Animal Cruelty, Abuse & Torture – Page 28

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Twenty years ago Claire Scott’s eldest sister, Julia, went missing. No one knew where she went – no note, no body. It was a mystery that was never solved and it tore her family apart. Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one. Claire is convinced Julia’s disappearance is linked. But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape & paedophilia
Suicide mentioned
Drug abuse
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a sister & spouse
Murder
Torture
Gun violence
House fire
Kidnapping
Disappearance of a sibling
Animal abuse mentioned

The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan

The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan

It’s been almost a year since Sila’s mother traveled halfway around the world to Turkey, hoping to secure the immigration paperwork that would allow her to return to her family in the United States.

The long separation is almost impossible for Sila to withstand. But things change when Sila accompanies her father outside their Oregon town to fix a truck. There, behind an enormous stone wall, she meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the state lottery. Their new alliance leads to the rescue of a circus elephant named Veda, and then to a friendship with an unusual boy named Mateo, proving that comfort and hope come in the most unlikely of places.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Terminal cancer
Death of a wife recounted
Graphic animal abuse, neglect & cruelty, including the use of electric prods

Home After Dark by David Small

Home After Dark by David Small

Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to sun-splashed California in search of a dream. Suddenly forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell. Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays their generosity by running away with their restaurant’s proceeds.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Queermisia
Suicide
Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Physical assault
Animal death
Animal abuse
Bullying

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent, harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racial slurs
Queermisia
Misogyny
Eugenics
Cheating
Suicide
Self harm, including self-flagellation
Domestic abuse & violence
Child abuse
Recreational drug use & abuse
Overdose mentioned
Emesis
Death of a parent
Hanging
Electrocution
Animal neglect
Animal death & dead bodies

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Strange changes are taking place in Village. Once a utopian community that prided itself on its welcome to new strangers, Village will soon be closed to all outsiders. As one of the few people able to travel through the dangerous Forest, Matty must deliver the message of Village’s closing and try to convince Seer’s daughter to return with him before it’s too late. But Forest has become hostile to Matty as well, and he must risk everything to fight his way through it, armed only with an emerging power he cannot yet explain or understand.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Animal death
Animal abuse

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

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies – humans with extraordinary abilities – who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew. Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice – and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Physical injury (burns)
Death of a mother from a fall
Murder of a mother, father and baby sister by gun violence recounted
Gun violence including fatal shootings, stun guns and tranquilizer guns with poisoned ammunition
Fire, poisonous gas and explosions
Animal death & cruelty
Poverty
Bullying
War themes recounted & battle scenes (on-page)

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents Terry Pratchett

Even wizards produce leftovers. But a wizard’s rubbish is laced with magic, and for the rats that forage this rubbish, the magic has changed them – they can speak and read, and have rather grand ambitions for a comfortable retirement.

Which is perfect for a con-cat like Maurice. He has his own magical talents, and wants to get rich quick. Together with the rats, and young (rather simple) Keith, the ‘piper’, they work the towns to create their very own plague of rats – then lure them away for cash.

But in the run-down town Bad Blintz, this little con goes wrong, and suddenly these educated rodents aren’t playing to the piper’s tune . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Body horror
Animal cruelty

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

There is a hint of Armageddon in the air. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world will end on a Saturday. So the Armies of Good and Evil are massing, and the world’s last two remaining witchfinders are getting ready to Fight the Good Fight. Atlantis is rising. Frogs are falling. Tempers are flaring, and everything appears to be going to Divine Plan.

Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. They’ve lived amongst Humanity for millennia, and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle. So if Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they’ve got to find and kill the AntiChrist (which is a shame, really, as he’s a nice kid). There’s just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Fatmisia & body shaming
Racism & racist language
Starvation
Eating disorder
Childbirth
Blood depiction
Gun violence
Car accident
Animal abuse
Animal death

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical. In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Cheating recounted
Nightmares
Hallucinations
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Physical injuries
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a sister recounted
Death of a brother (on-page)
Death of a child
Murder & attempted murder
Explosion
Torture
Knife violence
Fire
Death from a fall recounted
Disappearance of a loved one
Imprisonment
War themes & battle scenes
Animal cruelty