Tag Archives: Death of a Sibling

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

The Switch by Beth O'Leary

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn’t as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse
  • Cheating
  • Panic attack
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling
  • Hospital
  • Terminal cancer

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Mutism (protagonist)
  • Nightmares
  • Alcoholism, implied
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a brother by knife violence recounted
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Death of a cousin (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Strangulation
  • Bullying
  • Graphic animal death (crow, cat)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth—musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies—the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Sexual abuse
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Adultery
  • Depersonalisation & derealisation
  • Alcoholism
  • Schizophrenia
  • Agoraphobia
  • Claustrophobia
  • Panic attacks
  • Hallucinations & delusions
  • Suicide
  • Drug use
  • Hospitalisation
  • Hypothermia
  • Loss of limb
  • Death of a sibling
  • Death of an uncle
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Grief depiction
  • Gun violence
  • Stalking
  • Graphic death of a dog

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga

Cora hasn’t spoken to her best friend, Quinn, in a year. Despite living next door to each other, they exist in separate worlds of grief. Cora is still grappling with the death of her beloved sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of what her brother did.

On the day of Cora’s twelfth birthday, Quinn leaves a box on her doorstep with a note. She has decided that the only way to fix things is to go back in time to the moment before her brother changed all their lives forever—and stop him.

In spite of herself, Cora wants to believe. And so the two former friends begin working together to open a wormhole in the fabric of the universe… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister in a school shooting recounted

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite

When Agatha Griffin finds a colony of bees in her warehouse, it’s the not-so-perfect ending to a not-so-perfect week. Busy trying to keep her printing business afloat amidst rising taxes and the suppression of radical printers like her son, the last thing the widow wants is to be the victim of a thousand bees. But when a beautiful beekeeper arrives to take care of the pests, Agatha may be in danger of being stung by something far more dangerous…

Penelope Flood exists between two worlds in her small seaside town, the society of rich landowners and the tradesfolk. Soon, tensions boil over when the formerly exiled Queen arrives on England’s shores—and when Penelope’s long-absent husband returns to Melliton, she once again finds herself torn… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a sibling mentioned
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Whipping mentioned
  • Riot

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, Designed to be the playthings of royals, took over the estates of their owners and bent the human race to their will. Now, Ayla, a human servant rising the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging the death of her family… by killing the Sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier. Crier, who was Made to be beautiful, to be flawless. And to take over the work of her father.

Crier had been preparing to do just that—to inherit her father’s rule over the land. But that was before she was betrothed to Scyre Kinok, who seems to have a thousand secrets. That was before she discovered her father isn’t as benevolent as she thought. That was before she met Ayla.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Abandonment
  • Self-harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Animal death

The Princess Stakes by Amalie Howard

The Princess Stakes by Amalie Howard

Born to an Indian maharaja, Princess Sarani Rao has it all: beauty, riches, and a crown. But with a British mother, her mixed-blood makes her a pariah and a target. And when Sara’s father is murdered, her only hope of survival is to escape on the next ship out―captained by the boy she once loved…and spurned.

Captain Rhystan Huntley, the reluctant Duke of Embry, has a place in the English fleet, which he’s loathe to give up. But duty is calling him home, and this is his final voyage. Leave it to fate that the one woman he’s ever loved must escape India on his ship. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Colourism
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Murder
  • Colonialism

The Rakehell of Roth by Amalie Howard

The Rakehell of Roth by Amalie Howard

As owner of the most scandalous club in London, the last thing the notorious Marquess of Roth wants is a wife. Keeping up his false reputation as a rake brings in the clients with the deepest pockets—money he needs to fund a noble cause. Even though everything inside tells him not to leave his beautiful, innocent wife behind at his country estate…he must.

But three years later, tired of her scoundrel of a husband headlining the gossip rags, Lady Isobel Vance decides enough is enough. She is no longer a fragile kitten, but as the anonymous author of a women’s sexual advice column, she’s now a roaring tigress…and she can use her claws… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating mentioned
  • Death of a sibling from an overdose mentioned

Ghost by A Zavarelli 

Ghost by A. Zavarelli

I have always been a bird. Caged by one prison or another. Then the only thing I ever wanted was to fly away. Sold. Beaten. Starved. Drugged. Nothing scares me anymore. Until him. He makes the numbness go away. He is hazardous to me. It has nothing to do with his mafia lifestyle, and everything to do with what he offers. A gilded prison. A retreat from everything that I once knew. The reality I have no desire to return to. He thinks he’s caged me, but soon… I’m going to fly.

I live by a code. The Vory code. In this mafiya world, there are traditions. Expectations. She does not care for these things. She does not care about anything. She thinks she has me fooled with her haunted eyes. What she can’t know is that I see her better than most. She wants to fly but I’m going to clip her wings. And make her my wife.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Human sex trafficking
  • Rape
  • Child sexual abuse by a foster parent recounted
  • Cheating recounted
  • Pregnancy
  • Drug use
  • Death of a parent from suicide, off-page
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder & attempted murder

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

The clever and greedy wildcat Tsarmina becomes ruler of all Mossflower Woods and is determined to govern the peaceful woodlanders with an iron paw. The brave mouse Martin and quick-talking mouse thief Gonff meet in the depths of Kotir Castle’s dungeon. The two escape and resolve to end Tsarmina’s tyrannical rule. Joined by Kinny the mole, Martin and Gonff set off on a dangerous quest for Salamandastron, where they are convinced that their only hope, Boar the Fighter, still lives

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Animal death