Tag Archives: Dead Bodies & Body Parts

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of dead bodies (human corpses) and body parts.

See also Blood & gore depiction, Decapitation & dismemberment, and Murder & attempted murder.

Charlotte Spies for Justice by Nikki Shannon Smith

Twelve-year-old Charlotte lives on a plantation in Richmond, Virginia, where the American Civil War is raging. All around her, citizens and the Confederate army are fighting to protect slavery: the very thing Charlotte wishes would end. When she overhears the plantation owner conspiring against the Confederates, Charlotte knows she must join forces with her. Maybe together they can help the Union win the war and end slavery. Helping a spy is dangerous work, but Charlotte is willing to risk everything to fight for what is right!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & slavery (on-page)
  • Mentions of a dead body
  • American Civil War & prison camps

The Fall of the Hotel Dumort by Cassandra Claire and Maureen Johnson

Magnus Bane watches the once-glamorous Hotel Dumort become something else altogether in 1970s New York City. Fifty years after the Jazz Age rise of the Hotel Dumort, immortal warlock Magnus Bane knows the Manhattan landmark is on the decline. The once-beautiful Hotel Dumort has fallen into a decayed thing, a ruin, as dead as a place can be. But the vampires don’t mind…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drug use & abuse
  • Substance addiction
  • Blood depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Murder

Age of Deception by Patricia Vanasse

Agreeing to accompany her father’s people back to their homeworld, Kira Forrest prepares for the fight of her life. She’s agreed to undertake the Trial of the Broken, a rite of passage every member of her father’s House must pass. It offers a path to independence and freedom that is too tempting to deny. Not everyone welcomes this lost daughter of Roake. There are those who fear what her presence might bring to light. Betrayal stalks the halls of Kira’s birthplace—its roots embedded deep in the events that claimed her parent’s lives and set her on her current path… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drugging
  • Blood and gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parent mentioned
  • Torture
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • War themes and military violence

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighbourhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked. A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives—a space… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Rape mentioned
  • Substance addiction
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies & emesis
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality
  • Lynching mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Incarceration & prison riot

We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado

Sol Reyes has had a rough year. After a series of workplace incidents at her university lab culminates in a plagiarism accusation, Sol is put on probation. Dutiful visits to her homophobic father aren’t helping her mental health, and she finds her nightly glass of wine becoming more of an all-day—and all-bottle—event. Her wife, Alice Song, is far more optimistic. After all, the two finally managed to buy a house in the beautiful, gated community of Maneless Grove. However, the neighbors are a little too friendly in Sol’s opinion. She has no interest in the pushy Homeowners Associ… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & homophobia
  • Child abuse & neglect, including mentions of a parent slashing her child with a knife after they came out
  • Anxiety & alcoholism
  • Suicide
  • Death of a child
  • Blood & gore depiction, including minor body horror & depiction of dead bodies
  • Car accident
  • Fire

The Wicked Betrayal by Marion Blackwood

After the events surrounding the Dagger of Orias, Kenna believes that her circumstances could not possibly get any worse. But fortune is a cruel mistress. Unexpected betrayal throws her life into turmoil, and while she is still trying to recover from the shock, she also has to somehow come up with a plan to save her life. The idea is simple. And dangerous beyond belief. In order to get out of the desperate situation she has ended up in, Kenna is going to take on Mordren Darkbringer. But the Prince of Shadows is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Slut-shaming & victim-blaming
  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Depression & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Attempted kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail
  • Building collapse
  • Fire
  • Conscription
  • Homelessness

The Traitor Spy by Marion Blackwood

The elven Court of Stone has many spies, and Kenna is one of its most prized ones. Being a half-elf, she is skilled, dangerous, and beautiful. She’s also a traitor. Desperately yearning for freedom, she blackmails people for ransom behind the back of the elven prince who holds her leash. But one day, she takes it too far. When she accidentally goes after someone from a neighboring court, she is cornered by its prince. The feared Prince of Shadows gives her an ultimatum: spy for him on her own court or her master will learn of her illegal activities. At the same time, a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & slut-shaming
  • Indentured servitude
  • Estrangement
  • Alcohol consumption & gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder, including attempted regicide
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault (mugging)
  • Captivity & confinement
  • Home invasion
  • Hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Conscription
  • Poverty themes

Empire of Flame and Thorns by Marion Blackwood

Trapped in the Seelie Court by a forest of thorns, Selena Hale lives at the mercy of the dragon shifters. Her only chance to gain her freedom is by entering the Atonement Trials: a deadly competition that pits fae magic users against each other. Only three people can win, and Selena intends to be one of them. There is only one problem. Draven Ryat, the ruthless commander of the dragon shifter army, is determined to make her lose. He symbolizes everything that she hates, and if he finds out that she is also a member of the secret fae rebellion. He symbolizes everything that she hates, and if he finds out that she is also a member Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Slavery & indentured servitude
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction, including medical treatment, scars, dead bodies, decapitation, & burns
  • Captivity & confinement
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Poisoning
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Military service & violence mentioned
  • Bullying

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

Magic doesn’t exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like sixteen-year-old Koffi. Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome and magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts and secure their eventual freedom. But the night her loved ones’ own safety is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand—and the consequences are dire. As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six—an elite warrior—and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Indentured servitude
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Drugging & drug use (on-page)
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Poisoning
  • Fire
  • Animal death & abuse

End of Days by Susan Ee

After a daring escape from the angels, Penryn and Raffe are on the run. They’re both desperate to find a doctor who can reverse the twisted changes inflicted by the angels on Raffe and Penryn’s sister. As they set off in search of answers, a startling revelation about Raffe’s past unleashes dark forces that threaten them all. When the angels release an apocalyptic nightmare onto humans, both sides are set on a path toward war. As unlikely alliances form and strategies shift, who will emerge victorious? Forced to pick sides in the fight for control of the earthly realm, Raffe and Penryn must choose: Their own kind, or each other?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language (on-page)
  • Disfigurmisia
  • Slavery
  • Parent with paranoid schizophrenia
  • Self-sacrifice
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies, body horror, involuntary body modifications, medical experimentations, plague, eyeball trauma & loss of vision, and cannibalism
  • Torture & psychological torture (on-page), including mentions of being eaten & skinned alive
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Gun & sword violence
  • Explosion
  • Whipping
  • Imprisonment, kidnapping & captivity
  • Building collapse recounted
  • Rebellion themes
  • Cults