Colonialism & Colonisation – Page 4 – Trigger Warning Database

The White Girl by Tony Birch

The White Girl by Tony Birch

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism including the Stolen Generations
Antisemitism mentioned
Rape
Graphic suicide
Death of a parent
Death of a spouse
Disappearance of a relative
Explosion
Colonialism
Animal death

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels, The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it ‘the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels’. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the ‘Scotland Yard bungler’ and the skilled, professional detective.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Substance addiction
Suicide
Recreational drug use
Murder
Colonialism

Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee

Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee

India, 1921. Haunted by his memories of the Great War, Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force. When Sam is summoned to investigate a grisly murder, he is stunned at the sight of the body: he’s seen this before. Last night, in a drug-addled haze, he stumbled across a corpse with the same ritualistic injuries. It seems like there’s a deranged killer on the loose. Unfortunately for Sam, the corpse was in an opium den, and revealing his presence there could cost him his career… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Substance addiction
Eye trauma
Death of a spouse recounted
Murder
Gun violence
War & colonialism theme

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long-lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God. Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all. As hidden… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical ableism, classism, misogyny, racism and antisemitism
Colonialism discussed
Sex work shaming
Attempted rape by coercion
Child abuse recounted
Self harm for magic
Suicide mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Stillbirth & infertility mentioned
Blood & injury depiction
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a brother recounted
Death of a friend recounted
Murder
Poisoning
Psychological torture
Explosion
Vivisepulture (being buried alive) mentioned
Kidnapping
Animal death mentioned

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Seven Mercies by L. R. Lam and Elizabeth

After an ambush leaves the Novantae resistance in tatters, the survivors scatter across the galaxy. Wanted by two great empires, the bounty on any rebel’s head is enough to make a captor filthy rich. And the seven devils? Biggest score of them all. To avoid attacks, the crew of Zelus scavenge for supplies on long-abandoned Tholosian outposts. Not long after the remnants of the rebellion settle briefly on Fortuna, Ariadne gets a message with unimaginable consequences: the Oracle has gone rogue. In a planned coup against the Empire’s new ruler, the AI has developed a way of mass programming citizens into mindless drone… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Dysphoria
Child abuse recounted
Panic attacks
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Chronic illness
Murder
Genocide
Torture
Police brutality
Gun violence
Explosion
War & colonialisation

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Bergensdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Northern town of Vardø must fend for themselves. Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband’s authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Period-typical misogyny
Anti-indigenous racism
Colonialism
Religious bigotry and persecution for witchcraft (theme) including the on-page depiction of witch trials and burning women at the stake
Graphic martial rape and sexual assault
Infidelity*
Forced marriage
Pregnancy and pregnancy from rape discussed including childbirth
Miscarriage
Alcohol consumption
Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
Death of a friend, on-page
Death of a father, husband and brother mentioned
Mass death by boating accident
Murder, on-page
Torture, implied
Imprisonment mentioned
Near-drowning incident
Animal death

*Context : The protagonist falls in love with a woman but is in a forced arranged marriage with a man.

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht

Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds, becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit. Rosie—owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner—caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drink at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who seek to employ them. Angel—ex-marine and head of a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide
Torture
Gun violence
Colonialism
Animal death

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Sexism
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother
Kidnapping & captivity
Hostage situation
Blackmail
Fire
Drowning
Building collapse
Colonialism
Graphic animal death & dead bodies (theme)

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women’s rights. Mistry Law is handling the will of Mr Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen goes through the papers, she notices something strange: all three have signed over their inheritance to a charity. What will they live on if they forfeit what… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Colonialism
Incest
Domestic abuse
Suicidal ideation

Temple by Matthew Reilly

Temple by Matthew Reilly

Deep in the jungle of Peru, the hunt for a legendary Incan idol is underway – an idol that in the present day could be used as the basis for a terrifying new weapon. Guiding a US Army team is Professor William Race, a young linguist who must translate an ancient manuscript that contains the location of the idol. What they find is an ominous stone temple, sealed tight. They open it – and soon discover that some doors are meant to remain unopened…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Rape mentioned
Cheating
Blood & gore depiction
Decapitation
Murder
Gun violence
Explosions
Animal death
Nazism & the Holocaust
Colonisalism
Medical experiments in concentration camps mentioned