Amnesia & Memory Disorders – Trigger Warning Database

King’s Captive by Amber Bardan

King’s Captive by Amber A. Bardan

Some people would think being stuck on a private island is heaven, but this is my hell. Because I’m not here as a guest. Not even close. I’m a prisoner. I’m his. Julius King. Powerful. Wealthy. Dangerous.

There are parts of me he wants that I can’t give him. When he looks at me, there are times I swear he sees someone else. And the scary part is that sometimes, when he touches me, I think he may be someone else, too.

Though my body might be tempted, and he might control everything else, I can’t let him have any piece of my heart. I won’t. But every day, the fight gets harder, and Julius manages to slip past my defenses in the most unexpected ways. I have to find out the truth about Julius King. Even if it destroys me.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Amnesia
Physical injury, including brain injury & gunshot wounds
Hospitalisation
Scar & burn scars
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a spouse, perceived
Death of a father from gun violence
Death of a mother in a car accident mentioned
Murder & attempted murder
Kidnapping

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

I look at my hands. One of them says FLORA BE BRAVE.

Flora has anterograde amnesia. She can’t remember anything day-to-day: the joke her friend made, the instructions her parents gave her, how old she is. Then she kisses someone she shouldn’t, and the next day she remembers it. It’s the first time she’s remembered anything since she was ten.

But the boy is gone. She thinks he’s moved to the Arctic. Will following him be the key to unlocking her memory? Who can she trust?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating
Adult-minor relationship*
Anterograde Amnesia
Nonconsensual drugging*
Death of a sibling

* Note: Flora’s parents are lying to her about her prescription medication, which she believes she is taking for her amnesia but is actually a form of tranquilisers designed to keep her ‘passive’. Also, Flora is involved with her best friend’s 19-year-old boyfriend, who is aware that her memory disorder makes her unable to retain memories since turning ten.

We Were Liars by E Lockhart

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Memory loss
Hallucinations
Self harm
Suicidal ideation
Migraines
Near-drowning incident

City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

A hundred and thirty years have passed since Arathiel last set foot in his home city. Isandor hasn’t changed—bickering merchant families still vie for power through eccentric shows of wealth—but he has. His family is long dead, a magical trap has dulled his senses, and he returns seeking a sense of belonging now long lost.

Arathiel hides in the Lower City, piecing together a new life among in a shelter dedicated to the homeless and the poor, befriending an uncommon trio: the Shelter’s rageful owner, Larryn, his dark elven friend Hasryan, and Cal the cheese-loving halfling. When Hasryan is accused of Isandor’s most infamous assassination of the last decade, what little… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Parental abandonment
Physical & emotional abuse
Memory loss
Torture
Police brutality
Hanging
Death by fire mentioned
Homelessness

The Damned by Renée Ahdieh

The Damned by Renée Ahdieh

Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien.

Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise. Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Misogyny
Memory loss
Blood & gore depiction
Murder

Reverie by Ryan La Sala

Reverie by Ryan La Sala

All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember how he got there, what happened after, and why his life seems so different now. And it’s not just Kane who’s different, the world feels off, reality itself seems different.

As Kane pieces together clues, three almost-strangers claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere—the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery—Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident. And when a sinister force threatens to alter reality for good, they will have to do everything they can to stop it before it unravels everything they know.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Amnesia
Emesis mentioned
Scars
Near-drowning incident mentioned
Car accident mentioned
Bullying

Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Abusive relationship
Memory loss
Death of a boyfriend
Car accident

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future.

But Naomi picked heads.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Amnesia & memory loss
Graphic attempted suicide
Alcohol consumption
Smoking mentioned

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Recursion by Blake Crouch

That’s what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

That’s what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine it—and his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableist language
Gaslighting
Depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Alcohol consumption
Forced drug use
Alzheimers’ disease
Needles
Nonconsensual human experimentation, on-page
Forced & coerced sensory deprivation
Grief depiction
Death of a daughter, recounted
Death of a child
Torture, including psychological torture
Death by a fall, on-page
Captivity
Kidnapping
Atomic bomb
Animal medical testing

Repeat by Kylie Scott

Repeat by Kylie Scott

When a vicious attack leaves 25-year-old Clementine Johns with no memory, she’s forced to start over. Now she has to figure out who she was and why she made the choices she did – which includes leaving the supposed love of her life, tattoo artist Ed Larsen, only a month before.

Ed can hardly believe it when his ex shows up at his tattoo parlor with no memory of their past, asking about the breakup that nearly destroyed him. The last thing he needs is more heartache, but he can’t seem to let her go again. Should they walk away for good, or does their love deserve a repeat performance

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Memory loss