Cults – Page 6 – Trigger Warning Database

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Vern – seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised – flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.

But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes. To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future – outside the woods.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Misogyny
Ableism
Homomisia
Transmisia
Fatmisia & body shaming
Adult-minor relationship
Hallucinations
Suicide
Self harm
Alcohol consumption
Nonconsensual drugging
Forced sterilization
Teen pregnancy
Graphic childbirth
Blood & gore depiction
Burns
Death of a child & infant
Torture
Gun violence
Fire
Drowning
Poisoning
Cult
Graphic animal death

Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Matson

Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Matson

Kat and Stevie—best friends, theater kids, polar opposites—have snuck away from the suburbs to spend a night in New York City. They have it all planned out. They’ll see a play, eat at the city’s hottest restaurant, and have the best. Night. Ever. What could go wrong?

They’re barely off the train before they’re dealing with destroyed phones, family drama, and unexpected Pomeranians. Over the next few hours, they’ll have to grapple with old flames, terrible theater, and unhelpful cab drivers. But there are also cute boys to kiss, parties to crash, dry cleaning to deliver (don’t ask), and the world’s best museum to explore.

Over the course of a wild night in the city that never sleeps, both Kat and Stevie will get a wake-up call about their friendship, their choices…and finally discover what they really want for their future.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Alcohol consumption
Gun violence

First, Become Ashes by KM Szpara

First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara

Lark spent the first twenty-four years, nine months, and three days of his life training for a righteous quest: to rid the world of monsters. Alongside his partner Kane, he wore the cage and endured the scourge in order to develop his innate magic. He never thought that when Kane left, he’d next see him in the company of FBI agents and a SWAT team. He never dreamed that the leader of the Fellowship of the Anointed would be brought up on charges of abuse and assault.

He never expected the government would tell him that the monsters aren’t real–that there is no magic, and all the pain was for nothing.

Lark isn’t ready to give up. He is determined to fulfill his quest, to defeat the monsters he was promised. Along the way he will grapple with the past, confront love, and discover his long-buried truth.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Physical & emotional child abuse
Graphic rape, including consent violations & nonconsensual BDSM (multiple scenes)
Self-harm (self-inflicted burns)
Cults
Torture
Gun violence

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Graphic sexual assault
Rape mentioned
Blood & gore depiction
Dead bodies & body parts
Physical injuries
Alcohol consumption
Murder & attempted murder
Imprisonment
War themes
Cult

Sugar and Spite by Gail D Villanueva

Sugar & Spite by Gail D. Villaneuva

Jolina can’t take Claudine’s bullying any longer! The taunts and teasing are too much. Though Jolina knows she’s still in-training to use her grandfather’s arbularyo magic, she sneaks into his potions lab to get her revenge. Jolina brews a batch of gayuma, a powerful love potion.

And it works. The love potion conquers Claudine’s hateful nature. In fact, Claudine doesn’t just stop bullying Jolina — now she wants to be Jolina’s BFF, and does everything and anything Jolina asks.

But magic comes with a cost, and bad intentions beget bad returns. Controlling another person’s ability to love — or hate — will certainly have consequences. The magic demands payment, and it is about to come for Jolina in the form of a powerful storm…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Internalised colourism
Bullying
Typhoon
Death of a pet

Come November by Katrin van Dam

Come November by Katrin van Dam

It’s not the end of the world, but for Rooney Harris it’s starting to feel that way. It’s the beginning of senior year and her mom just lost her job. Even worse, she isn’t planning to get another one. Instead, she’s spending every waking moment with a group called the Next World Society, whose members are convinced they’ll be leaving Earth behind on November 17. It sounds crazy to Rooney, but to her mother and younger brother it sounds like salvation. As her mom’s obsession threatens to tear their lives apart, Rooney is scrambling to hold it all together. But will saving her family mean sacrificing her dreams—or theirs?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child neglect & parental abandonment
Depression
Attempted suicide
Cults

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.

Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism mentioned
Misgendering
Child abuse
Minor physical injuries
Death of a mother & father
Kidnapping & captivity
Cults
Animal abuse
Homelessness

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Breezy remembers leaving the party: the warm, wet grass under her feet, her cheek still stinging from a slap to her face. But when she wakes up, scared and pulling dirt from her mouth, a year has passed and she can’t explain how.

Nor can she explain the man lying at her grave, dead from her touch, or why her heartbeat comes and goes. She doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past.

Haunted by happy memories from her life, Breezy sets out to find answers in the gritty, threatening world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight, and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she discovers is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Racism
Victim blaming
Domestic abuse
Attempted suicide
Self-harm
Murder
Kidnapping
Stalking
Cults

Repo Virtual by Corey J. White

Repo Virtual by Corey J. White

The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities — augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive.

Enter Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief. He’s been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he’s stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Transmisia
Deadnaming & misgendering
Blackmailed outing*
Racism & racial slurs
Classism
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use mentioned
Blood & gore depiction
Graphic physical injuries & chronic pain
Death of a friend (on-page)
Murder & attempted murder
Torture
Explosions
Gun violence
Strangulation
Kidnapping
Car accident
Fire
Blackmail
Flood
Cults
Animal death mentioned
Poverty themes & homelessness

*Note: the transgender protagonist is blackmailed to investigate a crime by a man with documents that would out her as a trans woman and her past as a secret agent.

The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Diviners by Libba Bray

SOMETHING DARK AND EVIL HAS AWAKENED… Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries her uncle will discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho is hiding a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Racism
White supremacy, including the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
Slut-shaming
Rape
Domestic violence
Child abuse
Assisted suicide of a disabled character
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Abortion
Blood and gore depiction
Medical treatment
Death of a sibling
Death of a parent
Murder
Cults
Animal cruelty
Animal sacrifice