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.

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry. Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die. When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Childbirth
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Plague
  • Dead bodies
  • Dismemberment
  • Hanging

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly—and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow July is not quite alive, and not quite dead. As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly, and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Depression
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Car accident

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

The islands of Lake Wranglestone are a safe haven in a world filled with the Restless Dead. But as the lake freezes over, there’s nothing to stop them from crossing the ice. Peter’s has never really felt at home in a place where practicality and grit are valued above all else. He’s nothing like rancher, Cooper, the boy he’s always watched from afar. But when he’s is ordered to join him out on the mainland to help herd the Dead from their shores, they find more than just each other. There they unearth a dark secret about Wranglestone’s past. One that forces the pair to question everything they’ve ever known.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Coming out themes
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Decapitation
  • Physical injuries, including eyeball trauma
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death recounted

The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May

The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May

Deep in a forest, Aileana Kameron claws her way out of the earth. Back from the dead with no memory of who she is or what has happened to her, the Falconer now possesses even greater otherworldly powers and a ruthless instinct to kill—and the one piece of knowledge that can change everything. Two fae monarchs, Aithinne and Kadamach, stand on the brink of war, and according to an ancient curse, one must die at the hand of the other or all the worlds will perish. Once, Kadamach was known as Kiaran, and he… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • PTSD & trauma including flashbacks and memory loss
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Death of a friend, on-page
  • Murder, attempted murder & mass murder, on-page
  • Graphic torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Sword & knife violence
  • Fire, off-page
  • Loss of autonomy (nonconsensual mind invasion & memory manipulation)

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

Princess Thia was born to be a crow rider—a warrior. In her kingdom of Rhodaire, magical elemental crows keep the city running. But when the Illucian empire invades, they kill all the crows in a horrible fire that also robs Thia of her mother and mentor. Then Thia’s sister, Caliza, becomes the new queen of Rhodaire, she is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the Illucian heir in an effort to save her people. Prince Ericen is rude and cruel and Thia can’t imagine travelling into the heart of an enemy city after so much has been taken from her. But before she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & internalised ableism
  • Racism
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Depression (theme)
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm & self-injury
  • Serious injury of a loved one
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother on-page
  • Death of an aunt, off-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Fire
  • Graphic animal death, on-page
  • War themes, including invasion & colonialism

Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Fire. Flood. Ice. Three natural disasters. Three kids who must fight to survive—and change things for the better. In California, Akira Kristiansen is driving through the mountains with her mom when a wildfire sparks — and grows scarily fast. In just moments, Akira and her family have to evacuate… but which way is safe with fire all around them? In Churchill, Manitoba, Owen Mackenzie is running a tour for travellers who’ve come to see the polar bears. Lately, the bears show up more and more as the ice thins. When Owen and his friend see a bear much too close for comfort, they end up in a fight for their lives. In Miami, a hurricane bear… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depiction of dead bodies
  • Hurricanes
  • Wildfire
  • Flood
  • Animal attack (polar bear)

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe. All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & Nazism
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation of a grandparent due to trauma sustained in a concentration camp
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Blood & injury depiction, including the mention of the floating dead body with gunshot wounds
  • Physical assault (beating)
  • Police violence
  • Riots, specifically in 1994 Cuba
  • Home invasion
  • Destruction of a home & buildings from a missile strike
  • WWII themes, including detainment in concentration camps
  • Refugee experiences & displacement (theme)
  • Animal attack (secondary character dies from a shark bite)

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. He’s spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential. He’s obsessed with serial killers but really doesn’t want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he’s written for himself, practising normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation. Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don’t demand or expect the empathy he’s unable to offer. Perhaps that’s what gives him the objectivity to recognize that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Pyromania
  • Dead bodies
  • Graphic murder
  • Animal cruelty mentioned

The Secret Place by Tana French

The Secret Place by Tana French

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique and to the tangle of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Dead body
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Stabbing
  • Blackmail
  • Bullying

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of other contemporary masters of supernatural fiction. In her masterpiece, The Bloody Chamber—which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves—she spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape, martial rape & rape by coercion
  • Paedophilia
  • Bestiality
  • Necrophilia
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping