Emotional Abuse & Gaslighting – Page 31

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Everyone has something to hide, especially high school juniors Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna. Spencer covets her sister’s boyfriend. Aria’s fantasizing about her English teacher. Emily’s crushing on the new girl at school. Hanna uses some ugly tricks to stay beautiful. But they’ve all kept an even bigger secret since their friend Alison vanished. How do I know? Because I know everything about the bad girls they were, the naughty girls they are, and the dirty secrets they’ve kept. And guess what? I’m telling.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia &body shaming
Misogyny, slut-shaming, ableism & racism
Homophobia & lesbophobia
Child emotional abuse & neglect
Teacher-student relationship
Sexual harassment
Infidelity
Eating disorders (bulimia), including disordered food thoughts, binging, and purging (on-page) and discussions of weight loss
Self-harm mentioned
Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
Murder
Stalking & blackmail (theme)
Car accident
Bullying

Perfect by Sara Shepard

Aria can’t resist her forbidden ex. Hanna is on the verge of losing her BFF. Emily is freaking out over a simple kiss. And Spencer can’t keep her hands off anything that belongs to her sister. Lucky me. I know these pretty little liars better than they know themselves. But it’s hard keeping all of their secrets to myself. They better do as I say… or else!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism, racism, misogyny, & slut-shaming
Fatphobia & body shaming
Lesbophobia
Teacher-student relationship
Child emotional abuse & neglect
Infidelity
Amnesia, memory loss & blackouts
Suicide & attempted suicide recounted
Self-harm recounted
Alcohol consumption
Gun violence recounted
Stalking & blackmail
Bullying

Killer by Sara Shepard

In picture-perfect Rosewood, Pennsylvania, ash-blond highlights gleam in the winter sun and frozen lakes sparkle like Swarovski crystals. But pictures often lie— and so do Rosewood’s four prettiest girls. Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily have been lying ever since they became friends with beautiful Alison DiLaurentis. Ali made them do terrible things—things they had to keep secret for years. And even though Ali was killed at the end of seventh grade, their bad-girl ways didn’t die with her. Hanna’s on a mission to corrupt Rosewood’s youth, starting with a very attractive sophomore. Aria’s snooping into her boyfriend’s past. Spencer’s stealing—

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism, misogyny, & slut-shaming
Homophobia, including mentions of conversion therapy mentioned
Fatphobia & body shaming
Sexual assault & sexual harassment
Child neglect & abuse
Eating disorder, including disordered food thoughts, bingeing & purging
Anxiety attack
Alcohol consumption
Emesis recounted
Attempted murder
Blackmail & stalking (theme)
Forest fire
Car accident recounted

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own.

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Slavery
Emotional parental abuse
Suicide & attempted suicide
Self-harm
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a father
Murder
Torture
Hanging
Fire

The Fine Art of Losing Control by Ashley Shepherd

The Fine Art of Losing Control by Ashley Shepherd

Willa Loveridge likes to be in control.

…of everything and everyone.

And when things start to spin out of her control, she only knows how to do one thing: panic.

So she failed her Foundations of Western Art class. Her ex-boyfriend sent her naked pictures to all of his friends. Her roommate hates her. Her mom and stepdad are having a baby. And her estranged father appeared after nineteen years of radio silence for the sole purpose of paying her college tuition. Seriously? He couldn’t even introduce himself first?

But at least this one, she can handle. She can’t change her grades, wipe her pictures from the internet, force her roommate to love her, or stop her mom from replacing her. But the father she’s never met dropping serious cash on her floundering education? A girl can handle that. Or so she thinks.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Revenge pornography
Emotional abuse
Verbal abuse
Abusive relationship
Online harassment

Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Tenley “Ten” Lockwood has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. She’s earned her rep as the craziest of crazies, but that doesn’t stop the torture. Ten can leave, but only if she allows her parents to choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the boy she’s falling for and the realm she wants to support. Who will she choose? Can she stay alive long enough to make a decision?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Attempted rape
Psychological abuse
Child abuse
Suicidal ideation
Self-harm
Blood depiction
Torture

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

Grace Mae knows madness. She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum. When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Paedophilia & child sexual assault
Physical & emotional child abuse
Depression
Attempted suicide
Psychiatric hospitalisation

In This Iron Ground by Marina Vivancos

In This Iron Ground by Marina Vivancos

Damien is nine years old when his parents die. What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything.

Instead, he finds the Salgado pack. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & physical child abuse
Death of parents recounted

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to Mister, a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister’s letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racial slurs
Cultural appropriation, specifically Native American culture
Domestic violence
Physical, verbal & emotional abuse, including gaslighting
Rape, statutory rape & rape of a child
Incest (father-daughter)
Pregnancy, result of rape & incest
Forced estrangement
Cheating
Self-harm
Disordered eating (bingeing)
Alcohol consumption
Female genital mutilation mentioned
Emesis
Lynching recounted
Murder
Gun violence mentioned
Death of a mother
Death of an infant

Deadfall by Stephen Wallenfels

Deadfall by Stephen Wallenfels

Twin brothers Ty and Cory Bic are on the run. When they encounter a dying deer in the middle of a remote mountain road with fresh tire tracks swerving down into a ravine, they know they have to help. But when they reach the wrecked car the vehicle appears empty, with signs that the driver escaped.

Until they hear a sound coming from the trunk.

Ty and Cory are escaping demons of their own. But what they discover in the trunk puts them in the crosshairs of something darker and more sinister than their wildest nightmares.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sex trafficking
Emotional, physical & sexual child abuse