Tag Archives: Animal Death & Death of a Pet

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

The stories are told by people who have all answered an ad headlined ‘Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months‘. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of ‘real life’ that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But ‘here’ turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theatre where they are utterly isolated from the outside world and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell – and the more devious their machinations to make them… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Paedophilia & sexual assault of a child
  • Body horror
  • Starvation
  • Cannibalism
  • Infanticide, on-page
  • Torture
  • Animal death (cat)

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruellest month is about to deliver on its threat. It’s spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth. But not everything is meant to return to life. When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a séance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil—until one of their party dies of fright. Was this a natural death, or was the victim somehow helped along?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Fatmisia
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Animal death

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe. All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Blood depiction
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation of a parent
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Physical injury
  • Physical assault
  • Police violence
  • Riots
  • Home invasion
  • Bombing
  • Imprisonment in concentration camps
  • War themes
  • Refugee experiences and displacement
  • Animal death

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

What if you could live forever—but without your one true love? Reincarnation Blues is the story of a man who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times, in search of the secret to immortality so that he can be with his beloved, the incarnation of Death. Neil Gaiman meets Kurt Vonnegut in this darkly whimsical, hilariously profound, and wildly imaginative comedy of the secrets of life and love. Transporting us from ancient India to outer space to Renaissance Italy to the present day, is a journey through time, space, and the human heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Slavery
  • Graphic rape
  • Sexual assault of a child
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Torture
  • Animal death

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

But the clock is ticking, and every moment Tommo spends remembering how things used to be, means another moment closer to something which will change his life forever. But the clock is ticking, and every moment Tommo spends remembering how things used to be, means another moment closer to something which will change his life forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consimption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Whipping
  • Military deployment in World War One (theme)
  • Animal death (dog)

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted
  • Suicide discussed
  • Drug abuse
  • Drugging mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Torture mentioned
  • Murder
  • Loss of autonomy (demonic possession)
  • Blackmail
  • Graphic animal death (rabbit)
  • Animal cruelty

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by CA Fletcher

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher

My name’s Griz. My childhood wasn’t like yours. I’ve never had friends, and in my whole life I’ve not met enough people to play a game of football. My parents told me how crowded the world used to be, but we were never lonely on our remote island. We had each other, and our dogs. Then the thief came. There may be no law left except what you make of it. But if you steal my dog, you can at least expect me to come after you. Because if we aren’t loyal to the things we love, what’s the point?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Forced sex work & sexual assault of a minor, off-page
  • Forced pregnancy of a child mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Physical injury
  • Emesis
  • Death of a sister from a fall recounted
  • Animal death

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic Plague will reshape life on earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Suicide
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Hospitalisation
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Gun violence mentioned
  • Animal death & cruelty
  • Animal experimentation

The Paris Betrayal by James Hannibal

The Paris Betrayal by James R. Hannibal

After a rough mission in Rome involving the discovery of a devastating bioweapon, Company spy Ben Calix returns to Paris to find his perfectly ordered world has collapsed. A sniper attack. An ambush. A call for help that brings French SWAT forces down on his head. Ben is out. This is a severance–reserved for incompetents and traitors. Searching for answers and anticipating a coming attack, Ben and a woman swept up in his misfortunes must travel across Europe to find the sniper who tried to kill him, the medic who saved his life, the schoolmaster who trained him, and an upstart hacker from his former team. More than… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Knife violence
  • Explosion
  • Animal death

When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St Clair

When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St. Clair

Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn’t change her identity for nothing. Hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she’s claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there’s no mistaking the murder weapon. Navigating the loss of her Poppa, the mistrust of her mother, and Roundtable, an anonymous… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Body horror
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death