Tag Archives: Asphyxia

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of asphyxia (in which the body is deprived of oxygen), including strangulation, and suffocation.

See also Hanging & lynching, Garrotting, and Murder & attempted murder.

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper – the wealthy mother of a famous actor – enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service. Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz. Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Drugging
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Brain injury
  • Death of a child
  • Murder by strangulation
  • Car accident

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Slavery & racial slurs
  • Infidelity
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Elder abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Self-mutilation
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic murder, including filicide by drugging & asphixiation
  • Stalking
  • Animal death (dog)

The Wicked Betrayal by Marion Blackwood

After the events surrounding the Dagger of Orias, Kenna believes that her circumstances could not possibly get any worse. But fortune is a cruel mistress. Unexpected betrayal throws her life into turmoil, and while she is still trying to recover from the shock, she also has to somehow come up with a plan to save her life. The idea is simple. And dangerous beyond belief. In order to get out of the desperate situation she has ended up in, Kenna is going to take on Mordren Darkbringer. But the Prince of Shadows is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Slut-shaming & victim-blaming
  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Depression & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Attempted kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail
  • Building collapse
  • Fire
  • Conscription
  • Homelessness

The Traitor Spy by Marion Blackwood

The elven Court of Stone has many spies, and Kenna is one of its most prized ones. Being a half-elf, she is skilled, dangerous, and beautiful. She’s also a traitor. Desperately yearning for freedom, she blackmails people for ransom behind the back of the elven prince who holds her leash. But one day, she takes it too far. When she accidentally goes after someone from a neighboring court, she is cornered by its prince. The feared Prince of Shadows gives her an ultimatum: spy for him on her own court or her master will learn of her illegal activities. At the same time, a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & slut-shaming
  • Indentured servitude
  • Estrangement
  • Alcohol consumption & gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder, including attempted regicide
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault (mugging)
  • Captivity & confinement
  • Home invasion
  • Hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Conscription
  • Poverty themes

Ruthless Villains by Marion Blackwood

In a world where magic is distributed equally, there are some people who refuse to share their power. Dark mages. Lethal. Selfish. And utterly without morals. Audrey Sable is one of them. As a poison mage, she can bring men to their knees with a flick of her wrist. But the man she really wants to kill will not go down so easily. Callan Blackwell is also a powerful dark mage, and he would like nothing better than to see Audrey beg for mercy at his feet. But their hatred for one another will have to wait. When the heroic champions of equality prepare to launch an attack that will wipe… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & persecution for witchcraft
  • Intimate partner abuse & violence
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction, including decapitation, dismemberment, loss of limb & mutilation
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Physical assault (beating)
  • Home invasion
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Imprisonment
  • Blackmail

Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards

I know seven secrets: One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all. One didn’t care. One used their head. One played the hero. One was left for dead. On her eighteenth birthday, Cleo receives a mysterious invitation to a scavenger hunt. She’s sure her best friend Hope or her brother Connor is behind it, but no one confesses. And as Cleo and Hope embark on the hunt, the seemingly random locations and clues begin to feel familiar. In fact, all of the clues seem to be about Cleo’s dead boyfriend, Cyrus, who drowned on a group rafting trip exactly a year ago. A bracelet… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Abusive relationship
  • Strangulation
  • Drowning

In the Blood by Hailey Turner

Captain Jamie Callahan is running out of time in his efforts to outsmart an enemy metahuman. His father’s presidential campaign is ramping up, and Jamie’s top secret identity as a metahuman himself is at risk of being revealed by the enemy, to say nothing of his secret relationship with Staff Sergeant Kyle Brannigan. As Alpha Team’s long-running mission gets derailed in the worst way possible, Staff Sergeant Alexei Dvorkin discovers the enemy is playing for keeps, and neither he nor Agent Sean Delaney are in any… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Threats of rape
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & trauma
  • Graphic torture, including waterboarding, dental torture, skinning, and beating
  • Erotic asphyxia
  • Chemical bombing
  • Terrorism

Breaking Rosalind by Gigi Styx

I wove a deadly web, but it became my trap. Rosalind: I’m a cold-blooded killer, a femme fatale with a long list of victims. My latest target being Cesare Montesano. I must kill him and his brothers to protect my innocent young daughter. He catches me in the middle of the mission, but I’m not scared. I might be his prisoner yet I’m not without weapons. And I will use every trick in the book to disarm him and escape. Cesare: She tried to inject me with a poisonous syringe. Now, she’s my captive with a head full of secrets. Secrets that threaten my brother’s lives and rob our family’s power. She’s a betrayer, just like all the others, but I won’t… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Workplace sexual harassment
  • Child abuse & grooming recounted
  • Stockholm Syndrome & dubious consent (‘dubcon’)
  • Self-harm (cutting)
  • Drugging
  • Forced pregnancy & teen pregnancy recounted
  • Body modification, scars & branding, including tracker insertion
  • Genital mutilation (castration, stitching)
  • Dismemberment & evisceration
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Murder of a mother & father
  • Graphic torture, Russian roulette & sensory deprivation
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail
  • Animal cruelty recounted

Context : Depiction of BDSM & kink, including bondage, temperature play, pet play, breath play, candle play, gun play, hebephilia, knife play, and medical play

I Will Break You by Gigi Styx

My prison pen pal got the electric chair. So how can he sext me from the grave? I see dead people, and not just the men I murdered. I’m in danger of being committed because I can’t tell what’s real from my hallucinations. Everyone thinks I’m crazy when the serial killer I jilted starts haunting my house. He assassinates any man who shows me interest, leaving their body parts under my pillow. During the day, his gaslighting destroys my peace of mind. But at night, he invades my nightmares and makes me crave the depravity. She ghosted me at the altar. Now, I’m aching for revenge. I want to break her, piece by delicious piece. Revel in her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Teacher-student relationship recounted
  • Victim-blaming
  • Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse recounted
  • Rape & sexual assault
  • Gang rape mentioned (secondary character)
  • Underage sex work mentioned (secondary character)
  • Hallucinations & memory loss
  • Suicide
  • Abortion (forced) & miscarriage recounted
  • Medical misconduct (medication tampering)
  • Dismemberment and desecration of a corpse & grave
  • Genital mutilation (castration)
  • Torture
  • Strangulation
  • Car accident
  • Imprisonment
  • Cults
  • Stalking
  • Bullying, online harassment & doxxing

Context : Depiction of BDSM & kink, including erotophonophilia, sadism, phrogging, collaring, spanking, osteophilia, fear play, mask play, knife play, gun play, and mentions of coprophilia,

Sunny by Jason Reynolds

Sunny by Jason Reynolds

Sunny is just that—sunny. Always ready with a goofy smile and something nice to say, Sunny is the chillest dude on the Defenders team. But Sunny’s life hasn’t always been sun beamy-bright. You see, Sunny is a murderer. Or at least he thinks of himself that way. His mother died giving birth to him, and based on how Sunny’s dad treats him—ignoring him, making Sunny call him Darryl, never “Dad”—it’s no wonder Sunny thinks he’s to blame. It seems the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad’s eyes is win first place ribbons running the mile, just like his mom did. But Sunny doesn’t like running, never has. So he stops. Right in the middle of a race.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Choking incident (on-page)