Tag Archives: Abandonment

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of abandonment, including spousal and parental abandonment.

All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters

The students in Corbin College’s elite academic society, Magni Viri, have it all—free tuition, inspirational professors, and dream jobs once they graduate. When first-gen college student Tara is offered a chance to enroll, she doesn’t hesitate.?  Except once she’s settled into the gorgeous Victorian dormitory, something strange starts to happen. She’s finally writing, but her stories are dark and twisted. Her dreams feel as if they could bury her alive. An unseen presence seems to stalk her through the halls.  And a chilling secret awaits Tara at the heart of Magni Viri—one that just… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Transphobia & accidental misgendering
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Attempted abortion mentioned
  • Hospitalisation
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna

Raised alone and far away from her home on Kali, Esmae longs to return to her family. When the King of Wychstar offers to gift the unbeatable, sentient warship Titania to a warrior that can win his competition, she sees her way home: she’ll enter the competition, reveal her true identity to the world, and help her famous brother win back the crown of Kali. It’s a great plan. Until it falls apart.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Infanticide mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Fire recounted
  • War, rebellion & royal coup (theme)

Love Unwritten by Lauren Asher

Ellie Sinclair is a hopeless romantic who writes love songs. I’m a struggling workaholic who could inspire a hundred breakup albums. On paper, we have nothing in common except for my son. For eight months, I avoid her until our summer trip. Fourteen days. Two islands. And one nanny I shouldn’t be attracted to. Spending time with Ellie is expected, but enjoying her company?
That isn’t part of our travel plans. After my divorce, I swore to protect my heart at all costs. Even if it means breaking hers in the process. What’s worse than working for a grumpy single dad? Admitting that I… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Divorce recounted
  • Self-harm recounted
  • Compulsive eating due to childhood food insecurity (protagonist)

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down. Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a parent from illness mentioned (off-page)
  • Childhood poverty & food insecurity recounted
  • Mention of an animal death during animal testing

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Lights. Camera. Lies. 18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on. But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again. Rachel has… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Imprisonment
  • Kidnapping, captivity & stalking

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra. Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity recounted*
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Emotional & verbal child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Emesis mentioned

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series. She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she’s not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor’s tale. So bet it. The wicked are better dressed, with… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Cancer (protagonist)
  • Murder, torture & flogging

Begin Again by Emma Lord

As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together. But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from cancer mentioned (off-page)
  • Death of a father from a car accident mentioned (off-page)

The Getaway List by Emma Lord

The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes two things: One, that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mom that she has no idea who she really is anymore, and two, she has no idea what she wants because of it. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York for the summer, where her childhood best friend Tom and co-creator of The Getaway List ― a list of all the adventures they’ve wanted to do together since he moved away ― will hopefully help her get in touch with her old adventurous self, and pave the road to a new future. Riley isn’t sure what to expect from Tom, who has been… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt. Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Imprisonment
  • Kidnapping of a child