Tag Archives: Death of a Parent & Guardian

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of death of a parent or guardian.

See also Death of a mother, Death of a father, and Grief & loss depiction.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Maud Blyth has always longed for adventure. She expected plenty of it when she volunteered to serve as an old lady’s companion on an ocean liner, in order to help her beloved older brother unravel a magical conspiracy that began generations ago. What she didn’t expect was for the old lady in question to turn up dead on the first day of the voyage. Now she has to deal with a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and the lovely, dangerously outrageous Violet Debenham, who’s also returning home to England. Violet is everything that Maud has been trained to distrust yet… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity & spousal abandonment*
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Emotional parental abuse recounted
  • Suicide mentioned (secondary character)
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction, including minor self-injury for blood, dead bodies & emesis
  • Death of parents in a car accident recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Knife violence
  • Loss of autonomy (ghost possession)

Context : Violet is technically married to a man who abandoned her & stole her possessions; due to his disappearance, she is unable to dissolve their marriage and never reveals this to her love interest.

Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty

Cassie, Em and Lydia are best friends in Year 10 at Ashbury High. Ashbury students claim that all the kids at downtown Brookfield High are drug-dealers and psychopaths. Their English teacher, encouraging the Adventure of the Scary and the New and the Joy of the Envelope, starts a Pen-Pal Project. The hilarious letters between the girls and three unknown Brookfield boys lead to an escalation of the war between the schools, to secret romance, and to Cassie learning to face the dark fears that she hides from her friends.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny, slut-shaming, and fatphobia & body shaming
  • Death of a parent recounted

The Other Side of the River by Alda P. Dobbs

Petra Luna is in America, having escaped the Mexican Revolution and the terror of the Federales. Now that they are safe, Petra and her family can begin again, in this country that promises so much. Still, twelve-year-old Petra knows that her abuelita, little sister, and baby brother depend on her to survive. She leads her family from a smallpox-stricken refugee camp on the Texas border to the buzzing city of San Antonio, where they work hard to build a new life. And for the first time ever, Petra has a chance to learn to read and write. Yet Petra also sees in America attitudes she thought… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism, classism & sexism
  • Death of a mother from childbirth mentioned
  • Mexican Revolution recounted

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs

It is 1913, and twelve-year-old Petra Luna’s mama has died while the Revolution rages in Mexico. Before her papa is dragged away by soldiers, Petra vows to him that she will care for the family she has left―her abuelita, little sister Amelia, and baby brother Luisito―until they can be reunited. They flee north through the unforgiving desert as their town burns, searching for safe harbour in a world that offers none. Each night when Petra closes her eyes, she holds her dreams close, especially her long-held desire to learn to read. Abuelita calls these barefoot dreams… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Anti-Indigenous racism
  • Starvation & water scarcity
  • Death of a mother from childbirth recounted
  • Police & military violence including forced conscription and burning of a village

Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Pretty, flighty Daisy Devreaux can either go to jail or marry the mystery man her father has chosen for her. Arranged marriages don’t happen in the modern world, so how did the irrepressible Daisy find herself in this fix? Alex Markov, as humourless as he is deadly handsome, has no intention of playing the loving bridegroom to a spoiled little feather-head with champagne tastes. He drags Daisy from her uptown life to a broken down traveling circus and sets out to tame her to his ways. But this man without a soul has met his match in a woman who’s nothing but heart. Before… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Arranged marriage
  • Child abuse (off-page)
  • Unplanned pregnancy (on-page)
  • Death of a parent (off-page)

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already. But when PJ reads an obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Grief-related alcoholism (protagonist)
  • Death of a daughter recounted
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder-suicide

A Risk on Forever by N.S. Perkins

When Matthias Phillips imagined the new caretaker for his mother with ALS, the last thing he had in mind was a gorgeous twenty-something who didn’t look like she had a day of experience in the field. However, his mother has always been stubborn, and despite his objections, she’s insistent: it’s Adelaide Samson she wants him to hire. After losing her job, Adelaide needs a new gig to continue supporting her family, even if that means working for overprotective and rude Matthias. Once she earns his trust, though, she gets to see a whole other side of him—a funny, sweet… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with depression
  • Chronic illness (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS))
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted (on-page)

And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens

Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn’t where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her “most likely to succeed” at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn’t want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash—and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away—she turns to a mysterious dating… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Death of a parent recounted

Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

Adriana Russo is figure skating royalty, born to gold-medalist parents and an equally talented sister. Adriana’s dream? To conquer the Junior World Championships and uphold the family legacy. But when the family’s legendary skating rink faces financial ruin, everything she’s worked for is at risk. Training with her new partner, Brayden, sparks an let the world believe their on-ice chemistry isn’t only for show. The fake-dating gains traction, and Adriana realizes maybe she actually is falling for Brayden. But then her past crashes into her present and changes everything… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation for sports injury
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent discussed

Deep Secrets by Nikki Shannon Smith

Colette only wants three to prove she isn’t weak, to get a job, and to uncover the mystery surrounding her father. All her life she’s heard that he died in a factory accident, but she’s haunted by dreams of bitter cold and a sea of stars—and part of her knows it’s somehow connected to him. Colette is not to work, is not to leave the house, and is to never speak of her father. But when Colette secretly gets a job, she becomes fascinated by the stories that Walter, the store owner, tells. He was aboard the Titanic before it sank. He saw… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism discussed
  • Death of a father in a factory accident
  • Death of a brother in the Titanic tragedy (secondary character)
  • Poverty & financial difficulties during the Great Depression