Tag Archives: Animal Death & Death of a Pet

Lost It by Kristen Tracy

Lost It by Kristen Tracy

Tess Whistle is a high school junior with ridiculous problems. Her best friend is plotting the annihilation of a neighbourhood poodle. Her parents are newly-born-again Christians who just moved to a survivalist Outward Bound–type camp in Utah. And Tess is about to lose her virginity—under a canoe—to her serious boyfriend, Ben Easter.

Luckily, none of these dramatic turns spells catastrophe. Because Tess Whistle is a high school junior who is about to discover that, ridiculous as her life may seem, she is finding out exactly who it is she wants to be.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bombing
  • Car accident
  • Animal death

Blood Will Out by Jo Treggiari

Blood Will Out by Jo Treggiari

Ari Sullivan is alive—for now. She wakes at the bottom of a cistern, confused, injured and alone, with only the shadowy recollection of a low-pitched voice and a gloved hand. No one can hear her screams. And the person who put her there is coming back. The killer is planning a gruesome masterpiece, a fairytale tableau of innocence and blood, meticulously designed.

Until now, Ari was happy to spend her days pining for handsome, recent-arrival Stroud Bellows, fantasizing about their two-point-four-kids-future together. Safe in her small hometown of Dempsey Hollow. But now her community has turned very dangerous—and Ari may not be the only intended victim.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Graphic animal death

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

In a matter of weeks, Massachusetts has been overrun by an insidious rabies-like virus that is spread by saliva. But unlike rabies, the disease has a terrifyingly short incubation period of an hour or less. Those infected quickly lose their minds and are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before they inevitably succumb. Hospitals are inundated with the sick and dying, and hysteria has taken hold. To try to limit its spread, the commonwealth is under quarantine and curfew. But society is breaking down and the government’s emergency protocols are faltering.

Dr. Ramola “Rams” Sherman, a soft-spoken pediatrician in her mid-thirties, receives a frantic phone call from Natalie, a friend who is eight months pregnant… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Pregnancy
  • Medical procedures
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a partner
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
  • Home invasion
  • Animal injury
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, Designed to be the playthings of royals, took over the estates of their owners and bent the human race to their will. Now, Ayla, a human servant rising the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging the death of her family… by killing the Sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier. Crier, who was Made to be beautiful, to be flawless. And to take over the work of her father.

Crier had been preparing to do just that—to inherit her father’s rule over the land. But that was before she was betrothed to Scyre Kinok, who seems to have a thousand secrets. That was before she discovered her father isn’t as benevolent as she thought. That was before she met Ayla.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Abandonment
  • Self-harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Animal death

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang 

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the spectres of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • Sexual assault
  • Animal death
  • Animal cruelty

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques

Slagar the Fox is determined to vanquish peaceable Redwall. Gathering his mercenary band of rats, stoats, and weasels, he advances upon the abbey with a cunning scheme-rather than making courageous battle plans, he will steal the children of Redwall from under their parents’ very noses. And his prize captive will be Mattimeo, the headstrong young son of Matthias, the fearless mouse warrior!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Child abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

The clever and greedy wildcat Tsarmina becomes ruler of all Mossflower Woods and is determined to govern the peaceful woodlanders with an iron paw. The brave mouse Martin and quick-talking mouse thief Gonff meet in the depths of Kotir Castle’s dungeon. The two escape and resolve to end Tsarmina’s tyrannical rule. Joined by Kinny the mole, Martin and Gonff set off on a dangerous quest for Salamandastron, where they are convinced that their only hope, Boar the Fighter, still lives

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Animal death

Redwall by Brian Jacques

Redwall by Brian Jacques

A quest to recover a legendary lost weapon by bumbling young apprentice monk, mouse Matthias.

Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice, is threatened by Cluny the Scourge savage bilge rat warlord and his battle-hardened horde. But the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends combine their courage and strength.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antiziganism
  • Animal death
  • Blood depiction

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

While on her daily walk with her dog in the nearby woods, our protagonist comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground with stones. Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.

Shaky even on her best days, she is also alone, and new to this area, having moved here from her longtime home after the death of her husband, and now deeply alarmed. Her brooding about the note grows quickly into a full-blown obsession, as she explores multiple theories about who Magda was and how she met her fate. Her suppositions begin to find echoes in the real world, and the fog of mystery starts to form into a concrete and menacing shape. But is there either a more innocent explanation for all this, or a much more sinister one – one that strikes closer to home?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia
  • Antiziganism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Animal cruelty
  • Death of a dog

Shadow’s Edge by Brent Weeks

Shadow’s Edge by Brent Weeks

Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin’s life. The Godking’s successful coup has left Kylar’s master, Durzo, and his best friend, Logan, dead. He is starting over: new city, new friends, and new profession.

But when he learns that Logan might actually be alive and in hiding, Kylar is faced with an agonizing choice: will he give up the way of shadows forever and live in peace with his new family, or will he risk everything by taking on the ultimate hit?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Rape & attempted rape
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death
  • War themes