Tag Archives: Estrangement & Disownment

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of disownment, and estrangement,

See also Homophobia, Cults, and Religious persecution.

Business Casual by B.K. Borison

Nova Porter isn’t looking for love, and she certainly has no explanation for her attraction to buttoned-up, three-piece-suit-wearing investment banker Charlie Milford. Maybe it’s his charm? Or maybe it’s his determination to help her fledgling business however he can. Either way, she’s distracted every time he’s around. With her new tattoo studio set to open in her hometown of Inglewild, she doesn’t have time for frivolous flirtations. In an effort to get Charlie out of her system once and for all, Nova offers a proposition. One night. No strings. They’ll kick their uncomfortable attraction to the curb and return to their respective responsibi… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Chronic migraines (protagonist)

Mixed Signals by B.K. Borison

Layla Dupree has given up on love. She’s waded through all of the fish in the sea, each one more disappointing than the last. Apparently owning the bakery at Inglewild’s most romantic destination does not help one’s love life-despite her best efforts. All she wants is a partner who gives her butterflies, not someone who ghosts her at dinner and leaves her with the check. Good thing Caleb Alvarez has the perfect solution. After saving Layla from another date gone bad, he has a simple One month of no-strings dating. He’ll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his dating game. It’s a win-win… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption

Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander

Meredith Maggs has everything a person needs. A best friend in Sadie. A beloved cat in Fred. Jigsaws to fill the time. Recipes to perfect. Even a weekly visit from the Tesco delivery guy. So what if she hasn’t left the house in 1,214 days? That her memories are treacherous, and it’s getting harder to ignore the estranged sister knocking at her door. How long can one woman keep the world out? How long before she invites in what’s out there? And how long does it take to discover the person you were meant to be?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse & domestic violence
  • Familial estrangement discussed
  • Attempted suicide recounted
  • Self-harm
  • Agoraphobia & depression (protagonist)
  • Miscarriage & stillbirth

Spare by Prince Harry and J.R. Moehringer

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Parental divorce & infidelity
  • Familial estrangement
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Agoraphobia
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use (cigarettes, psychedelics, cocaine, marijuana)
  • Pregnancy, childbirth & miscarriage
  • Weight loss & gain mentioned
  • Physical injury and illness (frostbite, trench foot)
  • Death of a mother in a car accident
  • Death of an ex-partner from suicide
  • Death of a friend in a car accident and avalanche
  • Death of grandparents and great-grandmother mentioned
  • Stalking and harassment by the paparazzi and news organisations
  • Military service and deployment
  • Animal death including hunting and butchering
  • Injury of a pet dog

*Context : Mentions of intimate photos released without consent; Prince Harry’s uncle being accused of paedophilia and sexual violence.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Mutilation of a dead body
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Murder, on-page
  • Fire
  • Bombing & missile attack

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Thirteen-year-old Min comes from a long line of fox spirits. But you’d never know it by looking at her. To keep the family safe, Min’s mother insists that none of them use any fox-magic, such as Charm or shape-shifting. They must appear human at all times. Min feels hemmed in by the household rules and resents the endless chores, the cousins who crowd her, and the aunties who judge her. She would like nothing more than to escape Jinju, her neglected, dust-ridden, and impoverished planet. She’s counting the days until she can follow her older brother, Jun, into the Space Forces and see more of the Thousand Worlds… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Loss of autonomy (magical coercion)

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon

All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows. Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental estrangement
  • Death of a parent, off-page
  • War themes

After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez

Guapo pobrecito her grandmother calls him. The “poor handsome man.” Professor Jeremiah Post, the poor handsome man, is in fact standing in the way of Alejandra “Alex” Torres turning Loretta’s, her grandmother’s bar, into a viable business. The hot brainiac who sleeps in one of the upstairs tenant rooms already has all of her Mexican American family’s admiration; she won’t let him have the bar and building she needs to resurrect her career, too. Alex blowing into town has rocked Jeremiah to his mild-mannered core, but the large, boisterous Torres clan is everything he never had. He doesn’t believe Alex has the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Racism, on-page
  • Emotional & verbal parental abuse
  • Familial estrangement
  • Parent in recovery for alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Death of a grandfather recounted
  • Bullying recounted
  • Animal cruelty mentioned

We’ll Never Have Paris by Adriana Anders

Jules aka “World’s most annoying laugher”. It’s Christmas Eve, one of my last nights in Paris, and I get stuck in a tiny elevator with the insufferable, grumpy Welshman from downstairs. I’m wearing nothing but my skimpy PJs and totally inappropriate spike heels. Oh, and the light’s gone out. What could possibly go wrong? Colin aka “Ebenezer McGrumpypants” She’s the neighbour from hell. Loud, brash, and American, with the body of a pin-up and the laugh of a wild hyena. My only wish is that she’ll move out and be done with Paris forever. Fate, apparently, has other ideas because tonight of all nights, when the city’s shut.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental estrangement
  • Sexual assault recounted (groping)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother in a car accident recounted
  • Death of a brother in an explosion recounted

Too Hot to Touch by Katy James

He’s spent a lifetime putting up walls to protect himself, but he never expected one woman to break them all down. Between working multiple jobs and tackling her dissertation, it’s hardly unexpected PhD student Murray Silva is a hot mess. What is unexpected? Tyler Valentine. When the hockey playboy and former—okay, current—crush shows up in her summer school class, he immediately becomes the kind of distraction she doesn’t need. Want, however? That’s a whole other story. Tyler Valentine understands… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & internalised homomisia including parental estrangement
  • Forced outing recounted
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Sports injuries including dislocated shoulders and broken bones
  • Parent in remission for breast cancer

*Context : The protagonist was outed by his partner to their hockey team in the past, resulting in bullying and being traded to another team.