And I Darken by Kiersten White

And I Darken by Kiersten White

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted rape & sexual assault
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Torture (off-page)
  • Near-drowning
  • Whipping
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The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankentstein by Kiersten White

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Classism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Graphic physical, verbal & emotional abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Intimate partner abuse & violence
  • Nightmares
  • Self-sacrifice (on-page) & suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies & body parts
  • Graphic physical injuries & wound descriptions
  • Graphic medical procedures & experiments
  • Emesis
  • Forced hospitalisation
  • Body horror
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Death of an uncle (off-page)
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a brother
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Graphic strangulation
  • Hanging (off-page)
  • Fire (multiple scenes)
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Building collapse
  • Stalking
  • Graphic animal abuse (on-page) & animal death
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Contagion by Erin Bowman

Contagion by Erin Bowman

Contagion by Erin Bowman book cover

It got in us
After receiving an urgent SOS from a work detail on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is dispatched to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.

Most are dead.
But when the crew arrives, they find an abandoned site, littered with rotten food, discarded weapons…and dead bodies.

Don’t set foot here again.
As they try to piece together who—or what—could have decimated an entire operation, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide by gun (on-page in prologue)
  • Graphic blood and gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Physical illness & injuries, including eyeball trauma
  • Plague, central theme
  • Needles and syringes
  • Medical procedures, including blood test and surgery
  • Medical emergency & serious (terminal) illness of a loved one
  • Comas
  • Emesis
  • Death of parents
  • Death of cousin
  • Death of friend
  • Death of colleague
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Strangulation mentioned
  • Knife violence
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Death from electrocution
  • Blizzards & severe storms
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Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardians, the all-girl boarding school offers an array of studies and activities, from “Growing a Beautiful and Prosperous Garden” to “Art Appreciation” and “Interior Design.” The girls learn to be the best society has to offer. Absent is the difficult math coursework, or the unnecessary sciences or current events. They are obedient young ladies, free from arrogance or defiance. Until Mena starts to realize that their carefully controlled existence… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny, slut-shaming & victim blaming
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Rape culture (theme), including sexual harassment, sexual assault (on- & off-page) and rape of a minor, implied
  • PTSD, trauma, nightmares & flashbacks
  • Dieting & food-shaming
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction including body horror, dead bodies, consensual & non-consensual medical treatment, graphic use of needles, and human medical experimentation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Graphic torture
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (memory & mind manipulation)
  • Disappearance of a friend

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black book cover

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Body shaming
  • Slut-shaming
  • Slavery
  • Physical & psychological child abuse
  • Cheating
  • Disownment
  • Nightmares mentioned
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Coerced self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug use & drugging
  • Self-harm (mithridatism)
  • Death of a pregnant character mentioned*
  • Blood and gore depiction, including dead bodies & emesis
  • Graphic physical injuries
  • Decapitation & dismemberment mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of mother and father, on-page
  • Death of friend
  • Death of a sister & brother
  • Death by a fall mentioned
  • Drowning
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Knife and sword violence & stabbing
  • Strangulation
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Loss of autonomy (glamour magic)
  • War themes discussed
  • Bullying

*Context: The father of an unborn child poisons his pregnant consort in an attempt to murder her and the unborn child.

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be. And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and the Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up. Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Child abuse recounted, and domestic violence (off-page)
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy & abortion recounted
  • Blood & gore depiction and physical injuries
  • Emesis
  • Murder (off-page)
  • Strangulation recounted
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Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh book cover

Odessa is one of Karthia’s master necromancers, catering to the kingdom’s ruling Dead. Whenever a noble dies, it’s Odessa’s job to raise them by retrieving their souls from a dreamy and dangerous shadow world called the Deadlands. But there is a cost to being raised–the Dead must remain shrouded, or risk transforming into zombie-like monsters known as Shades. If even a hint of flesh is exposed, the grotesque transformation will begin.

A dramatic uptick in Shade attacks raises suspicions and fears among Odessa’s necromancer community. Soon a crushing loss of one of their own reveals a disturbing conspiracy: someone is intentionally creating Shades by tearing shrouds from the Dead–and training them to attack. Odessa is faced with a terrifying question: What if her necromancer’s magic is the weapon that brings Karthia to its knees?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableist language
  • Classism
  • Attempted kiss without consent
  • Substance addiction
  • Hallucinations and delusions
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pill addiction, drug abuse, and nonconsensual detox
  • Graphic blood and gore, and dead bodies
  • Physical injuries and burns
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a boyfriend (on-page)
  • Death of a mentor,
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a girlfriend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Strangulation & hanging (mentioned)
  • Fire
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Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Suicidal ideation, and assisted suicide (euthanasia) by asphyxiation by carbon monoxide poisoning
  • Terminal cancer
  • Death of a mother & wife
  • Death of a pet dog (off-page) recounted
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The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

The daughter of a union with an outsider that cast her once-proud family into disgrace, Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol and lead a life of submission, devotion and absolute conformity, like all the women in the settlement.

But a chance mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood that surrounds Bethel – a place where the first prophet once pursued and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still walking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the diary of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realises the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her . . .

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & colourism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Ableist language
  • Persecution for witchcraft
  • Physical, verbal & emotional child abuse
  • Sexual assault
  • Rape & statutory rape recounted
  • Paedophilia & child molestation recounted
  • Forced nonconsensual marriage*
  • Exile & ex-communication
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Suicide recounted
  • Self-harm & self-inflicted injuries
  • Pregnancy & child pregnancy (secondary character)
  • Death from childbirth (two on-page scenes), and mentions of miscarriage & stillbirth
  • Graphic blood depiction & menstruation discussed
  • Plague (multiple)
  • Seizures & stroke (side character)
  • Nonconsensual branding
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a son recounted
  • Death of a best friend (on-page)
  • Strangulation
  • Drowning
  • Being burned alive
  • Earthquake
  • Imprisonment & captivity
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Animal death & sacrifice

Note: This book portrays a cult which uses its beliefs to justify abuse, torture, misogyny, racism & paedophilia, including the marriage, rape (‘bedding’) & impregnation of multiple children (not graphic or on-page, but mentioned & discussed by secondary characters).

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Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo book cover

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Persecution for ‘witchcraft’ (theme)
  • Indentured servitude and slavery
  • Forced underaged sex work recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Disownment
  • Substance and gambling addiction
  • Nightmares
  • Coerced suicide (implied)
  • Alcohol consumption, recreational drug use & non-consensual drugging including forced and coerced drug dependency
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including dead bodies, emesis, medical experimentation, plague, eyeball trauma, and non-consensual body modifications
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & brother recounted
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Knife and gun violence
  • Torture
  • Strangulation
  • Explosions
  • Kidnapping and captivity
  • Incarceration
  • Drowning
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack & death by an animal attack
  • Bullying