Child Abuse & Neglect – Page 108 – Trigger Warning Database

A Sin Such as This by Ellen Hopkins

A Sin Such as This by Ellen Hopkins

Tara thought she was finally settling down when she married charming, handsome Dr. Cavin Lattimore, but life seems to be only getting more complicated. During the honeymoon, Tara’s niece Kayla moved into their Lake Tahoe home and quickly hooked up with Cavin’s manipulative, seductive son Eli. In a matter of weeks, Tara has gone from rich, single San Francisco professional to suburban housewife managing her niece’s emotional ups-and-downs, as well as her stepson’s continuing overt advances.

Adding to the family drama, Tara’s younger sister Melody is going through a serious marital breakdown. During a heated argument, her husband Graham insists he and Tara once had an affair. Despite Tara’s vehement denials, Melody is desperate to find the truth… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abuse & neglect recounted
Cheating discussed
Murder
Poverty themes recounted

The You I’ve Never Known by Ellen Hopkins

The You I’ve Never Known by Ellen Hopkins

For as long as she can remember, it’s been just Ariel and Dad. Ariel’s mom disappeared when she was a baby. Dad says home is wherever the two of them are, but Ariel is now seventeen and after years of new apartments, new schools, and new faces, all she wants is to put down some roots. Complicating things are Monica and Gabe, both of whom have stirred a different kind of desire.

Maya’s a teenager who’s run from an abusive mother right into the arms of an older man she thinks she can trust. But now she’s isolated with a baby on the way, and life’s getting more complicated than Maya ever could have imagined… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Queermisia
Racism
Physical & verbal child abuse
Emotional child abuse & gaslighting
Child neglect & abandonment
Death of a father
Kidnapping

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that fatal night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated.

Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life as a migrant worker on a California ranch. But is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Lesbomisia & lesbomisic slurs
Racism
Misogyny
Hate crimes discussed
Victim blaming
Slut shaming
Rape & attempted rape
Domestic abuse
Child abuse
Suicidal ideation
Pregnancy loss
Parent with alcoholism recounted
Alcohol consumption
Death of a father
Death of a boyfriend
Murder & attempted murder
Gun violence
Explosions & bombings
Animal death
Bullying

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language (r slur)
Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs
Fatmisia & body shaming
Slut shaming
Rape
Domestic abuse recounted
Child abuse recounted
Attempted child sexual assault recounted
Depression
Attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug abuse
AIDS & HIV
Bullying

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.

Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never understand.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Outing
Physical child abuse
Cheating
Teacher-student relationship mentioned
Date rape
Revenge pornography
Suicide
Parent with alcoholism
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Hospitalisation
Knife violence & stabbing

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster—crank—her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions. Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear.

A predisposition to addiction and a sense of emptiness where a mother’s love should be leads all three down the road of their mother’s notorious legacy. Sex, drugs, alcohol, abuse—there is more of Kristina in her children than they would ever like to believe. But when the thread that ties them together brings them face-to-face, they’ll discover something powerful in each other and in themselves—the trust, the hope, the courage to begin to break the cycle.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antiziganism (g slur)
Misogyny
Slut shaming
Victim blaming
Physical & sexual child abuse
Domestic violence
Sexual assault & attempted rape
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug abuse
Teen pregnancy
Pregnancy from rape
Stalking
Car accident

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching … for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words “I love you” are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?”

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Child abuse & neglect
Rape
Sexual assault
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug abuse
Hospitalisation
Murder

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that’s where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she’s the misplaced focus of Daddy’s love, intended for a mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. All that Raeanne sees is Daddy playing a game of favorites—and she is losing. If she has to lose, she will do it on her own terms, so she chooses drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it’s obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is—who?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Graphic paedophilia & child sexual abuse (on-page)
Incest
Rape & sexual assault (on-page)
Forced modelling for child pornorgraphy recounted
Cheating
Physical child abuse
Self-harm
Depression
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use & abuse
Blood depiction
Emesis
Car accident

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

It all started with a dream. Nothing exceptional, just a typical fantasy about a boy, the kind of dream that most teen girls experience. But Pattyn Von Stratten is not like most teen girls. Raised in a religious—yet abusive—family, a simple dream may not be exactly a sin, but it could be the first step toward hell and eternal damnation.

This dream is a first step for Pattyn. But is it to hell or to a better life? For the first time Pattyn starts asking questions. Questions seemingly without answers—about God, a woman’s role, sex, love—mostly love. What is it? Where is it? Will she ever experience it? Is she deserving of it? … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Disownment*
Physical child abuse
Domestic abuse & violence
Suicide
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
Alcohol consumption
Miscarriage
Car accident
Animal death & hunting

*Note: The protagonist’s half-brother is disowned by their father after he comes out as gay.

The Searcher by Tana French

The Searcher by Tana French

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can’t make himself walk away. Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small town, secrets lie hidden, people… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Domestic violence
Child abuse
Suicide mentioned
Recreational drug use
Gun violence
Animal death