Death of a Friend – Trigger Warning Database

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Erica and Laure meet on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, 1978. Erica is a student, relishing her first summer abroad before beginning university at home in England. Laure is studying for her PhD at the Sorbonne, drinking and smoking far too much, and sleeping with a married woman. The moment the two women meet, the spark is undeniable, but their encounter turns into far more than a summer of love. It is the beginning of a relationship that will define their lives and every decision they have yet to make. Erica and Laure’s love story spans decades, marriage, children… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Death of a friend from AIDS

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Halfway through sixth grade, Noah’s best friend and the only other trans boy in his school, Lewis, passed away in a car accident. Adventurous and curious, Lewis was always bringing a new paranormal story to share with Noah. Together they daydreamed about cryptids and shared discovering their genders and names. After Lewis’s death, lonely and yearning for someone who could understand him like Lewis once did, Noah starts writing letters to Mothman, wondering if he would understand how Noah feels and also looking for evidence of Mothman’s existence in the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Transphobia mentioned, including accidental deadnaming and misgendering
Grief & loss depiction (theme)
Death of a friend in a car accident (off-page)
Bullying

Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler

East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who happens to have the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS. So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she’ll see him again. There’s no way Mark wouldn’t give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment – and increasingly, her concern – Mark doesn’t appear. Renata has other problems, too. There’s something strange happening in her advertisements for paranormal ‘exte… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a best friend from AIDS (theme)

Redemption Point by Candice Fox

When former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting Claire Bingley, he hoped the Queensland rainforest town of Crimson Lake would be a good place to disappear. But nowhere is safe from Claire’s devastated father. Dale Bingley has a brutal revenge plan all worked out – and if Ted doesn’t help find the real abductor, he’ll be its first casualty. Meanwhile, in a dark roadside hovel called the Barking Frog Inn, the bodies of two young bartenders lie on the beer-sodden floor. It’s Detective Inspector Pip Sweeney’s first homicide investigation – c… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse recounted
Rape recounted
Cheating
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a friend
Murder
Gun violence
Police corruption mentioned
Wrongful incarceration
Animal cruelty

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts – lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slavery
Emesis
Death of a friend

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler

Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process. She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion. After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Lesbophobia discussed
Sexism & sexual harassment
Familial estrangement
Parental infidelity
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend
Death of a parent recounted (off-page)
Animal death in a car accident (deer)

One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer there at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life. Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia & dieting discussed
Parental divorce recounted
Infidelity recounted
Anxiety & depression
Nightmare
Alcohol consumption & drug use
Pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
Protagonist with a congenital heart condition (aortic valve stenosis & aortic coarctation), which requires open heart surgery
Mild physical illness (heatstroke) & mentions of a grandparent recovering from emergency hip replacement surgery
Death of a parent in a car accident
Death of a grandfather recounted
Death of a best friend recounted

The Flip Side by Jason Walz

Theo’s best friend has died, and he can’t pull himself out of his sadness—a sadness that those around him don’t seem to respect or even notice. And then something even more disconcerting His town literally flips upside down and everyone disappears, except for a threatening, shape-shifting monster and a snarky teenage girl who knows her way around this flipped world. Is Theo doomed to spend the rest of his life in this scary state?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicidal ideation & self-harm
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend from cancer

You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne

Chris O’Brien has a genius plan: If he can share the perfect first kiss with his crush, Andy, then of course he’ll break free from the time loop that has him repeating graduation day over and over…and over. Alicia Ochoa thinks Chris’s plan is doomed. Valedictorian and a total nerd, she knows it’ll take more than a kiss to escape the loop they’re trapped in together. Besides, Chris may be a hopeless romantic, but Alicia doesn’t think he has a real shot with Andy. Once close friends, Alicia and Chris have history—lots of it. As they got older, the pair fell out after… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Death of a friend

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
Death of a friend (off-page)