Tag Archives: Child Abuse & Neglect

More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay…until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.

Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage. She can solve any problem with the right code, but when an online troll’s harassment escalates, she’s truly afraid

When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in ways they never expected….. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Rape mentioned
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Self-harm
  • Miscarriage recounted
  • Kidnapping
  • Stalking
  • Catfishing
  • Cyberbullying & online harassment
  • Bullying

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan

When Apple’s mother returns after eleven years away, Apple feels whole again. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother’s homecoming is bittersweet. It’s only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is that she begins to see things as they really are.

A story about sad endings.
A story about happy beginnings.
A story to make you realise who is special.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abandonment
  • Child neglect
  • Alcohol abuse

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Sex work mentioned
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse, implied
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Take Me with You When You Go by Jennifer Niven and David Levithan

Take Me with You When You Go by Jennifer Niven & David Levithan

Ezra Ahern wakes up one day to find his older sister, Bea, gone. Nothing but an email address hidden somewhere only he would find it. Ezra never expected to be left behind with their abusive stepfather and their neglectful mother – how is he supposed to navigate life without Bea?

Bea Ahern already knew she needed to get as far away from home as possible. But a message in her inbox changes everything, and she finds herself alone in a new city – without Ez, without a real plan – chasing someone who might not even want to be found.

Together and apart, broken by abuse but connected by love, this brother and sister must learn to trust themselves before they can find a way back to each other.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Sibling abuse mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Gun violence recounted

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. Remember. Survive. Run.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Gun violence
  • Animal attack

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Frances has been a study machine with one goal. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. Then Frances meets Aled, and for the first time she’s unafraid to be herself.

So when the fragile trust between them is broken, Frances is caught between who she was and who she longs to be. Now Frances knows that she has to confront her past. To confess why Carys disappeared…

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a pet

The Cousins by Karen McManus

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone’s declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racist microaggressions
  • Sexism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Cheating
  • Parental abuse & neglect
  • Parental abandonment
  • Familial disownment & estrangement (central theme)
  • Pregnancy discussed
  • Miscarriage recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Death of a father & grandfather mentioned
  • Death of a mother & grandmother mentioned
  • Death of a son mentioned
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Death in a car accident mentioned
  • Murder recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Hostage situation
  • Housefire & death from smoke inhalation mentioned
  • Financial struggles & bankruptcy discussed

Empress and Aniya by Candice Carty-Williams

Empress and Aniya by Candice Carty-Williams

When Empress starts at Aniya’s school, they’re not exactly best friends. But, when the two teenage girls accidentally cast a spell on their 16th birthday and end up switching bodies, they quickly learn that friendship is the most important magic of all. South London’s answer to ‘Freaky Friday’, Empress and Aniya is a moving portrayal of the importance of real friendship and the ups and downs of being a teenager. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child neglect
  • Sexual harassment

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy break-up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.

As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Workplace harassment
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other ‘midnight’s children’ all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem’s story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Child abuse
  • Incest
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol & drug abuse
  • Torture