Kidlit – Page 203 – Trigger Warning Database

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

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

Ever since Margot was born, it’s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions about what came before. No history to hold on to. No relative to speak of. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along. But that’s not enough for Margot. She wants a family. She wants a past. And she just found the key she needs to get it: A photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Pointing her home. Only, when Margot gets there, it’s not what she bargained for. Margot’s mother left for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Emotional parental abuse & gaslighting
Involuntary pregnancy
Blood & gore depiction, body horror, dead body, and mentions of emesis
Death of an infant (off-page)
Gun violence (off-page)
Fire

Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala

Raffy has a passion for bedazzling. Not just bedazzling, but sewing, stitching, draping, pattern making–for creation. He’s always chosen his art over everything–and everyone–else and is determined to make his mark at this year’s biggest cosplay competition. If he can wow there, it could lead to sponsorship, then art school, and finally earning real respect for his work. There’s only one small problem… Raffy’s ex-boyfriend, Luca, is his main competition. Raffy tried to make it work with Luca. They almost made the perfect team last year after serendipitously meeting in the rhinestone… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Biphobia, outing & coming out themes
Emotional child abuse
Protagonist with anxiety & anxiety attacks

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.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism, classism & persecution for witchcraft
Indentured servitude discussed
Forced underaged sex work & rape of a child recounted
Parental abandonment & disownment and child abuse
Gambling addiction & gambling (protagonist)
Drug dependency & withdrawal discussed (on-page)
Recreational drug use recounted & alcohol consumption
Pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
Graphic blood & injury depiction, consensual body modification, mentions of plague, and protagonist with chronic illness & pain
Death of a boyfriend & friend (on-page)
Murder & attempted murder
Torture (on-page)
Gun violence, explosions & knife violence & stabbing
Kidnapping & captivity (on-page)
Imprisonment
Home invasion
Blackmail & death threats
Poverty themes & debt collection mentioned

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Terminal cancer (theme)
Loss of vision (secondary character)
Medical treatments & procedures including hospitalisation
Death of a boyfriend

Absent by Katie Williams

When seventeen-year-old Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumour that her death wasn’t an accident–that she supposedly jumped on purpose–she can’t bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumours once and for all.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicide
Recreational drug use
Death by a fall (protagonist)
Murder
Bullying

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the air, and people of all faiths weave their lives together. However, the city bears scars of its recent past, when the chaotic tribe of Shayateen djinn slaughtered its entire population — except for Fatima and two other humans. Now ruled by a new maharajah, Noor is protected from the Shayateen by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reason, and by their commander, Zulfikar. But when one of the most potent of the Ifrit dies, Fatima is changed in ways she cannot fathom, way… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexual harassment
Grief depiction
Death of a brother & father recounted
Disappearance of a sibling
Murder & attempted murder
Massacres & genocide recounted
Knife violence & stabbing
Poisoning
Fire
War themes
Poverty themes