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.

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Those 2300 words were life-altering for the People.com editor, turning her into an influential and outspoken public figure and a desperately needed voice for an often voiceless community. In these pages, she offers a bold and inspiring perspective on being young, multicultural, economically challenged, and transgender in America. Welcomed into the world as her parents’ firstborn son, Mock decided early on that she would be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Racism
  • Gender dysphoria
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Sex work
  • Cheating
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Self-harm
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Emesis
  • Gun violence

The Empire of Dreams by Rae Carson

The Empire of Dreams by Rae Carson

Even though Red Sparkle Stone is a foundling orphan with an odd name and a veiled past, she’s about to be adopted into the royal family—by Empress Elisa herself. Sixteen-year-old Red can hardly believe her luck. Then, in a stunning political masterstroke, the empress’s greatest rival blocks the adoption, and Red is left with no family and no future. Grieving and lost, but determined to find her place, Red hatches a daring plan: she will prove herself as a recruit for the world’s most elite fighting force, the legendary Royal Guard—something no woman has done before… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

When the Lights Come On by Katia Rose

When the Lights Come On by Katia Rose

Paige Rivera doesn’t intend to end up among the twice-fooled. It’s been six years since Youssef Salah let her down, and not even the shock of his reappearance is enough to make her consider letting him do it again. She learned a lot from that first fall: how to pick herself up, brush herself off, and push away anyone with the ability to knock her off her feet. He’s no longer the teenage boy she knew, but Youssef still possess the powers of a gravitational force, so Paige employs her failsafe strategy: head down, eyes on the prize. The prize in this case is her burgeoning career…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Familial estrangement
  • Emotional child abuse
  • Drugging

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he’s desperate for money–it’s not easy to find safe work when you can’t provide references, you can’t stay in one place for long, and you’re paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you. When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Child neglect
  • Suicide
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Lynching mentioned
  • Drowning
  • Arson

Names for the Dawn by CL Beaumont

Names for the Dawn by C.L. Beaumont

Seasoned Park Ranger Will Avery has found his home in the Denali wilderness, cherishing his solitary routines for the decade leading up to 1991. The trade-off that no one knows of his identity as a transgender man feels worth it for the comforting assurance he finds in the towering glaciers. Until Will discovers an unexpected passenger in his truck—the visiting wolf biologist everyone in the Park is ecstatic to meet—Nikhil Rajawat. Nikhil doesn’t return his new colleagues’ fervour. He’s dreamt of Denali for one reason: the pinnacle of his research, and it isn’t anyone’s business that this is the last year he’ll get to chase the wolves. He… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Homomisia discussed
  • Transmisia recounted*
  • Familial estrangement & disownment*
  • Physical child abuse recounted*
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Insomnia
  • Nightmare
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Recovery from substance addiction including an off-page relapse
  • Suicidal ideation recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned (sc)
  • Weight loss mentioned
  • Gender dysphoria & body dysmorphia
  • Scars from top surgery mentioned
  • Gun violence*
  • Bullying
  • Animal death, including a wolf cub & death of a pet dog

*Context : When the protagonist came out to his father, his father shot a gun at the barn near him. He has wondered for years if it was intentional or an accident. As a child, the protagonist’s mother physically abused him and burnt him with cigarettes.

Sweet Solitude by Sav Miller

Sweet Solitude by Sav R. Miller

In the wake of her father’s death, lonely Juliet Harrison struggles with the guilt over her loss. She deals with it the way she deals with everything: by burying her feelings beneath impulsive decisions and desecrating the local graveyard. But Juliet isn’t as invisible as she believes. Hiding out from the ghosts of his past, Kieran Ivers is known in King’s Trace as a homicidal hermit. But the rumours don’t stop him from visiting the cemetery to taunt his late brother’s remains. It’s there he first spots a woman engaging in lascivious acts on her father’s grave and becomes enraptured by… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Sexual assault, voyeurism & dubious consent scenario
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Torture
  • Organised crime
  • Erotic asphyxiation

Sweet Surrender by Sav Miller

Sweet Surrender by Sav R. Miller

After his father’s retirement, Elia Montalto took over organized crime in King’s Trace, Maine. His pragmatic nature makes him popular and allows alliances with government officials, which keeps prying eyes off his business. But even a town as small as theirs is not without risk or envy, and Elia has only ever really wanted one thing: Senator Harrison’s daughter. As the eldest daughter of a corrupt politician, survival was Caroline Harrison’s only hope at one day being granted freedom. But her father has other plans, and when negotiations for her hand in marriage begin, all her dreams shatter. That is, until she makes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Arranged marriage
  • Infidelity
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Sex work mentioned
  • Physical child abuse
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Knife play
  • Organised crime

Arrows and Apologies by Sav Miller

Arrows and Apologies by Sav R. Miller

They say every proud man must fall. Mortals who fancy themselves gods will one day kneel. I thought myself invincible. Apollo on Earth. Mocked my brother when he succumbed to such a fate. Before I noticed the blue-haired nymph lurking in the background. Cora Astor shouldn’t have come to this island. She sneered in my direction, beguiling me with her disgust. As a Wolfe, hunting is in my blood. Getting what I want is my nature. Even when I know I can never have it. Though I cannot keep her, I plan to relish the chase.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Suicide
  • Drug abuse mentioned
  • Blood play (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Torture

Vipers and Virtuosos by Sav Miller

Vipers and Virtuosos by Sav R. Miller

Aiden. From the second I saw her, I knew she’d be my ruin. Sitting all alone at the bar, she looked like an angel. Eurydice in human form; her beauty eclipsed by demons. Now, I’m one of them. The ghost she’s tried for years to escape. Thinking I wouldn’t be able to find her. But I never stopped trying, and now that I have, Her past sins should be the least of her worries. Riley. From the moment he saw me, I knew I’d ruin his life. Alone at the bar, I dared the monster to come and play. Orpheus in the flesh, with his sad songs and strange obsessions. I became one of them. The siren who calls… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking mentioned
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Sexual assault & dubious consent scenarios
  • Physical, psychological & sexual child abuse mentioned
  • Suicide & attempted suicide mentioned
  • Self-harm discussed
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder mentioned
  • Stalking

*Context : The heroine is an eighteen-year-old high school student and the hero is a twenty-two-year-old man.

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Meet Winter Young – International pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. His rabid fans would move heaven and earth for even a glimpse of him – just imagine what they’d do to become his latest fling. Meet Sydney Cossette – Part of an elite covert ops group, Sydney joined their ranks as their youngest spy with plans to become the best agent they’ve ever had. An ice queen with moves as dangerous as her comebacks, Sydney picks up languages just as quickly as she breaks… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Dismemberment
  • Murder
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Graphic death from poisoning
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping