Death of a Parent & Guardian – Page 28 – Trigger Warning Database

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity
Alcohol consumption
Terminal illness
Death of a parent
Stalking
Fire

Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent

Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children’s books; their life together one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma. In the aftermath of such an unthinkable event, as Alice hovers between life and death, the couple’s friends, neighbours, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act. As his story unfolds, layers are peeled… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Domestic violence & child abuse
Pregnancy
Death of a parent

Clean Air by Sarah Blake

The climate apocalypse has come and gone, and in the end it wasn’t the temperature climbing or the waters rising. It was the trees. The world became overgrown, creating enough pollen to render the air unbreathable. In the decade since the event known as the Turning, humanity has rebuilt, and Izabel has gotten used to the airtight domes that now contain her life. She raises her young daughter, Cami, and attempts to make peace with her mother’s death. She tries hard to be satisfied with this safe, prosperous new world, but instead she just feels stuck. And then the peace of her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

COVID-19 pandemic discussed
Death of a parent
Murder

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. His patronage offers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Suicide mentioned
Drug use
Forced institutionalisation
Chronic migraines
Death of parents mentioned
Murder
Fire
Earthquake (1906 San Francisco)

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity. By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community acti… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Cheating
Alcohol consumption
Death of a parent mentioned
Police brutality

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons. In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Classism
Parental divorce
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Parent with alcoholism mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother from cancer
Death of a parent in a car accident mentioned
Near-drowning incident

Through the Smoke by Brenda Novak

Riches. Power. An ancient heritage of pride. The Earl of Druridge wanted only for an heir. So when he learned that his wife was carrying another man’s child, he was filled with a thirst for vengeance. But he wasn’t the one who caused Katherine’s death. Or was he? To his horror, he remembers nothing of that dreadful night, when their last confrontation ended in scorching flame and cold blood. A forbidden love… But he wasn’t the one who caused Katherine’s death. Or was he? To his horror, he remembers nothing of that dreadful night, when their last confrontation ended in scorching flame and cold blood. Passionately drawn to the…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Drugging
Death of a mother
Death of a wife in a fire recounted

The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden

Across Italy, there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an oppur… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Emotionally abusive relationship & gaslighting
Death of a parent

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Drug use & abuse
Suicidal ideation
Substance addiction
Death of a parent from cancer

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect. All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Antisemitism mentioned
Self-harm for magic
Alcohol consumption
Graphic blood & gore depiction including body horror and dead bodies
Emesis
Death of parents recounted
Kidnapping recounted
Torture recounted
Gun violence
Fire