Tag Archives: Dubious Consent (DubCon)

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of dubious consent scenarios.

See also Rape, Sexual assault, Improper BDSM practices, and Sex work.

Paper Princess by Erin Watt

Paper Princess by Erin Watt

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone. 

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from. Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals. He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Physical abuse
  • Sexual harassment
  • Sexual assault & attempted rape
  • Dubious consent scenarios
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Addiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Giant Days, Vol 2 by John Allison & Lissa Treiman

Giant Days, Vol 2 by John Allison & Lissa Treiman

Giant Days, Vol 2 by John Allison and Lissa Trieman book cover

Continuing their first semester at university, fast friends Susan, Esther, and Daisy want to find their footing in life. But in the face of hand-wringing boys, holiday balls, hometown rivals, and the willful, unwanted intrusion of “academia,” they may be lucky just to make it to spring alive.

Collects issues #5-8.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Coming out themes
  • Sexual harassment
  • Dubious consent, specifically kissing while intoxicated
  • Toxic relationship
  • Panic attack, on-page
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use, specifically smoking
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong book cover

Elena Michaels is the world’s only female werewolf. And she’s tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves. Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her–her temper, her violence–but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she’s growing content with that life, with being that person.

So she left the Pack and returned to Toronto where she’s trying to live as a human. When the Pack leader calls asking for her help fighting a sudden uprising, she only agrees because she owes him. Once this is over, she’ll be squared with the Pack and free to live life as a human. Which is what she wants. Really.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut-shaming
  • Child sexual abuse and child abuse
  • Dubious consent situation/s
  • Graphic physical injuries
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighbourhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyper-empathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery
  • Child sexual assault & abuse
  • Rape, including statutory rape
  • Abusive relationship
  • Adult-minor relationships
  • Arranged, forced & coerced marriage
  • Domestic abuse
  • Estrangement
  • Physical child abuse & neglect
  • Addiction
  • Drug abuse
  • Blood and gore depiction including dead bodies and body parts
  • Cannibalism
  • Physical injuries
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Bushfire
  • Earthquake
  • Home invasion
  • Homelessness
  • Poverty themes
  • Hunting

Bass-Ackwards by Eris Adderly

Bass-Ackwards by Eris Adderly

Bass-Ackwards by Eris Adderly book cover

Bill Marshall might as well have been the Devil.
Christina Lee Dodd needs Friday off work. Needs. She’s up to her eyeballs in problems.
One of those problems is her boss, Bill Marshall.
And Bill Marshall is an a**hole.

The offer he makes is textbook inappropriate. An HR nightmare.
But is it wrong for her to accept?

Is it wrong for her to like it?

Bass-Ackwards is a filthy wrong-way romance where two human beings make more mistakes than you can shake a stick at.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Dubious consent between boss and employee
  • Hoarding
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Colourism
  • Coming out themes recounted
  • Dubious consent scene discussed
  • Teen pregnancy & motherhood (theme) with mentions of childbirth mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother, husband & grandfather recounted
  • Hurricanes & severe storms recounted
  • Bullying recounted