Tag Archives: Death of a Grandparent

Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian

2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself. 1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country’s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse—he’s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Racism & colourism
  • Suicide (off-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Death of a grandfather from cancer
  • Police brutality & abuse of force*

*Context: The military uses force and gun violence against unarmed protestors.

A Sky of Paper Stars by Susie Yi

All Yuna wants is to belong. She wants to go to sleepovers, have a smart phone, and go to summer camp—just like her friends in middle school. Furious at her Umma for never packing her a “normal” American lunch, they get into yet another fight. Out of options and miserable, Yuna remembers a legend that her grandma, Halmoni, told her. If you fold 1,000 paper stars, you will be granted one wish. When she reaches 1,000 paper stars, Yuna wishes for her family to move back to Korea, where she can finally be normal. Seconds later: a knock at her door. It’s her sister with devastating news. Halmoni has died and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandmother

Three Kisses, One Midnight by Roshani Chokshi, Sandhya Menon and Evelyn Skye

The town of Moon Ridge was founded 400 years ago and everyone born and raised there knows the legend of the young woman who perished at the stroke of twelve that very same night, losing the life she was set to embark on with her dearest love. Every century since, one day a year, the Lady of Moon Ridge descends from the stars to walk among the townsfolk, conjuring an aura upon those willing to follow their hearts’ desires. This year at Moon Ridge High, a group of friends known as The Coven will weave art, science, and magic during a masquerade ball unlike any other. Onny, True, and Ash believe everything is in alignment to bring them the affection, acceptance, and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned

Final Offer by Lauren Asher

Callahan. I’m the Kane brother everyone gossips about behind closed doors. Trust fund brat. Washed-up athlete. High-functioning alcoholic. No one knows the real me but her. Lana Castillo—my childhood best friend and the only woman I ever loved. When I broke her heart six years ago, I promised to never return to Lake Wisteria. I kept my word until my grandfather’s will changed everything. To receive my inheritance, I was tasked with spending a summer at the family lake house before selling it. The request was simple in theory until my entire plan blew up on the very first day. Turns out Lana doesn’t just live at the house, but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Emotional & verbal child abuse
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Drug use (smoking)
  • Overdose recounted
  • Infertility
  • Cancer
  • Death of a grandfather
  • Animal abuse

Black Hearts by Karina Halle

For Vicente Bernal, truth is all he’s known. The son of an infamous drug lord, Vicente was born to help run the family business, which means he’s been raised on a throne of sordid pasts and dirty laundry, violence and pride. But when Vicente stumbles across someone he’s not supposed to know about – a woman from his father’s checkered past – he sets out to California to find her behind his father’s back. What Vicente doesn’t expect to find in San Francisco is Violet McQueen, the woman’s twenty-year-old daughter. Beautiful and edgy with vulnerability he can’t resist, Violet…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use (cigarettes)
  • Death of a grandfather from cancer
  • Death of an aunt from a car bomb recounted
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Organised crime
  • Attempted kidnapping

Titan by Shantel Tessier

I know I have a black soul. Bloodshed and danger are what I live for. A King is supposed to rule his Kingdom using any means necessary to demand respect. I’m not a weak man. A King kneels to no one. I’ve only ever cared about one other person in my life, but the thing is, she never belonged to me. And before I could tell her how I felt, she left. Now she’s returned, needing someone to save her. Emilee York was always meant to be mine, and I’ll see to it that happens. I always get what I want, even if that means I have to take it. And she’s no different. She’ll be my queen, on…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Sex work & sex work shaming
  • Rape by coercion*
  • Sexual harassment
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Infidelity*
  • Parental divorce recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Involuntary body modifications (forced branding)
  • Death of a mother from cancer (lymphoma), on-page
  • Death of a grandparent in a car accident
  • Faked death of a father from a heart attack
  • Murder
  • Torture including waterboarding and strangulation
  • Arson
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping*
  • Plane crash recounted

*Context : A secondary character kidnaps the female protagonist (FMC)’s mother and withdraws her medical care until she has sex with him. There are multiple mentions of secondary characters having affair or their infidelity.

Spare by Prince Harry and J.R. Moehringer

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Parental divorce & infidelity
  • Familial estrangement
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Agoraphobia
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use (cigarettes, psychedelics, cocaine, marijuana)
  • Pregnancy, childbirth & miscarriage
  • Weight loss & gain mentioned
  • Physical injury and illness (frostbite, trench foot)
  • Death of a mother in a car accident
  • Death of an ex-partner from suicide
  • Death of a friend in a car accident and avalanche
  • Death of grandparents and great-grandmother mentioned
  • Stalking and harassment by the paparazzi and news organisations
  • Military service and deployment
  • Animal death including hunting and butchering
  • Injury of a pet dog

*Context : Mentions of intimate photos released without consent; Prince Harry’s uncle being accused of paedophilia and sexual violence.

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

What’s the point of giving someone a beautiful death if you can’t give yourself a beautiful life?

From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit , Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical injury & illness including liver failure and death of secondary characters from heart attacks and cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Death of a grandfather & guardian

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of an aunt from suicide by an overdose recounted, off-page
  • Death of a grandparent from dementia recounted, off-page

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life—a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste—but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child & domestic abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandmother