Tag Archives: Animal Death & Death of a Pet

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee

That painful fact of life couldn’t be truer for the Sullivan sisters. Once, they used to be close, sharing secrets inside homemade blanket castles. Now, life in the Sullivan house means closed doors and secrets left untold. Fourteen-year-old Murphy, an aspiring magician, is shocked by the death of Siegfried, her pet turtle. Seventeen-year-old Claire is bound for better things than her Oregonian hometown—until she receives a crushing rejection from her dream college. And eighteen-year-old Eileen is nursing a growing addiction in the wake of life-altering news… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Terminal cancer (leukemia)
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Animal death & neglect

The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue

The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue

Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Cheating
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of a child
  • Animal death

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She’s been able to support her unemployed mother–and Mom’s deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week–so far, but it isn’t enough. Money’s still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world–from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences. Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Suicidal ideation (passive)
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
  • Graphic animal cruelty
  • Animal death (dog)
  • Poverty

Valor by John Gwynne

Valor by John Gwynne

War has erupted in the Banished Lands as the race for power intensifies. Corban flees his homeland searching for peace, but he soon discovers that there is no haven in the west as the agents of Rhin and roaming bands of giants hound his every step. Veradis leaves the battleground and rushes to his King’s side. But he has witnessed both combat and betrayal and his duty weighs heavily upon him. Maquin seeks only revenge, but pirate slavers and the brutal world of pit-fighting stand in his way. Nathair becomes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Animal death

Ruin by John Gwynne

Ruin by John Gwynne

The Banished Lands are engulfed in war and chaos. The cunning Queen Rhin has conquered the west and High King Nathair has the cauldron, most powerful of the seven treasures. At his back stands the scheming Calidus and a warband of the Kadoshim, dread demons of the Otherworld. They plan to bring Asroth and his host of the Fallen into the world of flesh, but to do so they need the seven treasures. Nathair has been deceived but now he knows the truth. He has choices to make, choices that will determine the fate of the Banished Lands. Elsewhere the flame of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Infidelity
  • Emesis
  • Death of a child
  • Animal death

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

Lavender House by Lev A.C. Rosen

Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well-guarded secret—but it’s not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they’ve needed to keep others out. And now they’re worried they’re keeping a murderer in. Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Hate crimes, including gay bashing
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Animal death & hunting (rabbit)

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th-century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery
  • Antisemitism
  • Queermisia
  • Rape mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking and medicinal drug use mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction including broken bones and knife wounds
  • Depiction of corpses
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Genocide recounted
  • Torture mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Knife violence
  • Drowning
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • War themes
  • Animal death

The Summer We Forgot by Caroline George

The Summer We Forgot by Caroline George

Darby and Morgan haven’t spoken for two years, and their friend group has splintered. But when the body of their former science teacher is found in the marsh where they attended camp that summer, they realize they have more questions than answers . . . and even fewer memories. The group of reunited friends suspects that a murderer is stalking the coastal highway 30A, and they are desperate to recover their memories as quickly as possible . . . before their history they can’t remember repeats itself. As tensions rise… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Statutory rape
  • Attempted rape of a minor
  • Memory loss
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping & hostage situtation
  • Blackmail
  • Death of a pet mentioned

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical, verbal & emotional child abuse recounted
  • Parental abandonment
  • Panic attack
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging mentioned
  • Stillbirth recounted
  • Blood & physical injuries depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father in a fire recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Explosion
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Colonialism & slavery discussed
  • Animal death mentioned

To Be Devoured by Sara Tantlinger

To Be Devoured by Sara Tantlinger

What does carrion taste like? Andi has to know. The vultures circling outside her home taunt and invite her to come understand the secrets hiding in their banquet of decay. Fascination morphs into an obsessive need to know what the vultures know. Andi turns to Dr. Fawning, but even the therapist cannot help her comprehend the secrets she’s buried beneath anger-induced blackouts. Her girlfriend, Luna, tries to help Andi battle her inner darkness and infatuation with the vultures. However, the desire to taste dead flesh, to stitch… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide & suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Self-harm
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Graphic cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Animal abuse & cruelty
  • Animal death