Cults – Page 5 – Trigger Warning Database

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind.

Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery mentioned
Homomisia mentioned
Abandonment
Child abuse & neglect
Emotional & physical abuse
Suicide
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Drug use
Blood depiction
Physical injury
Beheading
Forced blinding
Scarring
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Death of a child
Mass murder
Poisoning
Kidnapping
Physical assault
Imprisonment
Cult
Animal death

Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon

Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon

In the walled city-state of Alu, Kammani wants nothing more than to become the accomplished healer her father used to be before her family was cast out of their privileged life in shame. When Alu’s ruler falls deathly ill, Kammani’s beautiful little sister, Nanaea, is chosen as one of three sacred maidens to join him in the afterlife. It’s an honour. A tradition. And Nanaea believes it is her chance to live an even grander life than the one that was stolen from her. But Kammani sees the selection for what it really is-a death sentence… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Suicide
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of an infant
Death of a mother during childbirth
Murder
Poisoning
Cults

It Ain’t Me, Babe by Tillie Cole

It Ain’t Me, Babe by Tillie Cole

Many years ago, two children from completely different worlds forged a connection, a fateful connection, an unbreakable bond that would change their lives forever. Many years ago, two children from completely different worlds forged a connection, a fateful connection, an unbreakable bond that would change their lives forever…

Salome knows only one way to live—under Prophet David’s rule. In the commune she calls home, Salome knows nothing of life beyond her strict faith, nor of life beyond the Fence… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Child abuse
Murder
Kidnapping
Cult

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates

Elle is thrilled to spend a month minding the beautiful Gillespie property. More than an hour’s drive from the nearest town and surrounded by forests, the aging mansion is ideal for someone seeking solitude. But things start to go very wrong, very quickly.

Elle discovers a crumbling graveyard nestled in the woods. It contains a generation of the house’s residents, all with an identical year of death. Scratching in the walls. Slamming doors. Whispers in the night. A locked room… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse
Body horror
Physical injuries
Dead body
Death of a child, off-page
Disappearance of a child mentioned
Cults

The Special Ones by Em Bailey

The Special Ones by Em Bailey

Esther is one of the Special Ones – four teens who live under his protection in a remote farmhouse. The Special Ones are not allowed to leave, but why would they want to? Here, they are safe from toxic modern life, safe from a meaningless existence, safe in their endless work. He watches them every moment of every day, ready to punish them if they forget who they are – all while broadcasting their lives to eager followers on the outside.

Esther knows he will renew her if she stops being Special. And yet she also knows she’s a fake. She has no ancient wisdom, no genuine… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Kidnapping
Cults

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel

Welcome to Wisewood. We’ll keep your secrets if you keep ours. Natalie Collins hasn’t heard from her sister in more than half a year. The last time they spoke, Kit was slogging from mundane workdays to obligatory happy hours to crying in the shower about their dead mother. She told Natalie she was sure there was something more out there. And then she found Wisewood. On a private island off the coast of Main, Wisewood’s guests commit to six-month stays. During this time, they’re prohibited from contact with the rest… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse
Cults

The Black Mage by Daniel Barnes

The Black Mage by Daniel Barnes and illustrated by DJ Kirkland

When St. Ivory Academy, a historically white wizarding school, opens its doors to its first-ever black student, everyone believes that the wizarding community is finally taking its first crucial steps toward inclusivity. Or is it? When Tom Token, the beneficiary of the school’s “Magical Minority Initiative,” begins uncovering weird clues and receiving creepy texts on his phone, he and his friend, Lindsay, stumble into a conspiracy that dates all the way back to the American Civil War, and could cost Tom his very soul.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism (theme)
Klu Klux Klan, on-page
Murder & attempted murder
Cults
War themes recounted
Bullying

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Marital rape
Child sexual abuse
Parental neglect
Suicide mentioned
Domestic violence
Drug abuse
Stillbirth
Murder
Cults

Bitter Falls by Rachel Caine

Bitter Falls by Rachel Caine

She’s investigating a cold case no one else could—by going places no else would dare. In spite of a harrowing past still haunting her, Gwen Proctor is trying to move forward. Until a new assignment gives her purpose: the cold-case disappearance of a young man in Tennessee. Three years missing, no clues. Just Ruth Landry, a tortured mother in limbo. Gwen understands what it’s like to worry about your children.

Gwen’s investigation unearths new suspects…and victims. As she follows each sinister lead, the implications of the mystery grow more disturbing… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Murder
Kidnapping
Cults

In The Clearing by JP Pomare

In The Clearing by J.P. Pomare

Amy has only ever known what life is like in the Clearing. She knows what’s expected of her. She knows what to do to please her elders, and how to make sure life in the community remains happy and calm. That is, until a new young girl joins the group. She isn’t fitting in; she doesn’t want to stay. What happens next will turn life as Amy knows it on its head.

Freya has gone to great lengths to feel like a ‘normal person’. In fact, if you saw her go about her day with her young son, you’d think she was an everyday mum. That is, until a young girl goes missing and someone from her past, someone she hasn’t seen for a very long time, arrives in town.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Physical child abuse
Staged suicide
Death of a child
Murder
Kidnapping
Drowning
Animal attack
Cults