Animal Death & Death of a Pet – Page 67

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

September 1973: The beginning of Karl Shoemaker’s senior year in stifling Lightsburg, Ohio. For years, Karl’s been part of “the Madman Underground”- kids forced to attend group therapy during school. Karl has decided that he is going to get out of the Madman Underground for good. He is going to act-and be-Normal. But Normal, of course, is relative. Karl has two after-school jobs, one dead father, one seriously unhinged drunk mother . . . and a huge attitude. Welcome to a gritty, uncensored rollercoaster ride, narrated by the singular Karl Shoemaker.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Racism & racial slurs
Hate crimes
Child sexual abuse
Underage sex work
Physical & verbal abuse
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use
Medical treatment
Needles
Physical assault
Animal death & death of a pet
Animal abuse

The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Kira Bennett’s earliest memories are of living alone and wild in the woods. She has no idea how long she was on her own or what she had to do to survive, but she remembers the moment that Cady Bennett and one of her search-and-rescue dogs found her perfectly. Adopted into the Bennett family, Kira still struggles with human interaction years later, but she excels at the family business: search-and-rescue. Along with Cady’s son, Jude, and their neighbor, Free, Kira works alongside Cady to train the world’s most elite search-and-rescue dogs. Someday, all three… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Physical child abuse in the past, implied
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & night terrors
Minor physical injuries depiction
Disappearance of a child & friend (theme)
Kidnapping (a teenaged secondary character is charged with kidnapping for removing his sister from an abusive home)
Death of a pet dog from old age & mentions of animal cruelty & hunting

Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI’s Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother’s murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock. The… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Physical child abuse (on-page)
Divorce mentioned (secondary characters)
Murder (theme)
Knife violence & stabbing
Torture (protagonist’s parent)
Animal cruelty & death mentioned

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman—Briseis—watches and waits for the war’s outcome. She was queen of one of Troy’s neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles’s concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Victim blaming
Slavery
Graphic rape
Paedophilia
Cheating
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Suicide
Self harm
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a baby
Graphic murder
War themes & battle scenes
Animal death

A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay

A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay

College professor Paul Davis is a normal guy with a normal life. Until, driving along a deserted road late one night, he surprises a murderer disposing of a couple of bodies. That’s when Paul’s “normal” existence is turned upside down. After nearly losing his own life in that encounter, he finds himself battling PTSD, depression, and severe problems at work. His wife, Charlotte, desperate to cheer him up, brings home a vintage typewriter—complete with ink ribbons and heavy round keys—to encourage him to get started on that novel he’s always intended to write.

However, the typewriter itself is a problem. Paul swears it’s possessed and types by itself at night. But only Paul can hear the noise coming from downstairs; Charlotte doesn’t hear a thing. And she worries he’s going off the rails… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating
Suicide mentioned
Blood depiction
Murder
Drowning
Animal death

The Stars of Whistling Ridge by Cindy Baldwin

The Stars of Whistling Ridge by Cindy Baldwin

Ivy Mae Bloom, whose name is one letter away from a complete sentence, has lived her entire life on the road. Her mama is a fallen star who travels near and far to tend to the magic that underpins our world. When Ivy steals Mama’s entire supply of wish jars in the hopes of finding a forever home, a series of disasters strands the Blooms in Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, with Mama’s two star sisters. Ivy knows her wish has been granted and that Whistling Ridge is her forever home—she just needs to convince her parents to stay.

But something is draining the magic from Whistling Ridge, and the star sisters can’t stop it. With help from some new friends, Ivy stumbles across a clue in the town’s history . . . Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Animal death

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a cousin
Murder
Car accident
Animal death

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R Austin

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Homophobia & slurs
Anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares & intrusive thoughts
Depression & dissociation (protagonist)
Disordered eating including binging and purging
Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide
Sibling with alcoholism
Self-harm
Alcohol consumption
Emesis (multiple, on-page)
Death of a husband from cancer mentioned (secondary character)
Death of an estranged uncle by overdose mentioned
Housefire
Car accident resulting in injury (broken arm)
Animal death (rabbit, recounted & discussed)

A Boy Called Bat by Elana K Arnold

A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold

For Bixby Alexander Tam (nicknamed Bat), life tends to be full of surprises — some of them good, some not so good. Today, though, is a good-surprise day. Bat’s mom, a veterinarian, has brought home a baby skunk, which she needs to take care of until she can hand him over to a wild-animal shelter.

But the minute Bat meets the kit, he knows they belong together. And he’s got one month to show his mom that a baby skunk might just make a pretty terrific pet.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Animal death

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

One morning, Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the family taxidermy shop to find that her father has committed suicide, right there on one of the metal tables. Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to manage the failing business, while the rest of the Morton family crumbles. Her mother starts sneaking into the shop to make aggressively lewd art with the taxidermied animals. Her brother Milo withdraws, struggling to function. And Brynn, Milo’s wife—and the only person Jessa’s ever been in love with—walks out without a word. As Jessa seeks out less-than-legal ways of generating income, her mother’s art escalates—picture a figure of her dead husband and a stuffed buffalo in an uncomfortably sexual pose—and the Mortons reach a tipping point. For the first time, Jessa has no choice but to learn who these people truly are, and ultimately how she fits alongside them.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abuse & neglect
Depression
Self harm
Alcohol abuse
Drug abuse
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father from suicide
Graphic animal death