Tag Archives: Domestic Abuse & Violence

Behind Every Lie by Christina McDonald

Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her. Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London—Kat’s former home—for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Murder of a mother
  • Lightning strike recounted

Horseman by Christina Henry

Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt’s grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that’s just legend, the village gossips talking. Twenty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play “Sleepy Hollow boys,” reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the sinister discovery makes Ben question everything the adult… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transmisia & misgendering
  • Attempted rape
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Kidnapping

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

Mattie can’t remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all. There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws. When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Graphic domestic violence including physical beatings, deprivation of food, water and shelter, and denial of autonomy (theme)
  • Martial rape, off-page
  • Miscarriage & stillbirth recounted
  • Chronic arm injury
  • Emesis, on-page
  • Blood & gore depiction including the hanging of dead bodies
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Strangulation, on-page
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal death and dead bodies (fox, bear)

Master Class by Christina Dalcher

Every child’s potential is regularly determined by a standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it’s off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy. Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immedia… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Ableism
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Abortion
  • Eugenices
  • The Holocaust mentioned
  • Bullying

Some Dukes Have All the Luck by Christina Britton

Ash Hawkins, Duke of Buckley, no more wants to marry than he wants a stick in his eye. As the owner of a gaming hell, he is all too aware the odds of a happy marriage are against him. But raising his three rebellious wards alone is proving more than he can handle. He needs to find someone who stands to benefit from a marriage of convenience as much as he does. Someone logical, clinical, and rational. And in a stroke of luck, he quite literally stumbles over just such a woman. After years of ridicule for being more interested in bugs than boys, Bronwyn has accepted that she’ll never marry for love. Her parents, however, are threatening to find her a husband… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse recounted

Equivalent Exchange by Christina C. Jones

Keris Bradford is a woman on the brink. Of what? She doesn’t quite know. Her life is shifting, rapidly, and the sudden, captivating intrusion of Laken Kimble isn’t exactly… reassuring. For Keris, Laken is comfort and risk wrapped in one very appealing package. For Laken, Keris is barrier and providence all at once. For both, there arises a need to navigate those contrasts to a conclusion neither was looking for… a need to answer a simple question. If you want this… what are you willing to offer in exchange?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableist language
  • Slut-shaming
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Rape by a partner recounted
  • Domestic violence
  • Divorce recounted
  • Infertility issues mentioned
  • Ectopic pregnancy recounted
  • Mentions of physical injury and facial scars sustained during a car accident
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother form an overdose mentioned
  • Death of a father from an undiagnosed brain tumor, heart failure & seizure recounted

Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

Clay: Marymount girls are good girls. We’re chaste, we’re untouched, and even if we weren’t, no one would know, because we keep our mouths shut. Not that I have anything to share anyway. I never let guys go too far. I’m behaved. Beautiful, smart, talented, popular, my skirt’s always pressed, and I never have a hair out of place. I own the hallways, walking tall on Monday and dropping to my knees like the good Catholic girl I am on Sunday. That’s me. Always in control. Or so they think. The truth is that it’s easy for me to resist them, because what I truly want, they can never be. Something soft and smooth. Someone dangerous and wild…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & internalized homomisia
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Intimate partner violence mentioned
  • Revenge porn*
  • Staff-student relationship*
  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother from suicide recounted
  • Death of a father from a heart attack recounted
  • Death of a brother from leukaemia
  • Bullying

*Context : The protagonist filmed a secondary character during a sexual experience and uploaded the video to the internet. A school employee has a ‘consensual ‘ sexual relationship with an underage student.

Duchess of My Heart by Maya Banks

Jillian’s marriage was a nightmare, the news of her husband’s death an answered prayer. She refuses to bow to the ton and pretend to mourn. And her best friend, Case, will be by her side as she defies society’s rules and has her first taste of freedom. Justin, eighth Duke of Whittington, is determined to save his family name from the scandal his brother, Case, is creating, but the lovely Jillian is not the foe he expected. Both vulnerable and vexing, he’s never met another woman like her. But as sparks fly between them, Justin realizes he must help save Jillian from her past before they can ever have a future.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Martial rape and gang rape recounted
  • Domestic abuse
  • Death of a husband, presumed
  • Physical assault, on-page

1:35AM by Scott Cawthorn, Andrea Waggener and Elley Cooper

From twisted toys to gut-wrenching games, this collection of terrifying tales is unsettling enough to mess with even the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy’s fans. In this volume, horror master Scott Cawthon spins three sinister novella-length stories from different corners of FNAF’s canon. Each story comes complete with accompanying artwork from a fan-favorite game artist to bring the horror to life in a whole new way. Readers beware: In this startling world, desperate wishes have an unexpected cost, beautiful trinkets reveal appalling powers, and harmless pranks can go awry in ghastly ways.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist slurs
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Foster care recounted
  • Insomnia
  • Dieting
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Death of a parent recounted

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top. Julie is desperate for a quick career boost to break the dead-end grind, but her pleas draw the attention of an eldritch god who is hungry for revenge. Her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts her closest friends – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Intimate partner violence, off-page
  • Self-harm
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Torture, off-page
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)