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.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions. When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse & gaslighting
  • Anxiety, depression & Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Bullying & workplace harassment
  • Terminal cancer mentioned

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & homophobia mentioned
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man–any rich man, no matter how awful. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call–by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest. Can a sharp-tongued, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and a greedy toad of a father? Not if Catherine has anything to say about it!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Miscarriage & death during childbirth
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Death from a knife wound mentioned
  • Animal attack (secondary character, dog)

A Secret for a Secret by Helena Hunting

My name is Ryan Kingston, and I’m a rule follower. I’ve never been in a fistfight. I always obey the speed limit. I don’t get drunk, and I definitely don’t pick up random women at bars. Except the night I found out that my whole existence has been a lie. I got drunk. And picked up a stranger. Her name was Queenie, and she was everything I’m not: reckless, impulsive, and chaotic. We did shots and traded secrets. And ended up naked at my place. She left me a thank-you note in the morning and her panties as a parting gift. But no way to contact her. Six weeks later I’m sitting in the first… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Verbal & emotional parental abuse (off-page)
  • Divorce (on-page)*

*Context : The heroine was unknowingly still married to her ex-partner.

The Institution by Helen Sarah Fields

On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital for the criminally insane, a nurse has been murdered and her newborn baby kidnapped. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking. Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth, and use her unique skills to find the baby – before it’s too late. She has five days to catch the killer. But with the walls of The Institution closing in on her, will her sanity last that long?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & mentions of homophobia
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder & foetal abduction
  • Physical & child sexual abuse

Bad Fruit by Ella King

Just graduated from high school and waiting to start college at Oxford, Lily lives under the scrutiny of her volatile Singaporean mother, May, and is unable to find kinship with her elusive British father, Charlie. When May suspects that Charlie is having an affair, there’s only one thing that calms May down: a glass of perfectly spoiled orange juice served by Lily, who must always taste it first to make sure it’s just right. As her mother becomes increasingly unhinged, Lily starts to have flashbacks that she knows aren’t her own. Over a sweltering London summer, all semblance of civility and propriety is lost, as Lily begins to unravel… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming & victim-blaming
  • Rape
  • Graphic emotional child abuse

The Girls by Emma Cline

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As… Read more.,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism (r slur)
  • Fatphobia & weight-shaming
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Child abuse & neglect and parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena

Welcome to Stanhope! A safe neighbourhood. A place for families. William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • False accusation of rape and kidnapping of a child

King of Sloth by Ana Huang

Charming, easygoing, and rich beyond belief, Xavier Castillo has the world at his fingertips.  He also has no interest in taking over his family’s empire (much to his father’s chagrin), but that hasn’t stopped women from throwing themselves at him…unless the woman in question is his publicist. Nothing brings him more joy than riling her up, but when a tragedy forces them closer than ever, he must grapple with the uncertainty of his future—and the realization that the only person immune to his charms is the only one he truly wants. Cool, intelligent, and ambitious, Sloane… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional & physical child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with cancer mentioned
  • Animal death (pet) mentioned

You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

Noelle Shepard is grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother when she discovers decades-old photos and letters that hint to a forbidden love in her gram’s past. Needing to know the full story, she creates a TikTok video appealing for information – and it goes viral. Through her video, she manages to track down her grandmother’s secret love, Paul, who offers to take her on the honeymoon road-trip he and Gram planned but never got to go on. Noelle jumps at the chance to make this one last connection with her grandmother. There’s just one problem – Paul’s grandson is… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional parental abuse (off-page)
  • Chronic back pain & minor sports injury
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a grandmother recounted
  • Discussions of employment and financial concerns