Drug Use & Abuse – Page 78 – Trigger Warning Database

The Midnight Library of Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Depression discussed (protagonist)
Alcoholism
Panic attack
Suicide, suicidal ideation & attempted suicide (protagonist, on-page)
Self-harm mentioned
Drug abuse
Terminal illness & cancer
Emesis
Death of a parent
Death of a sibling
Car accident
Drowning mentioned
Death of a pet (cat) & animal cruelty mentioned

Closer to Nowhere by Ellen Hopkins

Closer to Nowhere by Ellen Hopkins

For the most part, Hannah’s life is just how she wants it. She has two supportive parents, she’s popular at school, and she’s been killing it at gymnastics. But when her cousin Cal moves in with her family, everything changes. Cal tells half-truths and tall tales, pranks Hannah constantly, and seems to be the reason her parents are fighting more and more. Nothing is how it used to be. She knows that Cal went through a lot after his mom died and she is trying to be patient, but most days Hannah just wishes Cal never moved in.

For his part, Cal is trying his hardest to fit in, but not everyone is as appreciative of his unique sense of humor and storytelling gifts as he is. Humor and stories might be his defense mechanism, but if Cal doesn’t let his walls down soon, he might push away the very people who are trying their best to love him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Domestic abuse & violence
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Alcoholism
Drug abuse
Cancer
Death of a parent

People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins

People Kil People by Ellen Hopkins

A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?

One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & white supremacy
Rape & attempted rape
Sexual assault
Depression
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Teen pregnancy
Murder
Knife violence & stabbing
Gun violence (theme)

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Matthew Turner doesn’t have faith in anything.

Not in family—his is a shambles after his younger brother was bullied into suicide. Not in so-called friends who turn their backs when things get tough. Not in some all-powerful creator who lets too much bad stuff happen. And certainly not in some “It Gets Better” psychobabble.

No matter what his girlfriend Hayden says about faith and forgiveness, there’s no way Matt’s letting go of blame. He’s decided to “live large and go out with a huge bang,” and whatever happens happens. But when a horrific event plunges Matt into a dark, silent place, he hears a rumble … a rumble that wakes him up, calling everything he’s ever disbelieved into question.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
Recreational drug use
Suicide
Death of a brother
Explosion
Hanging
Bullying

Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Holly: Filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, she sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Will it bring the fulfillment she is searching for? Andrea: A single mom and avowed celibate, she watches her friend Holly’s meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for – a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly’s castaway husband? Marissa: She has more than her fair share of challenges – a gay, rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts.

As one woman’s marriage unravels, another’s rekindles. As one woman’s family comes apart at the seams, another’s reconfigures into something bigger and better.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating
Attempted suicide
Alcohol consumption
Drug abuse
Teen pregnancy
Terminal illness

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language (r slur)
Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs
Fatmisia & body shaming
Slut shaming
Rape
Domestic abuse recounted
Child abuse recounted
Attempted child sexual assault recounted
Depression
Attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug abuse
AIDS & HIV
Bullying

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.

Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never understand.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Outing
Physical child abuse
Cheating
Teacher-student relationship mentioned
Date rape
Revenge pornography
Suicide
Parent with alcoholism
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Hospitalisation
Knife violence & stabbing

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster—crank—her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions. Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear.

A predisposition to addiction and a sense of emptiness where a mother’s love should be leads all three down the road of their mother’s notorious legacy. Sex, drugs, alcohol, abuse—there is more of Kristina in her children than they would ever like to believe. But when the thread that ties them together brings them face-to-face, they’ll discover something powerful in each other and in themselves—the trust, the hope, the courage to begin to break the cycle.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antiziganism (g slur)
Misogyny
Slut shaming
Victim blaming
Physical & sexual child abuse
Domestic violence
Sexual assault & attempted rape
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug abuse
Teen pregnancy
Pregnancy from rape
Stalking
Car accident

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching … for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words “I love you” are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?”

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Child abuse & neglect
Rape
Sexual assault
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug abuse
Hospitalisation
Murder

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that’s where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she’s the misplaced focus of Daddy’s love, intended for a mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. All that Raeanne sees is Daddy playing a game of favorites—and she is losing. If she has to lose, she will do it on her own terms, so she chooses drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it’s obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is—who?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Graphic paedophilia & child sexual abuse (on-page)
Incest
Rape & sexual assault (on-page)
Forced modelling for child pornorgraphy recounted
Cheating
Physical child abuse
Self-harm
Depression
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use & abuse
Blood depiction
Emesis
Car accident