Abandonment – Page 17 – Trigger Warning Database

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood. The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom. But even as undeniable as she is… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Classism
Parental abandonment
Self-harm

The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies – death-traders, hired to kill quickly, quietly and mercifully. It is a job for women, and women only. Men will not do this sad, dark work.
Frey has no family, no home, no fortune, and yet her blood sings a song of glory. So when she hears of a monster slaughtering men, women, and children in a northern jarldom, she decides this the Mercies’ one chance to change their fate… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexism
Ableism & ableist language
Parental abandonment recounted
Child abuse
Attempted forced child sex work mentioned
Suicide & assisted voluntary euthanasia, on-page
Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide recounted
Self-flagellation, on-page
Dead bodies & body parts
Blood & gore depiction
Eyeball trauma
Serious physical injury & illness
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a child, on-page
Death of a sister recounted
Death of a girlfriend recounted
Death of a mentor recounted
Death of a parent from illness recounted
Death of a friend, on-page
Graphic murder & attempted murder (theme)
Knife, axe & attempted murder
Hanging, off-page
Poisoning
Graphic drowning
Kidnapping & captivity
War themes & battle scenes
Animal attack
Graphic animal death
Animal abuse

American Panda by Gloria Chao

At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.
With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth–that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatmisia
Child abuse
Parental abandonment
Disownment

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage’s employment status isn’t just important, it’s vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment
Attempted sexual assault & sexual harassment
Blood & injury depiction
Death of a brother recounted
Murder & attempted murder
Torture
Kidnapping & captivity
Sword violence

*Context: The protagonist’s mother abandoned her after she accidentally killed her son, the protgaonist’s brother.

Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

Legend goes that long ago a Flores woman offended the old gods, and their family was cursed as a result. Now, every woman born to the family has a touch of magic.

Sage Flores has been running from her family—and their “gifts”—ever since her younger sister Sky died. Eight years later, Sage reluctantly returns to her hometown. Like slipping into an old, comforting sweater, Sage takes back her job at Cranberry Rose Company and uses her ability to communicate with plants to discover unusual heritage specimens in the surrounding lands… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Threats of revenge pornography
Domestic abuse recounted
Parental abandonment recounted
Death of a parent & sibling recounted

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.
At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Sex work
Family estrangement
Agoraphobia
Depression
Eating disorder
Suicide
Drug use & overdose
Cancer

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment
Depression
Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Terminal illness
Death of a sister and child recounted

Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean

Since being named on of London’s “Lords to Land” by a popular ladies’ magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presents itself, he eagerly jumps—only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he’s ever met! The daughter of a titled wastrel, Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father’s recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother’s birthright. The sinfully… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment & neglect, off-page
Domestic abuse (secondary character)
Unplanned pregnancy (secondary character)
Kidnapping

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she’s vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she’s been missing. But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile. If she’s not careful, she’ll break the most important rule of all… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slut-shaming (period-typical)
Fatmisia & body-shaming
Parental abandonment discussed
Gun violence

Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart by Sarah MacLean

Bold, impulsive, and a magnet for trouble, Juliana Fiori is no simpering English miss. She refuses to play by society’s rules: she speaks her mind, cares nothing for the approval of the ton, and can throw a punch with remarkable accuracy. Her scandalous nature makes her a favourite subject of London’s most practised gossips… and precisely the kind of woman the Duke of Leighton wants far far away from him. Scandal is the last thing Simon Pearson has room for in his well-ordered world. The Duke of Disdain is too focused on keeping his title untainted and his secrets unknown. But when he discovers Juliana hiding in his carriage… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slut-shaming
Parental abandonment mentioned
Attempted sexual assault
Cheating

Context: The love interest is engaged to someone else for the majority of the novel.