Body Horror – Page 21 – Trigger Warning Database

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.

Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Familial estrangement
Sexual assault
Hallucinations & delusions
Coerced suicide recounted
Emesis
Body horror
Blood & gore depiction
Dead bodies
Physical illness & injury
Hospitalisation
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father & husband
Death of a child
Death of a boyfriend
Gun violence
Knife violence & stabbing
Disappearance of a sister

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.

Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Human trafficking
Physical parental abuse
Child sexual abuse mentioned
Amnesia (memory loss)
Blood & gore depiction
Body horror
Medical experimentation
Death of a child
Death of a brother
Death of a mother & father
Death of a wife
Murder & attempted murder
Physical assault
Imprisonment
Drowning
Earthquakes
Disappearance of a loved one
Child homelessness & poverty recounted
Rebellion themes & regicide
Animal attack
Animal injury & illness
Animal abuse

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler

Years ago a group known as the Terrans left Earth in search of a life free of persecution. Now they live alongside the Tlic, an alien race who face extinction; their only chance of survival is to plant their larvae inside the bodies of the humans.

When Gan, a young, boy, is chosen as a carrier of Tlic eggs, he faces an impossible dilemma: can he really help the species he has grown up with, even if it means sacrificing his own life?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Body horror
Colonization themes

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer

Nita doesn’t murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet—her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they’ve been “acquired.” But when her mom brings home a live specimen, Nita decides she wants out — dissecting living people is a step too far.

But when she tries to save her mother’s victim, she ends up sold on the black market in his place — because Nita herself is a supernatural being. Now Nita is on the other side of the bars, and there is no line she won’t cross to escape and make sure no one can ever capture her again.

Nita did a good deed, and it cost her everything. Now she’s going to do a lot of bad deeds to get it all back.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Paedophilia mentioned
Emotional parental abuse
Nonconsensual drugging
Blood and gore depiction
Body horror
Torture
Explosions
Kidnapping
Fire

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn’t care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Misogyny
Rape mentioned
Body horror
Medical experimentation
Murder
Torture
Animal abuse

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard, known only as the Dragon, to keep the wood’s powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, her dearest friend in the world. There is no way to save her. But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl and when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Attempted rape (on-page, detailed)
Cheating recounted
Adult-minor relationship*
Alcohol consumption
Pregnancy mentioned
Body horror
Minor physical injuries (burns)
Death of a brother
Death of a mother & father mentioned
Murder
Knife violence
Kidnapping
Fire
War themes & military violence
Graphic animal death
Animal attack

*Note: The main romance is between a seventeen-year-old girl and an immortal 100-(plus)-year-old man.

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

The battle on Sharr is over. The dark forest has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan he set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, and finally returning magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.

As the zumra plots to overthrow the kingdom’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power into a weapon, to wield not only against the Lion but against his father, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat—a darkness that hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of her sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dare not unleash. In spite of the darkness enclosing ever faster, Nasir and Zafira find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose…but time is running out to achieve their ends, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Grooming
Coerced sexual assault*
Child abuse
Parental abuse
Starvation mentioned
Eye horror
Gore depiction
Murder
Imprisonment
Mind control
War themes
Chemical warfare

*Kissing under the disguise of someone else

World After by Susan Ee

World After by Susan Ee

When a group of people capture Penryn’s sister Paige, thinking she’s a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken. Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels’ secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go. Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can’t rejoin the angels, can’t take his rightful place as… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism, on-page
Sexism
Parent with paranoid schizophrenia
Hallucinations & delusions mentioned
Graphic blood & gore depiction
Body horror
Dead bodies
Involuntary body modifications
Medical experimentations
Cannibalism
Torture & psychological torture, on-page
Murder & attempted murder
Gun & sword violence
Physical assault
Imprisonment
Kidnapping & captivity
Explosions
Building collapse recounted

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa–a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past. Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks–alone, except for her fox companion–searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers. But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abuse
Smoking mentioned
Malaria & fevers
Dead bodies
Body horror
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a brother
Death of a mother & father, off-page
Death of a grandmother mentioned
Death of a child in a pedestrian-car accident, on- & off-page
Murder & attempted murder
Mass death
Gun violence
Physical assault
Stoning
Carjacking mentioned
Animal death (insects, repeated scenes)

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.

Goodreads • The 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