Tag Archives: Alcohol Consumption & Abuse

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of alcohol consumption & abuse. See also Alcoholism and Drug use & abuse.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to Mister, a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister’s letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Cultural appropriation, specifically Native American culture
  • Domestic violence
  • Physical, verbal & emotional abuse, including gaslighting
  • Rape, statutory rape & rape of a child
  • Incest (father-daughter)
  • Pregnancy, result of rape & incest
  • Forced estrangement
  • Cheating
  • Self-harm
  • Disordered eating (bingeing)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Female genital mutilation mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Lynching recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence mentioned
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of an infant

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

The Prince & the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride―or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia―the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!

Sebastian’s secret weapon (and best friend) is the brilliant dressmaker Frances―one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears dresses. But Frances dreams of greatness, and being someone’s secret weapon means being a secret. Forever. How long can Frances defer her dreams to protect a friend?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Forced coming out
  • Queermisia
  • Ableism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Surgery mentioned
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Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau

Kisses & Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau

Sixteen-year-old Mia, an American girl at an elite summer ballet program, has six weeks to achieve her dreams: to snag an audition with one of the world’s best ballet companies. But there’s more to Paris than ballet—especially when a charming French boy, Louis, wants to be her tour guide—and the pair discover the city has a few mysteries up its sleeve.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Car accident
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Minor physical injuries, including broken bones & concussion
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The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews book cover

Can two broken boys find their perfect home?

Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.

But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism and ableist language
  • Child abuse
  • Physical and verbal abuse
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Serious injury to a loved ones
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying
  • Homelessness
  • Incarceration of a parent
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The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw book cover

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under. Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into. Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableist language
  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Dubious consent scenes & sexual assault (non-consensual kiss) (on-page)
  • Suicide & self-sacrifice (on-page, discussed)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Injury & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a father & husband
  • Death of a fiancé
  • Murder & kidnapping
  • Drowning (multiple scenes, on-page & recounted)
  • Fire

Context : The protagonist lies to her love interest about her identity and they have sex (on-page).

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee book cover

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel. Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Sexual harassment & sex work, implied
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Parent with paranoid schizophrenia with mentions of delusions and hallucinations
  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic blood and injury depiction, including dead bodies and body parts, cannibalism, dismemberment, scars, human experimentation, and nonconsensual body modification (theme)
  • Death of children discussed
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Knife & gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • War themes
  • Animal attack

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Also called His Majesty’s Dragon.

Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old; finding a warmer berth in Nelson’s navy than any he enjoyed as the youngest, least important son of Lord Allendale. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancée, society’s esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Minor sex work shaming & slurs
  • Suicide*
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use (smoking)
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a colleague (off-page)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Bombings
  • War themes (Napoleonic Wars)
  • Military violence & naval warfare
  • Animal death (graphic, multiple scenes)
  • Animal cruelty & abuse
  • Animal illness & injury
  • Animal attack
  • Death of an animal companion

*Note: An enemy air force captain chooses to stay on-board his dying dragon as it falls & plummets into the ocean.

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Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas; the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over–especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud–because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth. Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there. And Kit has a couple secrets of her own–including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating
  • Alcoholism & recreational drug use
  • Dieting
  • Abortion & miscarriage
  • Death of a parent
  • Stroke
  • Drowning
  • Fire
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In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Nora hasn’t seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back.

Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?

But something goes wrong. Very wrong.

Some things can’t stay secret for ever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Teen pregnancy recounted
  • Abortion recounted
  • Hospital
  • Blood depiction & physical injuries
  • Serious injury to a loved one
  • Forced hospitalisation
  • Scars
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a fiancé
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • Animal hunting mentioned

*Note: Adult-minor relationship & statutory rape briefly mentioned.

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The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

When she stumbles across the advert, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss: a live-in nanny position, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten by the luxurious ‘smart’ home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare – one that will end with a child dead and her in a cell awaiting trial for murder.

She knows she’s made mistakes. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty – at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Dubious consent scenario*
  • Physical, emotional & verbal child abuse
  • Child neglect
  • Cheating
  • Panic attack (on-page)
  • Suicide & self-harm mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction and physical injuries
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a sister
  • Murder
  • Poisoning (on- & off-page)
  • Death from a fall
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Incarceration

*Note: A fade-to-black sex scene where the protagonist is under the influence of alcohol.

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