Animal Cruelty, Abuse & Torture – Page 21

Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Bérubé

Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Bérubé

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over. In their isolated new neighbourhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones. Then Deirdre disappears. And when something awful comes scratching at Skye’s window in the middle of the night, claiming she’s the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Self-harm
Blood depiction
Disappearance of a sibling & child
Animal death
Animal cruelty

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (those idiots), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®.

Then Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, and S.T. starts to feel like something isn’t quite right. His most tried-and-true remedies–from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim’s loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis–fail to cure Big Jim’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Body horror, including eye trauma
Animal abuse
Animal death

Semiosis by Sue Burke

Semiosis by Sue Burke

Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet’s sentient species and prove that mammals are more than tools. Forced to land on a planet they aren’t prepared for, human colonists rely on their limited resources to survive. The planet provides a lush but inexplicable landscape–trees offer edible, addictive fruit one day and poison the next, while the ruins of an alien race are found entwined in the roots of a strange plant. Conflicts between generations arise as they struggle to understand one another and grapple with an unknowable alien intellect.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Graphic rape
Physical injury & illness
Cannibalism
Death of a child
Murder
Torture
Animal death
Animal abuse

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus & Ned Vizzini

When Brendan, Cordelia and Nell move to Kristoff House they have no idea that they are about to unleash the dark magic locked within. For the house once belonged to a crazed writer, whose stories have come to life. Literally. Now the Walker kids must battle against deadly pirates, bloodthirsty warriors and a bone-crunching giant. If they fail they will never see their parents again and a power-mad Witch will take over the world. No pressure then . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Blood & injury depiction, including eye trauma
Murder
Gun violence
Sword violence & stabbing
Explosion
Fire
Plane crash
Vivisection discussed

The Binding by Bridget Collins

The Binding by Bridget Collins

Books are dangerous things in Collins’s alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It’s a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them.

After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Rape & rape of a minor
Incest mentioned
Suicide
Animal cruelty
Animal death
Fire

A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia Cole

Octavia has only ever had one goal: to follow in the footsteps of her parents and become a prestigious whitecoat, one of the scientists who study the natural wonders of Faloiv. The secrets of the jungle’s exotic plants and animals are protected fiercely in the labs by the Council of N’Terra, so when the rules suddenly change, allowing students inside, Octavia should be overjoyed. But something isn’t right. The newly elected leader of the Council has some extremist views about the way he believes N’Terra should be run and he’s influencing others to follow him. When Octavia witnesses one of the Faloii—the indigenous… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Blood and injury depiction
Grief and loss depiction (minor)
Death of a friend, off-page
Death of a grandmother recounted
Death of a mother, on-page
Imprisonment
Animal death, cruelty and experimentation (theme)
Animal attack.

Torn by Carian Cole

Torn by Carian Cole

When I was five years old I told Toren Grace I was going to marry him when I grew up. When I turned eighteen I made it clear I still felt the same. The problem? He’s fifteen years older than me and he’s my father’s best friend.

Toren Grace. My father’s best friend. My pseudo-uncle. He’s always been my rock. The one I should never, ever want. But I do want him, and I love him. I always have… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parent in a coma
Animal abuse

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

Gul has spent her life running. She has a star-shaped birthmark on her arm, and in the kingdom of Ambar, girls with such birthmarks have been disappearing for years. Gul’s mark is what caused her parents’ murder at the hand of King Lohar’s ruthless soldiers and forced her into hiding to protect her own life. So when a group of rebel women called the Sisters of the Golden Lotus rescue her, take her in, and train her in warrior magic, Gul wants only one thing: revenge… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Sex slavery, implied
Chronic illness
Death of parents
Murder
Animal cruelty

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

Christopher and Hannah are a happily married surgeon and nurse with picture-perfect lives. All that’s missing is a child. When Janie, an abandoned six-year-old, turns up at their hospital, Christopher forms an instant connection with her, and he convinces Hannah they should take her home as their own.

But Janie is no ordinary child, and her damaged psyche proves to be more than her new parents were expecting. Janie is fiercely devoted to Christopher, but she acts out in increasingly disturbing ways… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Forced institutionalisation
Animal death & cruelty

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950’s America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny (theme)
Parental abandonment
Emotional & physical child abuse
ALcoholism
Panic attack
Death of a father, off-page
Death of a mother from cancer, on-page
Fire mentioned
Animal cruelty & death