Tag Archives: Depression

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of depression and depressive episodes.

See also Suicide, Self-harm, and Mental illness.

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly—and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow July is not quite alive, and not quite dead. As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly, and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Depression
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Car accident

To Target the Heart by Aldrea Alien

To Target the Heart by Aldrea Alien

How can he win with the odds stacked against him? Prince Hamish has no interest in fulfilling his duty of marrying. Not to a woman, at least. That doesn’t stop his mother, Queen Fiona, from presenting him with every eligible noblewoman that enters their castle. He’s certain it’ll be no different with the representative of the Udynea Empire. So when they do arrive, Hamish is relieved the imperial prince, Darshan, is not the woman everyone expected. Until the man kisses him and Hamish is confronted by the very emotion… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Physical & psychological child abuse
  • Depression
  • Attempted suicide
  • Graphic attempted murder

To Poison a Prince by Aldrea Alien

To Poison a Prince by Aldrea Alien

Imperial Crown Prince Darshan knew his journey home wasn’t going to be the modest one he hoped for, especially not after eloping with Hamish, a former prince—and now exile—of Tirglas. When he thwarts a clumsy attempt on his husband’s life during a soirée hosted by his long-standing rival and half-sister, he figures the worst is behind them. Yet, the threat of death continues to shadow them across the empire. Someone is intent on making the rumours of his husband’s demise a reality, someone who can erase the memory of their very presence from people’s minds… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Homophobia mentioned
  • Physical & psychological child abuse mentioned
  • Depression mentioned
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Graphic attempted murder
  • Poisoning

The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt

The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt

What happens when her two worlds collide? AJ is a buttoned-up, responsible student attending a high-achieving high school in Michigan. She lives with her mother, stepfather, and two younger half sisters. Della spends every summer with her father in Florida. A free-spirited wild child, she spends as much time as possible on the beach with her friends and older siblings. But there’s a catch: AJ and Della are the same person. Adelaide Beloise Jepsen to be exact, and she does everything she can to keep her school and summer lives separate. When her middle sister… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Unplanned pregnancy

Charge by Cate Wells

Charge by Cate C. Wells

Sometimes the things you shouldn’t want are exactly what you need. Kayla. Life hasn’t been easy. I had my son Jimmy too young, and I want the world for him. But the world? It’s not cooperating. I’m fighting to stay afloat, and my family is waiting for me to fail. I don’t need to be crushing on the criminally hot biker next door. He’s a little too old for me, and he makes me want to take risks I can’t afford. Charge. I used to be the fall guy. I took the heat for my club, and with my charm, my pretty face, and my ex—the MC’s lawyer—I mostly got away with it. But now the club’s gone legit—more or less—and I’m sittin’ on a porch, drinkin’ beers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Date rape recounted
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Anxiety
  • Post-partum depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Teen pregnancy from rape
  • Dieting
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Bullying

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

Princess Thia was born to be a crow rider—a warrior. In her kingdom of Rhodaire, magical elemental crows keep the city running. But when the Illucian empire invades, they kill all the crows in a horrible fire that also robs Thia of her mother and mentor. Then Thia’s sister, Caliza, becomes the new queen of Rhodaire, she is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the Illucian heir in an effort to save her people. Prince Ericen is rude and cruel and Thia can’t imagine travelling into the heart of an enemy city after so much has been taken from her. But before she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & internalised ableism
  • Racism
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Depression (theme)
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm & self-injury
  • Serious injury of a loved one
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother on-page
  • Death of an aunt, off-page
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Fire
  • Graphic animal death, on-page
  • War themes, including invasion & colonialism

Motherhood by Sheila Heti

Motherhood by Sheila Heti

In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Pregnancy
  • Abortion
  • The Holocaust

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby. Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression mentioned
  • Stroke (parent)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted

Dominate Me: Alpha by Eve Healy

Dominate Me: Alpha by Eve Healy

Nathan and Sam’s relationship didn’t start off all that wholesome. Nathan, a recessive alpha, went to an omega brothel known as the Omega House, looking for a dominant omega to have a good time with. Due to a door number mix-up, Nathan ended up in the room of the dominant omega, Sam, a tall, masculine, and very non-omega omega. Sam turns Nathan’s world upside down, and their steamy night ends up being the first of many as Nathan marks Sam, and they end up being bondmates, intrinsically tied for the rest of their lives. While they aren’t the standard alpha and omega couple, in more ways than one, they do follow the usual expectations of most alpha and omega… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex work
  • Depression
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

It’s 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, friends, and a bright future in Communist China. But it’s also the year that China’s leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li’s world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. When Ji-li’s father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life..

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Depression
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Torture
  • Home invasion
  • Bullying