Tag Archives: Death of a Child

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of death of a child.

See also Grief & loss depiction.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatmisia
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Cheating
  • Child abuse
  • Hallucinations
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a child
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Genocide
  • Fire
  • Animal death

Himmler’s Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert

Himmler’s Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert

“History is a bitch. She has taken everything from me. My children. My parents. My great, true love. My cats. I don’t understand the stupid veneration that the human race feels for her.”

Aged 105, Rose has endured more than her fair share of hardships: the Armenian genocide, the Nazi regime, and the delirium of Maoism. Yet somehow, despite all the suffering, Rose never loses her joie de vivre. As she looks back over her long life—one of survival and, sometimes, one of retribution—she recalls those unique experiences that added such spice to her life, whether it was being a confidante to Hitler, a friend to Simone de Beauvoir or cooking for Heinrich Himmler.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism
  • Child sexual slavery
  • Rape
  • Child sexual abuse
  • Cheating
  • Attempted abortion
  • Pregnancy from rape
  • Death of a husband
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Genocide
  • World War Two & the Holocaust
  • Animal death

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron

In 1946, Eva leaves behind the rubble of Berlin for the streets of New York City, stepping from the fiery aftermath of one war into another, far colder one, where power is more important than principles, and lies are more plentiful than the truth. Eva holds the key to a deadly secret: Project Bluebird — a horrific experiment of the concentration camps, capable of tipping the balance of world power. Both the Americans and the Soviets want Bluebird, and it is something that neither should ever be allowed to possess.

But Eva hasn’t come to America for secrets or power. She hasn’t even come for a new life. She has come to America for one thing: justice. And the Nazi that has escaped its net.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Rape, off-page
  • Suicide by cyanide pill
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Death of children
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Concentration camps
  • Human medical experimentation
  • Animal death (bird) recounted
  • Animal cruelty

Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin

Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin

When her best friend Billie is found murdered, eleven-year-old Thera – fearless and forthright – considers it her duty to find the killer.

Aided by an Ouija board, Billie’s ghost, and the spirits of four other dead girls, she’s determined to succeed. The trouble with Thera, though, is that she doesn’t always know when to stop – and sometimes there’s a fine line between doing the right thing and doing something very, very bad indeed.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Paedophilia
  • Child abuse
  • Death of child
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Bullying

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Genocide discussed
  • Death of a child
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal hunting
  • Bullying

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

For a thousand years the ash fell. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.

Yet somehow hope survives. A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.

What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Physical & emotional abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic murder
  • Torture

The Book of Koli by MR Carey

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.

Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls.

What he doesn’t know is – what happens when you aren’t given a choice?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Self-immolation
  • Body horror & eyeball trauma
  • Death of children

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of the Château d’If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racial slurs & antiziganism (g slur)
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage
  • Death by starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Death of a child & attempted infanticide
  • Torture
  • Wrongful imprisonment

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Death of a newborn

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?

But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted suicide