Animal Cruelty, Abuse & Torture – Page 20

My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows

Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she’s a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. It’s a secret that could cost her a head—or a tail.⠀

Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But after the king meets a suspicious end, things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis are forced to navigate a vip… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Kidnapping
Animal cruelty

Fallen by Mia Sheridan

Fallen by Mia Sheridan

Scarlett Lattimore arrives at Lilith House, an abandoned mansion built in 1876, that later housed a reform school for troubled girls, to start a new life with her seven-year-old daughter.

But between the nearby town with the strange, disconcerting feel, the deputy sheriff who is equal parts intriguing and suspicious, and the discovery that their new home holds a dark and violent past, Scarlett soon begins to question her rash decision… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape, on-page
Animal cruelty

Seek by Mia Sheridan

Seek by Mia Sheridan

Wealthy socialite Olivia Barton never imagined her fiancé would disappear on what was supposed to be a routine business trip. She’s even more heartbroken and confused when a hired private investigator tracks him half a world away, to a seaside town in Colombia. But the country has recently been ravaged by a massive earthquake and deadly tsunami, shutting down outside communication and making travel all but impossible. Still, Olivia is determined to make it to Colombia to find the answers she so desperately seeks. What she needs is a guide… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse recounted
Death of parents, off-page
Murder
Animal abuse, on-page

Congo by Michael Crichton

Congo by Michael Crichton

Ten thousand miles away, Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies — all motionless except for one moving image — a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.

In San Francisco, primatologist Peter Elliot works with Amy, a gorilla with an extraordinary vocabulary of 620 “signs,” the most ever learned by a primate… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Colonialism
Blood & gore depiction including eye trauma
Death of a friend
Gun violence
Explosion
Animal death
Animal experimentation discussed

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness

On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life, free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus’s deeply-held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Animal cruelty

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there’s more to her mother than meets the eye.

Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best frie… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood & gore depiction
Animal abuse & torture
Animal death

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Domestic abuse
Murder
Torture
Kidnapping
Animal death
Animal cruelty

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Darling is only ten years old, yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen. Before the school closed before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.

But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Rape
Abortion
Physical assault

Animal death
Animal cruelty
War themes

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

In this sensational, hard-hitting and passionate tale of marital cruelty, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall sees a mysterious tenant, Helen Graham, unmasked not as a ‘wicked woman’ as the local gossips would have it, but as the estranged wife of a brutal alcoholic bully, desperate to protect her son. Using her own experiences with her brother Branwell to depict the cruelty and debauchery from which Helen flees, Anne Bronte wrote her masterpiece to reflect the fragile position of women in society and her belief in universal redemption but scandalized readers of the time.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Domestic abuse
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Spouse with alcoholism
Animal abuse

Open Season by CJ Box

Open Season by C.J. Box

There’s nothing unusual about the sound of a gunshot in Twelve Sleep. Here in remotest Wyoming, where elk roam the pine forests and cougars prowl the mountains, everyone owns a gun. But when Joe Pickett hears two sharp cracks ring out months before hunting season, it’s his job to investigate. As game warden in Twelve Sleep, father-of-two Joe Pickett is not only badly paid and poorly housed, but deeply unpopular. So when the source of the shots – a well-known poacher – gets off scot-free after a humiliating confrontation, the locals are delighted. And then the poacher turns up dead in the Pickett’s backyard. Charged with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Death of a child
Murder
Gun violence
Blackmail
Animal hunting
Animal cruelty