Tag Archives: Child Abuse & Neglect

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of child abuse and neglect, including emotional, verbal, psychological and physical abuse, and gaslighting.

For child sexual abuse, see Paedophilia & CSA.

Muffin Top by Evie Mitchell

Honey: For years my momma’s been at me to lose some extra pounds. To shape up, slim down and look like the pageant queen she’d always wished me to be. But everyone knows the best part of the muffin is the top – and baby, I’m delicious as I am. I hadn’t planned on running into my high school crush at a Halloween party while dressed as a cupcake. One glance and I was ready for my high school crush to take a bite. Pity Sheriff Tristan Rodriguez avoided baked goods like the plague. Tristan: Returning to the small town I’d left behind hadn’t exactly been in my life plan. Also… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming by a parent

Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace. 2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can’t forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape of a minor discussed
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Alcoholism & prescription pill abuse
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Disappearance & murder of a daughter/sister (theme)
  • Bullying & hazing

You’re No Better by Andrew Joseph White

Morgan Slaughter, a seventeen-year-old trans boy with autism, put his serial killer father in prison years ago. Despite that, everyone thinks Morgan will grow up to be just like his dad: including his volatile mother, the documentary crew following their family, and maybe himself. Desperately, Morgan latches onto his father’s final victim—the only one who was never identified—hoping that if he unravels the mystery, he’ll finally prove he’s better than the man who hurt him. But this puts Morgan in the crosshairs of classmate Felicity Keating, who knows the truth about Morgan’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Transphobia, queerphobia & misgendering and forced closeting (on-page)
  • Rape recounted, sexual harassment, sexual assault & grooming
  • Physical & emotional child abuse (theme)
  • Suicidal ideation & intrusive thoughts
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse, including forced alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation (on-page)
  • Graphic murder & torture recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted & confinement (on-page)
  • Blackmail

Just a Heartbeat Away by Cara Bastone

Newly widowed dad Sebastian Dorner was unraveling at the edges—until his son’s teacher, Via DeRosa, threw him a lifeline. Now, two years later, they reconnect at Matty’s new school, and an inconvenient but unmistakable jolt of attraction crackles between them. But why does the first person to spark with Sebastian in years have to be a millennial? Is twentysomething Via really too young for him or does fortysomething Sebastian just feel too damn old? A former foster kid, Via’s finally forged the stable life she’s always dreamed of—new job, steady income, no drama. The last thing she needs are rumors… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned & foster care system experiences recounted
  • Unplanned pregnancy mentioned
  • Death of a wife & parents in a car accident recounted

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and arcane rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father dies. An architect as cruel as he was revered, his death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revel.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Nightmares & sleep issues mentioned
  • Pica mentioned (recovery)
  • Attempted suicide & self-harm recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father from a stroke & heart attack mentioned
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Drowning
  • Cults discussed
  • Animal injury (fish

We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim

After her sister Lasya’s sudden death, Kajal vows to do whatever it takes to bring her back. No cost is too great, even if it means preventing Lasya’s soul from joining the cycle of reincarnation. But as Kajal prepares for the resurrection, her sister’s trapped soul warps into a bhuta—a violent, wraith-like spirit hell-bent on murdering those who wronged it in life. With each kill, the bhuta becomes stronger and fiercer, and Kajal’s chances of resurrecting Lasya with her soul intact grow slimmer. Blamed for Lasya’s rampage and condemned as a witch, Kajal is locked away with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death & resurrection of a sister (theme)
  • Death of parents
  • Murder, knife violence & torture
  • War themes

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim

The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and Darkness—all converge on the city of dusk. For each realm there is a god, and for each god there is an heir. But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving city. And without it, all the realms are dying. Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs—Risha, a necromancer struggling to keep the peace; Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with rebellion in her heart; and Nik, a soldier who struggles to see the light—will sacrifice everything… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies, decapitation & cannibalism
  • Murder

Love Letters for Other People by Shaylin Gandhi

When mathematician Aubrey MacLean’s career implodes, she has no choice but to return to her rural Indiana hometown, at least temporarily. But small towns have long memories, and so does she, especially when it comes to Nick Thacker, the boy who broke her heart. Nick’s life is routine: long shifts at the steel mill, plus a side business writing love letters for other people. It’s enough to numb his regrets—until his first love returns, stirring up a past he thought he’d buried. Aubrey is focused on rebuilding her career, until she falls for a new man whose love letters feel… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child neglet
  • Parental infidelity
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Financial difficulties & food insecurity

The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Turner Falls is a small tourist town nestled in the hills of western Oregon, the kind of town you escape to for a vacation. When an inexplicable outbreak rapidly develops, this idyllic town becomes the epicenter of an epidemic of violence as the teenaged children of several executives from the local biotech firm become ill and aggressively murderous. Suddenly the town is on edge, and Lucy and her friends must do everything it takes just to fight through the night.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Child neglect
  • Suicide
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug use
  • Car accident (on-page)
  • Graphic animal death & animal abuse
  • Bullying

When I Was Ten by Fiona Cummins

Everyone remembered Sara and Shannon Carter, the little blonde haired sisters. Their Dad was the local GP and they lived in the beautiful house on the hill. Their best friend, Brinley Booth, lived next door. They would do anything for each other but everything shifted on that fateful day when Dr Richard Carter and his wife Pamela were stabbed fourteen times with a pair of scissors in what has become the most talked about double murder of the modern age. The girls were aged ten and twelve at the time. One, nicknam… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical & verbal child abuse in a foster care system, including forced starvation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder of a mother & father by stabbing with scissors