Depression – Trigger Warning Database

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude

Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it. Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia & religious bigotry
Depression & suicidal ideation
Suicide of a secondary character (discussed, off-page)
Attempted suicide discussed (protagonist)
Alcohol consumption
Gun violence
Home invasion

Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox

Today is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party, an exclusive black-tie bash in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where secrets are as deep-rooted as the sprawling live oaks. Sophie’s dad has spared no expense, and his renovated cliffside mansion—once thought haunted—is now hosting the event of the season. Then, just before the candles on the three-tiered red velvet cake are blown out, a body falls from the balcony onto the starlit dance floor below. It’s a killer guest list. DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
Post-partum depression
Intrusive thoughts

Business Not As Usual by Sharon C. Cooper

This is the mantra that will get Dreamy Daniels through each day until she makes it big. So what if she lives in a seedy part of Los Angeles in a house that’s one earthquake away from crumbling, or works an unfulfilling secretarial job while struggling to finish her bachelor’s degree? All Dreamy needs to do is win the lottery, which she’s been entering in as a weekly tradition with her grandfather. When she catches the attention of her boss’s potential investor, Dreamy has to remind herself to focus on her career goals so she can be her own boss. Who cares if he has the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Depression

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

In her brilliantly inventive and haunting debut collection of stories, Julia Armfield explores bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia (Cassandra After)
Body-shaming (Mantis)
Infidelity (Cassandra After)
Divorce (Formally Feral, Smack)
Depression (Smack, Cassandra After)
Suicide mentioned (The Collectables)
Self-harm mentioned (Cassandra After)
Alcohol consumption & smoking (The Collectables)
Pregnancy & mention of miscarriage/pregnancy loss (Salt Slow)
Blood & injury depiction (Mantis, Formally Feral, Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax, Granite, Salt Slow)
Heart attack mentioned (The Collectables)
Weight loss, dieting & starvation mentioned (Mantis, Salt Slow)
Emesis (Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax)
Death of a parent recounted (Smack)
Death of a partner (Cassandra After)
Car accident mentioned (Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax)
Fire (The Collectables)
Drowning (Salt Slow)
Bullying (Formally Feral)

Amen Maxine by Faith Gardner

Welcome to Silicon Valley, where the weather is perfect, the income is high … and Rowena Snyder is miserable. A transplant from New York, Rowena moved into her husband Jacob’s idyllic childhood home with their new baby. But suburbia isn’t Rowena’s cup of Starbucks. And she’s got serious anxiety and depression to boot. Jacob, worried about their marriage, scores a new product currently in beta testing from his tech job: Maxine, a “digital friend” that bonds with an individual by continually gathering their personal data. Along with functioning like an upscale digital assist… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity
Domestic emotional abuse & gaslighting
Postpartum anxiety & depression (protagonist, on-page)

Beard in Mind by Penny Reid

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually. Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone’s favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston’s charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket. Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever. She mumbles to herself, but won’t respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Domestic violence recounted
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Depression
Self-harm (cutting)

Dead in the Water by John Marrs

When Damon survives a near-drowning, his life flashes before his eyes. Every memory is crystal clear—except one. A dead boy. A face he can’t place. A moment he doesn’t remember living. At first he tells himself it’s a trick of the mind. But everything else he saw was real. So why not this? With his waking life stalked by the disturbing scene, confusion quickly turns to obsession. Desperate for answers, Damon digs into his fractured past, and becomes convinced that the only way to remember…is to die again. And again. And again. When he meets a perfect stranger who’s all too… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse mentioned
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Depression mentioned
Abortion mentioned
Death of a child
Fatal hit-and-run car accident
Near-drowning incident

The Winter Garden by Alexandra Bell

Welcome to the Winter Gardens of Half Moon House. Please do not mishandle the exhibits. (The owners accept no liability for any events that occur, magical or otherwise…) The Winter Garden open at the stroke of midnight with no great fanfare – after all, this is a time when all virtuous folk should be in bed. But for the few curious souls that brave the opening of its gates what enchantments await. There is all manner of strange and spectacular flora and fauna collected on her travels by the scandalous Lady Beatrice Sitwell and exhibited for the delight of paying customers. By… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape & sexual assault
Domestic abuse
Drug abuse
Depression
Death of a child & parent
Animal abuse

Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily R. Austin

Darcy’s life turned out better than she could have ever imagined. She is a librarian at the local branch, while her wife Joy runs a book binding service. Between the two of them, there is no more room on their shelves with their ample book collections, various knickknacks and bobbles, and dried bouquets. Rounding out their ideal life is two cats and a sun-soaked house by the lake. But when Darcy receives the news that her ex-boyfriend, Ben, has passed away, she spirals into a pit of guilt and regret, resulting in a mental breakdown and medical leave from the library. When she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia & transphobia
Image based sexual abuse (protagonist is threatened by a secondary character when she accidentally uploads an unintentionally intimate photo)
Emotional parental abuse
Infidelity recounted (the protagonist cheated on her boyfriend in the past; mentions of a secondary character’s husband cheating)
Anxiety, insomnia & panic disorder (protagonist) with mentions of dissociation and panic attacks
Parent with postpartum depression recounted
Psychiatric hospitalisation for acute stress reaction recounted (protagonist)
Disordered eating mentioned & recounted, including attempted purging & dieting
Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
Abortion recounted
Pregnancy & teen pregnancy mentioned (brief, secondary characters)
Death of an ex-boyfriend from a brain aneurysm discussed

A Grim and Sunken Vow by Ashley Shuttleworth

The die is cast. The era of Spring is over. Riadne’s bloody coup on the Summer Solstice changed Arlo’s life forever. In one fell swoop and a fool’s bargain, she lost both her family and free will to the newly crowned High Queen. Now, with Arlo forced to use her powers as Luck’s Hollow Star to help summon the rest of the seven deadly sins, Riadne stands closer than ever to achieving her dark goals. And Arlo isn’t the only one trapped in a frightening new role. Her ex-Fury girlfriend, Nausicaä, is determined to do whatever it takes to stay by Arlo’s side, even if that means becoming… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child trafficking
Child abuse & neglect
Depression
Suicide recounted (off-page) & suicidal ideation mentioned
Self-harm
Blood & gore depiction
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a sister, mother & father
Murder & torture
Arson