Emotional Abuse & Gaslighting – Page 22

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.

That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex: he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she has just started to understand herself. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family, she takes on a role she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Classism
Emotional abuse
Infidelity
Anxiety & panic attacks
Depression
Suicidal thoughts & ideation
Infertility
Cancer
Death of a parent/caregiver

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Suspected of murdering the crippled widow for whom she worked as a housekeeper and companion, Dolores Claiborne has a story to tell. But it isn’t the one the police are expecting to hear. It’s a little darker, a little stranger – and a lot more horrifying.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Domestic abuse & violence
Marital rape
Paedophilia & incestuous child sexual abuse (father-daughter)
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
Hallucinations
Dementia
Stroke recounted
Death of a husband in a car accident
Murder
Death from a fall

The Mismatch by Sara Jafari

The Mismatch by Sara Jafari

For a young woman who just wants to get her first kiss out of the way, a rugby player seems like the perfect mismatch. But a kiss is never just a kiss. . . .

Now that Soraya Nazari has graduated from university, she thinks it’s time she get some of the life experience that she feels she’s still lacking, partly due to her upbringing–and Magnus Evans seems like the perfect way to get it.

Whereas she’s the somewhat timid, artistic daughter of Iranian immigrants, Magnus is the quintessential British lad. Because they have so little in common, Soraya knows there’s no way she could ever fall for him, so what’s the harm in having a little fun as she navigates her postgrad life? … Read more.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Cheating
Attempted rape & date rape
Physical & emotional parental abuse
Parent with a substance addiction
Parent with depression & suicidal ideation
Attempted kidnapping

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Yeongdo, Korea 1911. A club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then a Christian minister offers a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife. Following a man he barely knows to a hostile country where she has no friends and no home, Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Misogyny
Physical & emotional abuse
Suicide
Suicidal ideation
Starvation
Death of a parent
Colonialism
Korean War & World War two

Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft

He says he loves you. So…why does he do that?

You’ve asked yourself this question again and again. Now you have the chance to see inside the minds of angry and controlling men—and change your life. In Why Does He Do That? you will learn about:

• The early warning signs of abuse
• The nature of abusive thinking
• Myths about abusers
• Ten abusive personality types
• The role of drugs and alcohol
• What you can fix, and what you can’t
• And how to get out of an abusive relationship safely

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexism & misogyny
Body shaming & fatmisia
Racism & racial slurs
Slut-shaming
Victim blaming
Sex worker shaming & slurs
Rape, including by coercion
Sexual abuse
Sexual harassment
Abusive relationships
Age-gap relationships, including adult-minor
Cheating, including grey-area cheating
Child abuse, including sexual abuse
Domestic abuse & violence
Dubious consent scenarios
Emotional abuse
Paedophilia & grooming
Parental abuse & neglect
Physical abuse
Verbal abuse
Mental illness
Substance addiction, including alcoholism
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Suicidal ideation
Intrusive thoughts
Physical assault
Murder & attempted murder
Recreational drug use
Medical treatment & procedures
Death of a parent or guardian
Gun violence
Disappearance of a loved one
Poverty themes
Blackmail
Bullying

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis-Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Body shaming & fatmisia
Classism
Colourism
Lesbomisia
Homomisia
Sexism & misogyny
Racism & racial slurs, including misogynoir
Sex worker shaming & slurs
Slut-shaming
Transmisia
Victim blaming
Rape, including by coercion, statutory & gang rape
Sexual abuse & assault, including child sexual assault
Sexual harassment, including in the workplace
Incest
Paedophilia & grooming
Child abuse
Domestic abuse & violence
Emotional abuse
Verbal abuse
Parental abuse, neglect & abandonement
Estrangement & disownment
Disordered weight & body thoughts
Disfigurmisia
Anxiety disorder & anxiety attacks
Depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Memory disorder, specifically dementia
Self harm, including self-immolation
Drug use
Hospitals & hospitalisation
Physical assault
Sex work & trafficking
Drowning
Outing
Gentrification
Displacement
Animal death
Blackmail
Gaslighting

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fantastical racism and racial slurs
Slavery
Child rape implied
Forced sexual relationships attempting pregnancy
Physical and emotional abuse of a child
Death of children
Death of a partner, on-page
Kidnapping
Captivity
Genocide recounted

Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard

Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard

‘This time around, I’m going to be so much better. I’m going to prove to them that it was worth waiting on me.’

Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She’s back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they’re about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you’re the one left behind?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut shaming
Physical & emotional parental abuse
Attempted suicide mentioned
Depression
Hospitals

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

In a world where women have no rights, sisters Serina and Nomi face two very different fates: one in the palace, the other on an island prison where women must fight to survive.

Serina has spent her whole life preparing to become a Grace – selected to stand by the heir to the throne as a shining example of the perfect woman.

But her headstrong and rebellious younger sister has a dangerous secret, and one wrong move could cost both sisters everything. Can Serina fight? And will Nomi win?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Attempted rape
Physical & emotional abuse
Needles
Murder
Animal abuse

A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann

A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann

Seventeen-year-old Anouk has finally caught the break she’s been looking for—she’s been selected out of hundreds of other candidates to fly to France and help with the excavation of a vast, underground palace buried a hundred feet below the suburbs of Paris. Built in the 1780’s to hide an aristocratic family and a mad duke during the French Revolution, the palace has lain hidden and forgotten ever since. Anouk, along with several other gifted teenagers, will be the first to set foot in it in over two centuries. Or so she thought.

But nothing is as it seems, and the teens soon find themselves embroiled in a game far more sinister, and dangerous, than they could possibly have imagined. An evil spanning centuries is waiting for them in the depths.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Classism
Emotional child abuse
Parental abandonment
Hallucinations & delusions mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Nonconsensual drugging
Blood & gore depiction
Physical injury
Dead bodies
Human experimentation
Needles
Hospital
Decapitation
Emesis
Death of a mother
Death of a child
Death of a wife
Murder & attempted murder
Gun violence
Stabbing
Explosions
Physical assault
Torture & sensory deprivation
Kidnapping & captivity
Car accident
Plane crash mentioned
Bullying