Bullying & Hazing – Page 2 – Trigger Warning Database

Lu by Jason Reynolds

Lu was born to be co-captain of the Defenders. Well, actually, he was born albino, but that’s got nothing to do with being a track star. Lu has swagger, plus the talent to back it up, and with all that—not to mention the gold chains and diamond earrings—no one’s gonna outshine him. Lu knows he can lead Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and the team to victory at the championships, but it might not be as easy as it seems. Suddenly, there are hurdles in Lu’s way—literally and not-so-literally—and Lu needs to figure out, fast, what winning the gold really means.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Substance addiction mentioned
Parental pregnancy mentioned
Death of an overdose mentioned
Physical assault
Bullying mentioned including ableist name-calling

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds

This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy—Talking about boogers. Stealing pocket change. Skateboarding. Wiping out. Braving up. Executing complicated handshakes.
Planning an escape. Making jokes. Lotioning up. Finding comfort. But mostly, too busy walking home. Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Bullying

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Running. That’s all that Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But never for a track team. Nope, his game has always been ball. But when Ghost impulsively challenges an elite sprinter to a race—and wins—the Olympic medalist track coach sees he has something: crazy natural talent. Thing is, Ghost has something else: a lot of anger, and a past that he is trying to outrun. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed and meld with the team, or will his past finally catch up to him?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Domestic violence mentioned, including an scene where an drunk man shoots at his wife and child (who remain unharmed)
Alcohol consumption & drug & alcohol abuse mentioned (secondary adult characters)
Bullying & physical assault (fistfights)

Coach by Jason Reynolds

Coach by Jason Reynolds

Before Coach was the man who gave caring yet firm-handed guidance to Ghost, Lu, Patina, and Sunny on the Defenders track team, he was little Otie Brody, who was obsessed with Mr. 9.99 (a.k.a. Carl Lewis) and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. Like Mr. 9.99—and his own dad—Otie is a sprinter. Sprint free or die is practically his motto. Then his dad, who is always away on business trips, comes home with a pair of Jordans. JORDANS. Fine as fine can be. Otie puts them on and feels like he can leap to the moon…maybe even leap like Mr. 9.99 when he won the Olympic… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Minor blood depiction & injuries (bloodied nose, cuts)
Drug use & alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
Car accident mentioned
Bullying, including fistfights and intimidation tactics (threatening with clippers, throwing students into lockers)

Wish by Barbara O’Connor

Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parent in jail (protagonist)
Bullying & minor fistfights (on-page)

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber

Wren Greenrock has always known that one day she would steal her sister’s place in the palace. Trained from birth to return to the place of her parents’ murder and usurp the only survivor, she will do anything to rise to power and protect the community of witches she loves. Or she would, if only a certain palace guard wasn’t quite so distractingly attractive, and if her reckless magic didn’t have a habit of causing trouble… Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility. Marriage into a brutal kingdom awaits, and she will not let a small matter like waking up in the middle of the desert in the company of an extremely… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Persecution for witchcraft (theme)
Child abuse recounted (on-page)
Alcohol consumption (on-page)
Attempted murder by poisoning (on-page)
Minor blood & injury depiction
Murder of a father by poisoning mentioned
Murder of a mother & great-aunt from their throats being slit (recounted & on-page)
Minor battle scenes and fantasy violence, including sword, bow and arrow & knife violence (recounted & on-page) as well as discussions of past war and genocide
Imprisonment (on-page)
Torture mentioned (off-page)
Kidnapping (on-page)
Loss of autonomy (magical-induced memory loss and sleep)
Animal death (snow leopard, elk, birds)
Bullying, including being magically suffocated and thrown off a cliff into the ocean to drown (on-page)

My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner

Elsie Hoffman has been engaged to her college boyfriend for a year and a half. Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for almost a decade and a half. When Elsie discovers her fiancé already planned their wedding and honeymoon as a surprise and she’s expected to be in a white dress in seven days, she swiftly realizes she’s let herself become too comfortable with a future she never wanted. She breaks things off, and a week later is on a plane to the Caribbean for her non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend Ginny instead. Ginny thinks it’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Lesbophobia (d slur)
Alcohol consumption
Childhood bullying mentioned

When Rain Turns to Snow by Jane Godwin

Lissa is home on her own after school one afternoon when a stranger turns up on the doorstep carrying a baby. Reed is on the run – surely people are looking for him? He’s trying to find out who he really is and thinks Lissa’s mum might have some answers. But how could he be connected to Lissa’s family – and why has he been left in charge of a baby? A baby who is sick, and getting sicker… Reed’s appearance stirs up untold histories in Lissa’s family, and suddenly she is having to make sense of her past in a way she would never have imagined. Meanwhile, her brother is dealing with a devastating secret of his own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexism
Substance addiction mentioned
Bullying & cyberbullying

Blood and Steel by Helen Scheuerer

With her death foretold, Althea Zoltaire only has three years to become what she’s always dreamed of being: a warrior legend. Women are forbidden to wield blades, so she has trained in secret her entire life. Now racing against the clock, she fights to secure her place in the elite guild charged with the protection of the five kingdoms. The sparring and hazing of the new trainees border on deadly, but even more dangerous is her growing attraction to Wilder Hawthorne, her unwilling warrior chaperone. All around them, schemes are afoot and darkness looms. Will Althea pass the perilous initiation test and take her place as a champion of Thezmarr – or will the invading evil snatch away her dream before it starts?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Graphic injury depiction
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Bullying & hazing

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

After: Jess is alone. Her cabin has burned to the ground. She knows if she doesn’t act fast, the cold will kill her before she has time to worry about food. But she is still alive—for now. Before: Jess hadn’t seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded. After: With only her father’s dog for company, Jess must forage and hunt for food, build shelter, and keep herself warm. Some… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Parental abandonment recounted
Depersonalization episode (on-page)
Alcohol consumption
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse mentioned
Suicide mentioned
Blood, gore & injury depiction and emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father
Murder & attempted murder
Gun violence
Explosion
Car accident
Fire
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Blackmail
Drowning
Graphic animal death & dead bodies including the on-page death of a pet dog & hunting (theme)
Bullying recounted