Tag Archives: Animal Death & Death of a Pet

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of animal death, including the death of a pet or animal companion.

See also Hunting, Animal abuse & cruelty, and Animal illness & injury.

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

Magic doesn’t exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like sixteen-year-old Koffi. Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome and magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts and secure their eventual freedom. But the night her loved ones’ own safety is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand—and the consequences are dire. As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six—an elite warrior—and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Indentured servitude
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Drugging & drug use (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Animal death & abuse

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang

Orphaned, raised by wolves, and the proud owner of a horned pig named Merlin, Weylyn Grey knew he wasn’t like other people. But when he single-handedly stopped that tornado on a stormy Christmas day in Oklahoma, he realized just how different he actually was. That tornado was the first of many strange events that seem to follow Weylyn from town to town, although he doesn’t like to take credit. As amazing as these powers may appear, they tend to manifest themselves at inopportune times and places. From freak storms to trees that appear to grow over night… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a spouse
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death & hunting
  • Animal attack
  • Bullying

The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood

It is 1995, and Anvar Faris is a restless, rebellious, and sharp-tongued boy doing his best to grow up in Karachi, Pakistan. As fundamentalists in the government become increasingly strident and the zealots next door start roaming the streets in gangs to help make Islam great again, his family decides, not quite unanimously, to start life over in California. The irony is not lost on Anvar that in America, his deeply devout mother and his model-Muslim brother are the ones who fit right in with the tightly knit and gossipy Desi community. Anvar wants more. At the same time, thousands… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Islamophobia
  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Animal death
  • Police violence (fatal shooting)

The Encanto’s Curse by Melissa de la Cruz

A curse has befallen Biringan. Stalking the night sky and sinking sharp teeth in its prey, a vampire-like creature—a manananggal—is terrorizing the kingdom. Now MJ Robertson-Rodriguez must fulfill her duties as the newly crowned queen and restore peace. Except . . . when MJ wakes up in tattered clothes stained with blood, she quickly realizes the monster lives within her. To prevent more destruction, MJ flees to Mount Makiling with select members of her court, all while keeping her curse secret. By her side is Lucas, the talented knight who broke her heart by… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Sword violence & hand-to-hand combat
  • Attempted kidnapping
  • Animal death (birds, decapitated horse head)

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism, misogyny & ableism
  • Emesis
  • Self-injury (for blood) & mentions of self-starvation
  • Chronic illness (IBS & Crohn’s)
  • Needles discussed
  • Animal death & experimentation (including death of a cat)

Extra Witchy by Ann Aguirre

After two failed marriages, Leanne Vanderpol is here for a good time, not for a long time. She only loves the witches in her coven, and she cares more about her career than happily ever after. A difficult past makes her skittish, and she doesn’t trust relationships to stick. But when she decides to run for city council instead of wasting her talents cleaning up messes for the mayor’s office, she fears her past could be used against her. Unless she can find the right husband to shore up her political career. Trevor Montgomery might have peaked in high school. He was popular then, and in college as well, but he partied away his future, met… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child neglect recounted
  • Divorce recounted
  • Depression & anxiety
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Abortion discussed
  • Death of a parent in a hospital (on-page)
  • Animal death & hunting mentioned

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler

Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process. She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion. After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Lesbophobia discussed
  • Sexism & sexual harassment
  • Familial estrangement
  • Parental infidelity
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent recounted (off-page)
  • Animal death in a car accident (deer)

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

Chaos. Fury. Destruction. The Great Change is upon us… Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds. With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption. Orso will find that when the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & misogyny
  • Incest
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War themes
  • Animal death

Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I’ve spent my life kneeling―to their will and to my father’s. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood. But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father’s throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life. Now I’m crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicidal ideation & mentions of suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Infertility, stillbirths & pregnancy mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction, including forced medical experimentation, hospitalisation, & dismemberment
  • Death of a partner during childbirth mentioned
  • Poisoning mentioned
  • Fire
  • Animal death

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism
  • Period-typical racism & racial slurs including antisemitism, antiziganism (g slur) and mentions of blackface
  • Drugging
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Seizures (on-page)
  • Death of a mother from accidental overdose mentioned
  • Murder of a mother/mother-in-law and wife by poisoning (which was first diagnosed as death from heart failure)
  • Incarceration pending trial
  • Military service mentioned
  • Mentions of euthanising a dog