Tag Archives: Drug Use & Abuse

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of both recreational drug use and drug abuse.

See also Overdose and Alcohol consumption. For drug addiction, see Substance addiction and Alcoholism. For involuntary drug use, see Drugging

The Words by Ashley Jade

The Words by Ashley Jade

He was the talented bad boy everyone wanted. I was the irrelevant geek everyone hated. He was the sun, drawing all of us in. I was a black hole, taking up space. He was destined to be a star. I was destined to remain an insignificant no one. Until he made me believe I was special… And then he destroyed me. I never thought I’d see Phoenix Walker again after he broke my heart, but fate had other plans. One tour. Eight weeks. Forty shows. Countless opportunities to make him pay. The world thought he was a God… But I knew the truth.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body-shaming (theme)
  • Dubious consent scenario, on-page
  • Child abuse
  • Abusive & toxic relationship
  • Recovery from substance abuse issues
  • Parent with early-onset dementia
  • Disordered eating as a coping mechanism for grief mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse recounted
  • Drug abuse & use recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother during childbirth recounted
  • Bullying*

*Context : The heroine is hired as the hero’s sober companion. The heroine was bullied for her weight in high school.

The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas

The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas

In 1903, fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. An ambulance is sent for, and the two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the imposing asylum, hidden deep on Dartmoor. The woman remains in a coma, but the little girl, who the staff name Harriet, awakens and is taken to an attic room, far away from the noise of the asylum, and is put in the care of Nurse Emma Everdeen. In 1993, All Hallows is now a boarding school. Following his mother’s death and his father’s hasty remarriage, Lewis Tyler is banished to Dartmoor… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Psychiatric hospitalisation including unethical treatment of patients involving being tied down and drugged
  • Physical injuries & illness
  • Parent in a coma
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Fire

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook. As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her taboo and psychologically harrowing ability was.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Drug use
  • Pregnancy
  • Murder

The Savage by Sophie Lark

The Savage by Sophie Lark

Sabrina Gallo is an animal. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I had to have her. But Sabrina won’t be taken by anyone. She’s wild and reckless – downright dangerous. Lucky for me, I’ve always loved a challenge… I want to hunt. Even if I capture her, caging a tiger doesn’t mean it’s tamed. The harder she fights, the more ruthless I become. She needs to learn how savage I can be.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Recreational drug use & abuse

Names for the Dawn by CL Beaumont

Names for the Dawn by C.L. Beaumont

Seasoned Park Ranger Will Avery has found his home in the Denali wilderness, cherishing his solitary routines for the decade leading up to 1991. The trade-off that no one knows of his identity as a transgender man feels worth it for the comforting assurance he finds in the towering glaciers. Until Will discovers an unexpected passenger in his truck—the visiting wolf biologist everyone in the Park is ecstatic to meet—Nikhil Rajawat. Nikhil doesn’t return his new colleagues’ fervour. He’s dreamt of Denali for one reason: the pinnacle of his research, and it isn’t anyone’s business that this is the last year he’ll get to chase the wolves. He… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Homomisia discussed
  • Transmisia recounted*
  • Familial estrangement & disownment*
  • Physical child abuse recounted*
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Insomnia
  • Nightmare
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Recovery from substance addiction including an off-page relapse
  • Suicidal ideation recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned (sc)
  • Weight loss mentioned
  • Gender dysphoria & body dysmorphia
  • Scars from top surgery mentioned
  • Gun violence*
  • Bullying
  • Animal death, including a wolf cub & death of a pet dog

*Context : When the protagonist came out to his father, his father shot a gun at the barn near him. He has wondered for years if it was intentional or an accident. As a child, the protagonist’s mother physically abused him and burnt him with cigarettes.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved–plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford. With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Parent with substance abuse issues
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Weight loss discussed

Sweet Sacrifice by Sav Miller

Sweet Sacrifice by Sav R. Miller

Fiona Ivers has been in love with her brother’s best friend since she was a kid. He’s older and oblivious to her existence—which only makes her want him more. She’s always believed he was disinterested until a charity gala pushes them together. There, she realizes maybe he pays more attention than he’s ever let on. Broody, tattooed loner Boyd Kelly has a low tolerance for distractions and has no issues letting those around him know. His best friend’s younger sister doesn’t seem to care, though. Each time the high-strung… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human & sex trafficking
  • Parental infidelity
  • Sexual assault
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Drug abuse
  • Hospitalisation for anaphylaxis (deliberate self-exposure)
  • Parent with chronic illness
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Organised crime

Arrows and Apologies by Sav Miller

Arrows and Apologies by Sav R. Miller

They say every proud man must fall. Mortals who fancy themselves gods will one day kneel. I thought myself invincible. Apollo on Earth. Mocked my brother when he succumbed to such a fate. Before I noticed the blue-haired nymph lurking in the background. Cora Astor shouldn’t have come to this island. She sneered in my direction, beguiling me with her disgust. As a Wolfe, hunting is in my blood. Getting what I want is my nature. Even when I know I can never have it. Though I cannot keep her, I plan to relish the chase.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Suicide
  • Drug abuse mentioned
  • Blood play (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Torture

Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe

Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe

Sanda and Biran Greeve were siblings destined for greatness. A high-flying sergeant, Sanda has the skills to take down any enemy combatant. Biran is a savvy politician who aims to use his new political position to prevent conflict from escalating to total destruction. However, on a routine maneuver, Sanda loses consciousness when her gunship is blown out of the sky. Instead of finding herself in friendly hands, she awakens 230 years later on a deserted enemy warship controlled by an AI who calls himself Bero. The war is lost. The star system is dead. Ada Prime and its rival Icarion have wiped each other from the universe… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Medical content, including confinement in a statis pool
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Gun violence

Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

Survivors by Sophie Littlefield

Cass Dollar outlasted the fall of civilization. But surviving Aftertime requires the kind of toughness that can conquer the violent landscape of California and still retain its humanity. When a young boy and his dying grandmother are brought to the Box, the survivalist community where Cass takes shelter, she realizes that without her help he won’t be long for this unforgiving new world. But while the Box is a haven from the roaming marauders—and the flesh-hungry Beaters—it forbids children within its confines. The boy will be turned out to fend for himself. All that stands between him and the brutal wilderness is Cass’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug abuse & dependency