Tag Archives: Alcoholism

The City We Became by NK Jemisin

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Antisemitism
  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence discussed
  • Drug use mentioned
  • Alcoholism mentioned

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighbourhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors.

Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape of a child
  • Anxiety
  • Eating disorder
  • Parent with alcoholism

Play With Me by Alisha Rai

Play With Me by Alisha Rai

Jewellery designer Tatiana Belikov may have matured enough to curb her impulsive nature, but wickedness is still her best accessory. When family troubles bring her to Las Vegas and face-to-face with the man who knows all her darkest desires, resisting temptation is futile. A night of no-holds-barred sin? Jackpot.

Once billionaire Wyatt Caine had nothing to offer Tatiana except his heart, but time has changed his fortunes. Now he’s the king of vice, and the king always gets what he wants. Especially when all he wants is her, all grown up and ready to play every dirty game he can devise… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia
  • Sex worker shaming
  • Parental estrangement
  • Child emotional abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Death of a mother recounted

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of the Château d’If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racial slurs & antiziganism (g slur)
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage
  • Death by starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Death of a child & attempted infanticide
  • Torture
  • Wrongful imprisonment

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…

Working as a paid companion to a bitter elderly lady, the timid heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life is bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. Whisked from Monte Carlo to Manderley, Maxim’s isolated Cornish estate, the friendless young bride begins to realise she barely knows her husband at all. And in every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia
  • Racism
  • Incest
  • Infidelity
  • Dementia
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Drowning

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

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

A year after an accidentally whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. However, her intellect and passion will never be enough in the eyes of the administrators, who see men as the sole guardians of science.

But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolizes is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Misogyny
  • Amisia
  • Racism
  • Forced marriage
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Drug abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Medical procedures & surgery
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Explosion
  • Colonialism
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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Bimisia
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Blood & physical injury depiction
  • Epilepsy
  • Needles
  • Medical procedures
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Torture mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
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His and Hers by Alice Feeney

His & Hers by Alice Feeney

There are two sides to every story: yours and mine, ours and theirs, His & Hers. Which means someone is always lying. When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Rape, sexual assault & grooming
  • Dementia
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide & self harm
  • Death of a child from SIDS
  • Blackmail
  • Animal abuse & cruelty
  • Bullying

A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

Buddy is a good dog.

After searching for his purpose through several eventful lives, Buddy is sure that he has found and fulfilled it. Yet as he watches curious baby Clarity get into dangerous mischief, he is certain that this little girl is very much in need of a dog of her own.

When Buddy is reborn, he realizes that he has a new destiny. He’s overjoyed when he is adopted by Clarity, now a vibrant but troubled teenager. When they are suddenly separated, Buddy despairs―who will take care of his girl?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Hospital
  • Needles
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a father mentioned
  • Car accident
  • Stalking
  • Homelessness
  • Animal death, including the death of a pet dog
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