Context: The father of an unborn child poisons his pregnant consort in an attempt to murder her and the unborn child.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Child abuse due to Munchausen by Proxy (theme)
Needles & medical procedures for chronic illness (on-page)
Hospitalisation

* Context : The plot revolves around the discovery that the protagonist does not have a chronic illness but is being abused by her mother who has Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (also known as Factitious Disorder).

Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth — and ultimately her life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicidal ideation
Drug abuse, drugging & overdose (theme)

The Project by Courtney Summers

The Project by Courtney Summers

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it. When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Abandonment
Disfigurmisia
Child abuse & neglect recounted, including emotional abuse & gaslighting
Infidelity
Trauma, panic attacks, nightmares & mentions of hallucinations
Suicide by train (on-page) & mentions of suicidal ideation
Pregnancy & pregnancy complications (on-page), including traumatic premature childbirth (on-page)
Blood & injury depiction, including graphic burns, hospitalisation, comas, broken bones, and facial scars
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father in a car accident (off-page)
Death of a mother in a fire mentioned
Death of a guardian mentioned
Death of a sister by drowning (off-page)
Death of a son discussed
Murder
Torture (on-page)
Disappearance of a sibling
Car accident (on- & off-page)
Blackmail mentioned and mentions of stalking & harassment
Cults (theme)
Homelessness mentioned

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Biphobia & internalised biphobia
Fatphobia & body-shaming
Alcohol consumption

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised. With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Coming out themes & blackmailed forced outing
Homophobia & slurs
Bullying

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her. It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment
Suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm (on-page)
Blood, gore& injury depiction, including graphic body horror, emesis, loss of limb, eye trauma, needles, and involuntary medical experimentation & medical treatment
Starvation
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend, child & father
Murder & attempted mass murder
Gun violence
Knife violence &stabbing
Hanging
Bombing mentioned
Kidnapping & captivity
Disappearance of a loved one
Chemical gassing
Animal death & hunting, including graphic animal dead bodies, and death by an animal attack

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

When children go missing, people want answers. When children go missing in the small coastal town of Astoria, people look to Wendy for answers. It’s been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road, and gets pulled into the mystery haunting the town. Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don’t do something, the missing child… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Anxiety, trauma & flashbacks
Blood depiction
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a children (on-page)
Murder
Gun violence
Kidnapping
Disappearance of a child & family members
Car accident

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed book cover

Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya. Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Misogyny
Racism, islamophobia & antisemitism
Hate crimes (off-page)
Alcohol consumption
Emesis recounted
Death of a grandfather recounted
Cyberharassment

Context : A secondary character takes pictures of the protagonists almost kissing and posts them online without their consent. This is discussed in-depth.