Tag Archives: Domestic Abuse & Violence

Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx

They captured me, broke me. Molded me into their perfect weapon. They made me murder and seduce strangers. Until a hitman killed my captors and set me free. Leroi: I rescued a girl from a basement thinking she was innocent, but I brought home a serial killer whose darkness borders on insanity. Now, I need to tame her murderous instincts before I become her next victim. Seraphine is reckless, unstable, and likely to get us both destroyed. Every instinct says I should end her, but she’s too captivating to resist.Each day, she draws me deeper into her web, her allure stripping my self-control. But I’m harboring secrets treach… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape, sexual assault & dubious consent (‘dubcon’)
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Child abandonment
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Cannibalism
  • Gential mutilation (castration) & dismemberment
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Knife play
  • Electrocution
  • Organised crime
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Human & organ trafficking

Stalking Ginevra by Gigi Styx

Ginevra: A masked man killed my fiancé, so I offered him anything in exchange for my life. He demanded my mouth, but he’s taken my body… and my soul. At night, he comes to my room to degrade and humiliate me for fun. When he murders my date, I turn to the only person strong enough to defeat my stalker. My ex-fiancé, Benito—the man I ruthlessly dumped for another guy. He’ll help, but only if I marry him and agree to his controlling demands. Benito: I’ve despised her since she left me for a bitter enemy. When I shot her fiancé, I also wanted to erase her from the earth. Then she made me an offer that was hard to resist. I got one… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Foster care experiences recounted
  • Rape recounted. attempted rape & dubious consent (‘dubcon’)
  • Incest mentioned
  • Domestic violence & forced marriage
  • Alcoholism
  • Teen pregnancy recounted (secondary character)
  • Decapitation & evisceration
  • Forced body modifications (shaving)
  • Murder of a fiancé
  • Whipping & knife play
  • Bombing
  • Kidnapping & imprisonment
  • Stalking/surveillance & blackmail

Snaring Emberly by Gigi Styx

Revenge was supposed to be simple, but love had other plans Emberly: When an abusive ex corners me in a nightclub, I cling to the first man I see for protection. Little do I know he’s a mafia Don, fresh out of prison and eager for a one-night stand. One night extends into two, then three. I’m beginning to suspect I can’t leave. But every time I raise questions, he answers with offers impossible to resist. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if I’m just paranoid or a pawn in a much larger game. Roman: When a man gets jailed for a crime he didn’t commit, the first thing he wants after leaving death row is vengeance. The bastard who framed me… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Elder abuse
  • Forced marriage
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & panic attacks
  • Attempted suicide, immolation & threats of suicide bombing
  • Drugging
  • Forced pregnancy due to birth control tampering
  • Male genital mutilation
  • Dismemberment, desecration of a corpse, and cremation of living people
  • Murder
  • Torture (waterboarding)
  • Organised crime (mafia)
  • Kidnapping & imprisonment

Context : Depiction of BDSM & kink, including voyeurism, exhibitionism, and mentions of urophilia

The Kill Clause by Lisa Unger

A hit woman’s work doesn’t stop for the holidays. As the advent calendar winds down, Paige slips into a palatial house, ignoring a blizzard of texts from her ex-husband. No surprise—Julian always gets maudlin this time of year. The real shock comes when the target is not alone. His young daughter is there too. Risking the wrath of her organization, Paige retreats. There are some lines that, for personal reasons, she just won’t cross. But when she returns on Christmas Eve to finish the job, the girl is still there…along with someone even more startling. As the ghosts of her past gather,… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Overdose
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder by gun violence
  • Home invasion
  • Animal death

I, Medusa by Ayana Gray

Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else’s story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents—both gods, albeit minor ones—she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & misogyny
  • Colonisation
  • Rape, grooming & child sexual assault (on-page)
  • Domestic abuse

Where He Left Me by Nicole Baart

College professors Sadie Sheridan and Felix Graham are on sabbatical at Hemlock House, located on a remote mountain homestead established years ago by Felix’s family. When Felix leaves on a work trip but doesn’t return, effectively stranding Sadie on the mountain, her world collapses. Alone at Hemlock House, frantic Sadie struggles to make sense of what her missing astronomer husband left behind. Forced to confront two mysterious trespassers just as a powerful storm bears down, Sadie and the strangers have no choice but to ride it out together. As conditions worsen and shocking secrets are revealed, Sadie must face… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Domestic abuse
  • Dementia
  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Disspearance
  • Gun violence

Euphoria by Lily King

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Miscarriage discussed (protagonist), due to intimate partner assault
  • Emotionally & psychologically abusive relationship
  • Cannibalism & starvation discussed
  • Physical illness depiction (malarial fever)

The Names by Florence Knapp

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register the birth of her son. Her husband, Gordon, respected in the community but a controlling presence at home, intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and name the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates. Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of their lives, shaped by Cora’s last-minute choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence & child abuse (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcoholism

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Foster care discussed
  • Rape & sexual assault mentioned
  • Domestic abuse
  • Attempted suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Bullying

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic and earns the attention of things best left sleeping… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Police brutality