Tag Archives: Cancer

By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate

By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate

What she doesn’t know about love could fill a book. With a successful career as a romance editor and an engagement to a man who checks off all ninety-nine boxes on her carefully curated list, Lanie’s more than good. She’s killing it. Then she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with world-renowned author and her biggest inspiration in love and life—the Noa Callaway. All Lanie has to do is cure Noa’s writer’s block and she’ll get the promotion she’s always dreamed of. Simple, right? But there’s a reason no one has ever seen or spoken to the mysterious Noa Calloway… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parent with Alzheimer’s
  • Death of parent from cancer

Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr

Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr

After talking her way into a job with Dan Mansfield, the leading investigative reporter in Chicago, rising young journalist Jules Roth is given an unusual–and very secret–assignment. Dan needs her to locate a painting stolen by the Nazis more than 75 years earlier: legendary Expressionist artist Ernst Engel’s most famous work, Woman on Fire. World-renowned shoe designer Ellis Baum wants this portrait of a beautiful, mysterious woman for deeply personal reasons, and has enlisted Dan’s help to find it. But Jules doesn’t have much time; the famous designer is dying… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Statutory rape recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide recounted
  • Drug overdose recounted
  • Terminal cancer
  • Murder
  • Hostage situation
  • World War Two & the Holocaust

While I Was Away by Waka Brown

While I Was Away by Waka T. Brown

When twelve-year-old Waka’s parents suspect she can’t understand basic Japanese, they make the drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her strict grandmother. Forced to say goodbye to her friends and what would have been her summer vacation, Waka is plucked from her straight-A-student life in rural Kansas and flown across the globe, where she faces the culture shock of a lifetime. In Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing in kanji, doesn’t quite mesh with her complicated and distant Obaasama, and gets made fun of by the students in her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Bullying

The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales by Eric LaRocca

The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales by Eric LaRocca

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship
  • Elder abuse
  • Incest
  • Cheating
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Torture

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee

That painful fact of life couldn’t be truer for the Sullivan sisters. Once, they used to be close, sharing secrets inside homemade blanket castles. Now, life in the Sullivan house means closed doors and secrets left untold. Fourteen-year-old Murphy, an aspiring magician, is shocked by the death of Siegfried, her pet turtle. Seventeen-year-old Claire is bound for better things than her Oregonian hometown—until she receives a crushing rejection from her dream college. And eighteen-year-old Eileen is nursing a growing addiction in the wake of life-altering news… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Terminal cancer (leukemia)
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Animal death & neglect

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She’s been able to support her unemployed mother–and Mom’s deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week–so far, but it isn’t enough. Money’s still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world–from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences. Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Suicidal ideation (passive)
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
  • Graphic animal cruelty
  • Animal death (dog)
  • Poverty

Den of Vipers by KA Knight

Ryder, Garrett, Kenzo, and Diesel—The Vipers. They run this town and everyone in it. Their deals are as sordid as their business, and their reputation is enough to bring a grown man to his knees, forcing him to beg for mercy. They are not people you mess with, yet my dad did. The old man ran up a debt with them and then sold me to cover his losses. Yes, sold me. They own me now. I’m theirs in every sense of the word. But I’ve never been meek and compliant. These men, they look at me with longing. Their scarred, blood-stained hands holding me tight. They want everything I am, everything I have to give, and won’t stop until they get just… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Child abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism mentioned
  • Self-harm
  • Blood & gore depiction including blood play
  • Graphic mutilation
  • Death of a relative from terminal cancer recounted
  • Death of a parent from suicide recounted
  • Death of a parent from a drug overdose recounted
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder
  • Graphic torture
  • Gun & knife violence and play
  • Physical assault
  • Arson
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Car accident (on-page)
  • Organised crime (mafia)

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

It’s something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it’s a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn’t do as she’s told, the boy will die. “You are not the first. And you will certainly not be the last.” Rachel is now part of The Chain… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug abuse & use, on-page
  • Protagonist with cancer
  • Death and resuscitation of a child for anaphylactic shock
  • Murder
  • Gun violence & threats of gun violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity of children, on-page (theme)
  • Disappearance of a daughter
  • Stalking
  • Physical assault with a wrench and physical assault of a child
  • Animal hunting

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.. That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Classism
  • Infidelity
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Infertility
  • Cancer
  • Death of a parent

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Self-injury
  • Cancer
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic body horror
  • Dead bodies (theme)
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Death of children
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Genocide & mass murder
  • Infanticide
  • Child soldiers