Tag Archives: Dead Bodies & Body Parts

Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

The kingdom of Kandala is on the brink of disaster. Rifts between sectors have only worsened since a sickness began ravaging the land, and within the Royal Palace, the king holds a tenuous peace with a ruthless hand. King Harristan was thrust into power after his parents’ shocking assassination, leaving the younger Prince Corrick to take on the brutal role of the King’s Justice. The brothers have learned to react mercilessly to any sign of rebellion–it’s the only way to maintain order when the sickness can strike anywhere, and the only known cure, an elixir made from delicate… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Epidemic (theme)
  • Blood & injury depiction including detailed dead bodies
  • Medical treatment
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend, off-page
  • Murder of a mother & father
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Explosion
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping
  • Imprisonment
  • Fire
  • Poverty discussed

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Estrangement
  • Grey-area cheating
  • Childbirth
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries & wounds
  • Body horror
  • Cannibalism (theme)
  • Dismemberment
  • Involuntary pregnancy
  • Infertility themes
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Imprisonment
  • Torture
  • Animal cruelty & abuse

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “Lo siento” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Colourism
  • Sexism
  • Ableism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Stroke recounted
  • Dead bodies

The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees

The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees

The waking forest has secrets. To Rhea, it appears like a mirage, dark and dense, at the very edge of her backyard. But when she reaches out to touch it, the forest vanishes. She’s desperate to know more–until she finds a peculiar boy who offers to reveal its secrets. If she plays a game.

To the Witch, the forest is her home, where she sits on her throne of carved bone, waiting for dreaming children to beg her to grant their wishes. One night, a mysterious visitor arrives and asks her what she wishes for, but the Witch sends him away. And then the uninvited guest returns.

The strangers are just the beginning. Something is stirring in the forest, and when Rhea’s and the Witch’s paths collide, a truth more treacherous and deadly than either could ever imagine surfaces. But how much are they willing to risk to survive?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Anxiety
  • Hallucinations
  • Dead body
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Branding

The Blacksmith Queen by GA Aiken

The Blacksmith Queen by G.A. Aiken

With the demise of the Old King, there’s a prophesy that a queen will ascend to the throne of the Black Hills. Bad news for the king’s sons, who are prepared to defend their birthright against all comers. But for blacksmith Keeley Smythe, war is great for business. Until it looks like the chosen queen will be Beatrix, her younger sister. Now it’s all Keeley can do to protect her family from the enraged royals. 
 
Luckily, Keeley doesn’t have to fight alone. Because thundering to her aid comes a clan of kilt-wearing mountain warriors called the Amichai. Not the most socially adept group, but soldiers have never bothered Keeley, and rough, gruff Caid, actually seems to respect her. A good thing because the fierce warrior will be by her side for a much longer ride than any prophecy ever envisioned …

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Sexual harassment mentioned
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic decapitation
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Death of a cousin, on-page
  • Death of a brother, off-page
  • Death of a child, off-page
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder
  • Genocide & mass murder
  • Graphic sword, hammer & knife violence
  • Fire & arson
  • Attempted hanging, on-page
  • Poisoning
  • Regicide mentioned
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Volcanic eruption
  • Animal abuse
  • Death from an animal attack
  • Graphic animal death

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.

Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racist language
  • Sexism
  • Ableism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Body horror
  • Hospitalisation
  • Decapitation, on-page
  • Murder (theme)
  • Gun violence
  • Infanticide by defenestration, on-page
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Riots
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Dead bodies
  • Medical treatment & procedures
  • Comas
  • Death of colleagues, off-page
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.

An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Victim blaming discussed
  • Rape recounted
  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Depression & psychotic depression
  • Panic attacks, on-page
  • Abortion recounted
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Needles
  • Graphic dead bodies, on-page
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Amputation of fingers, off-page
  • Medical experimentation & inhumane procedures discussed
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted
  • Death of a mother in a hit-and-run accident mentioned
  • Death of a brother by drowning recounted
  • Death of a colleague by drowning
  • Murder & attempted murder, on-page
  • Drowning & attempted drowning
  • Knife violence & stabbing, on-page
  • Kidnapping, on-page
  • Physical assault
  • Disappearance of a wife
  • Avalanche, on-page
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Antiziganism
  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead body
  • Death of a mother from suicide by knife violence
  • Death of a child by suffocation
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Animal death & cruelty
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Colorado Kid by Stephen King

Colorado Kid by Stephen King

On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There’s no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues.

But that’s just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still…?

 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Dead body
  • Death from asphyxiation
  • Murder discussed
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com