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.

Bad With Love by Sophie O’Dare

Warren Heardst has never been lucky. He spent his entire life in competition with his high school nemesis, Roman Markham, who has always been better in school, better in sports, and better in love. Working hard, Warren builds a life outside of his overbearing family, but he can’t seem to escape Roman. The other man is always there, pushing Warren to prove he can be successful. But on the cusp of realizing his goal, a family emergency rears up to ruin everything. Suddenly, his dream is being ripped away. With a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child neglect

Bad Mormon by Heather Gay

Drinking and Tweeting meets Unorthodox in this vulnerable memoir about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star’s departure from the Mormon Church, and her unforeseen success in business, television, and single motherhood. Straight off the slopes and into the spotlight, Heather Gay is famous for speaking the gospel truth. Whether as a businesswoman, mother, or television personality, she is unafraid to blaze a new trail, even if it means losing family, friends, and her community. Born and bred to be devout… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Misogyny & sexism with discussions of purity culture
  • Ableist child abuse
  • Divorce
  • Suicide of business partner’s sibling
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Pregnancy
  • Cosmetic surgery
  • Death of a father mentioned

Bad Blood by M. Malone

Georgina Kingsley is off-limits. It’s better this way, really. Her brother is my best friend and business partner, the closest thing I have to family. Plus, she’s engaged to another man, one better for her than I could ever be. But when Georgie is ditched on her wedding day, she needs someone to get her out of town. There’s bad blood between us but I’d do anything for her. Except give her hot, rebound sex to get back at her cheating ex. Tough choice. Loyalty to my best friend who has been more like a brother? Or to a woman with a history of driving me crazy and making… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental neglect mentioned
  • Cheating

All Fall Down by Ally Carter

Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things: 1) She is not crazy; 2) Her mother was murdered, and 3) Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay. The thing is, nobody else believes her and there’s no-one she can trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands. Grace’s past has come back to haunt her and if she doesn’t stop it… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse & gaslighting
  • Drugging
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Physical injury
  • Death of a mother (theme)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire

The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan

Harriet Bishop, descended from a long line of witches, uses magic to help women in need — not only ordinary women, but also those with powers of their own. She must intervene when a distant cousin wields dangerous magic to change the lives of two unsuspecting young people… one of whom might just be a witch herself. Frances Allington has used her wiles and witchcraft to claw her way out of poverty and into a spectacular marriage with one of New York’s wealthiest new tycoons. She is determined to secure the Allingtons’ position amongst the city’s elite Four… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child abuse

Age of Deception by Patricia Vanasse

Agreeing to accompany her father’s people back to their homeworld, Kira Forrest prepares for the fight of her life. She’s agreed to undertake the Trial of the Broken, a rite of passage every member of her father’s House must pass. It offers a path to independence and freedom that is too tempting to deny. Not everyone welcomes this lost daughter of Roake. There are those who fear what her presence might bring to light. Betrayal stalks the halls of Kira’s birthplace—its roots embedded deep in the events that claimed her parent’s lives and set her on her current path… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drugging
  • Blood and gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parent mentioned
  • Torture
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • War themes and military violence

99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge. What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems? Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child neglect
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Drugging
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a child (off-page)
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion (bomb)
  • Animal death (pet)

Adrift by Will Dean

Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their fourteen-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his family’s lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wife’s sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization. With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drew’s gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse & gaslighting
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Forced institutionalisation
  • Drug overdose
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Animal death

The Abstainer by Ian McGuire

Stephen Doyle, an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War, arrives in Manchester from New York with a thirst for blood. He has joined the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary. Head Constable James O’Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester, and connections with his fellow Irishmen are proving to be particularly advantageous in spying on Fenian activity. When a long-lost nephew returns from America and arrives on O’Connor’s doorstep looking for work, O’Connor cannot foresee the way his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Murder

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquillity is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & ableism, including mentions of police brutality
  • Physical child abuse by alcoholic parent(secondary character)
  • Dieting mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parental infertility mentioned (secondary character)
  • Physical injury & mentions of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Death of a father from a heart attack mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a sister in a mountaineering accident recounted
  • Murder
  • Mugging with knife (secondary character)
  • Phyiscal assault
  • Incarceration for the murder of a stepfather in self-defence (secondary character)
  • Homelessness mentioned
  • Bushfires mentioned