Drug Use & Abuse – Page 73 – Trigger Warning Database

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Andrea Oliver’s mother, Laura, is the perfect small-town mum. Laura lives a quiet but happy life in sleepy beachside Belle Isle. She’s a pillar of the community: a speech therapist, business owner and everybody’s friend. And she’s never kept a secret from anyone. Or so Andrea thinks.

When Andrea is caught in a random violent attack at a shopping mall, Laura intervenes and acts in a way that is unrecognisable to her daughter. It’s like Laura is a completely different person – and that’s because she was. Thirty years ago. Before Andrea. Before Belle Isle… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Domestic abuse
Suicide
Drug abuse
Loss of a pregnancy
Blood & gore depiction
AIDS
Emesis
Death of a sibling
Murder
Gun violence
Knife violence & stabbing
Explosions

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Twenty years ago Claire Scott’s eldest sister, Julia, went missing. No one knew where she went – no note, no body. It was a mystery that was never solved and it tore her family apart. Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one. Claire is convinced Julia’s disappearance is linked. But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape & paedophilia
Suicide mentioned
Drug abuse
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a sister & spouse
Murder
Torture
Gun violence
House fire
Kidnapping
Disappearance of a sibling
Animal abuse mentioned

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

Cameron doesn’t want to go to prom. Not with his boyfriend, Shane, and definitely not with his fake date, Virginia. Sure, it’s senior prom, it’s the end of high school, and Virginia’s drop-dead gorgeous. But none of that matters to Cam, who’s never liked any high school dance. Ever.

Then an unexpected kiss changes everything, and Cam needs to make a quick exit. After teaming up with a waiter who’s been dealing drugs in the bathroom, Cam leaves the prom. But his night is far from over. From a high-speed car chase, to a stop at the after-prom party, to a bar with a wild dance contest… Cam’s night finally ends in the most unlikely of romances.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Emesis

Just Call My Name by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Just Call My Name by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Emily Bell has it all. She’s in love with a boy named Sam Border, and his little brother has become part of her family. This summer is destined to be the best time of their lives–until a charismatic new girl in town sets her sights on Sam. Now Emily finds herself questioning the loyalty of the person she thought she could trust most.

But the biggest threat to her happiness is someone she never saw coming. Sam’s criminally insane father, whom everyone thought they’d finally left behind, is planning a jailbreak. And he knows exactly where to find Emily and his sons when he escapes…and takes his revenge.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual assault
Alcohol consumption
Smoking mentioned
Murder
Gun violence
Animal death recounted

Home After Dark by David Small

Home After Dark by David Small

Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to sun-splashed California in search of a dream. Suddenly forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell. Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays their generosity by running away with their restaurant’s proceeds.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Queermisia
Suicide
Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Physical assault
Animal death
Animal abuse
Bullying

Stitches by David Small

Stitches by David Small

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die.

Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim, subjected to X-rays by his radiologist father and scolded by his withholding and tormented mother, to his decision to flee his home at sixteen with nothing more than dreams of becoming an artist.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & verbal child abuse
Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Cancer
Surgery
Fire

Bright Burning Stars by AK Small

Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Eating disorder (anorexia)
Restrictive & disordered eating (theme)
Disordered food & weight thoughts
Suicide & attempted suicide
Self harm
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Body dysmorphia
Abortion
Death from starvation
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a sibling

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Hate crimes
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Blood & gore depiction
Decapitation
Loss of limb
Bullying

Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith

Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith

Cager has been transported to the Tennessee, a giant lunar-cruise ship orbiting the moon that his dad owns, by Billy and Rowan to help him shake his Woz addiction. Meanwhile, Earth, in the midst of thirty simultaneous wars, burns to ash beneath them. And as the robots on board become increasingly insane and cannibalistic, and the Earth becomes a toxic wasteland, the boys have to wonder if they’ll be stranded alone in space forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Substance addiction

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Starvation mentioned
Blood depiction
Death of a brother mentioned
Mass murder by gun violence & poison gas recounted
Knife violence & stabbing
Explosions
Physical assault mentioned
Refugee experiences