Tag Archives: Abusive Relationship

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of abusive relationships, and domestic and intimate partner abuse & violence. This includes all kinds of emotional, verbal, psychological, and physical abuse perpetrated by a spouse or intimate partner.

Strange Girls: Women in Horror Anthology edited by Azzurra Nox

Strange Girls: Women in Horror Anthology edited by Azzurra Nox

Strange Girls: Women in Horror Anthology by Azzurra Nox

You know them. Those girls that aren’t quite like everyone else. Those girls who stand out in the crowd. Those girls that dare to be different. Those girls are dangerous.

In Strange Girls, twenty-one authors dare to tackle what makes the girls in this collection different. Vampires, selkies, murderous mermaids, succubus, and possessed dolls take center stage in these short stories that are sure to invoke feelings of quiet terror and uneasiness in the reader. Following the successful debut of Women in Horror anthology with My American Nightmare, Strange Girls is the sophomore effort to showcase these talented women in a genre that is often dominated by the male gaze.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Toxic relationship
  • Rape
  • Death
  • Murder
  • Stalking
  • Forced outing
  • Bullying
  • Necrophilia

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

It all started when Mike Parker’s girlfriend showed up with a bruise on her face. Or, more specifically, when she walked into the principal’s office and said Mike hit her. But her classmates have questions. Why did she go to the principal and not the police? Why did she stay with Mike if he was hurting her? Obviously, if it’s true, Mike should face the consequences. But is it true?

Some girls want to rally for Mike’s expulsion—and some want to rally around Mike. As rumors about what really happened spread, the students at North Bay Academy will question what it means to be guilty or innocent, right or wrong.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Victim blaming
  • Relationship abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Cheating
  • Bulimia
  • Panic attacks
  • Self-harm
  • Recreational drug use
  • Drug abuse

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part–they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…

At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up–in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Pregnancy-related medical crisis, including an emergency caesarian & pre-eclampsia
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent from a heart attack recounted

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

Juliette loves Nate. She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him. They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back. She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Dubious consent
  • Toxic relationship
  • Emotional abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Murder
  • Stabbing
  • Stalking
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Parental abandonment & disownment
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Domestic abuse
  • Abusive dom-sub relationship
  • Psychosis
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Attempted suicide
  • Graphic self-harm
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Death of an infant
  • Animal death & cruelty

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.

Catherine St Day looks forward to a quiet widowhood once her late husband’s scientific legacy is fulfilled. She expected to hand off the translation and wash her hands of the project—instead, she is intrigued by the young woman who turns up at her door, begging to be allowed to do the work, and she agrees to let Lucy stay… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Colonialism mentioned
  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Death of a parent mentioned

After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell

After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell

A distraught young woman boards a train at King’s Cross to return to her family in Scotland. Six hours later, she catches sight of something so terrible in a mirror at Waverley Station that she gets on the next train back to London.

AFTER YOU’D GONE follows Alice’s mental journey through her own past, after a traffic accident has left her in a coma. A love story that is also a story of absence, and of how our choices can reverberate through the generations, it slowly draws us closer to a dark secret at a family’s heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abusive relationship
  • Rape
  • Suicide
  • Coma

The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules: Nude pics are by invitation only, if someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice, and protect your heart.

Only there aren’t any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night… and disappears.

Rhi thought she’d buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Cyberbullying & harassment
  • Emotionally abuse relationship recounted
  • Chronic illness discussed
  • Grief & loss depiction

Striker by Lexi Ander

Striker by Lexi Ander

The peaceful respite for which Zeus and his intended, Dargon and Alpha, had been hoping is shattered when Zeus is unexpectedly drawn to the Waters of Poseidon and told that the safety they’ve been promised is a trap. But the Fal’Amoric aren’t the only important cargo on the Oethra 7, and countless others are depending on the success of their mission. If Zeus hopes to break the silent siege on Valespia and protect those most precious to him, he will need not just powerful allies but the fortitude to survive overwhelming odds.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Nonconsensual surgery on intersex child
  • Medical experimentation
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape, paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Physical & emotional child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Infidelity
  • Death of a parent