Tag Archives: Eugenics

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of eugenics.

See also Racism, Queerphobia, Ableism, and Classism

Alchemised by SenLinYu

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic misogyny
  • Rape & sexual assault (protagonist)*
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Emotional child abuse
  • Infidelity
  • Forced marriage
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Amnesia & memory loss, including non-consensual memory alteration
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation & self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page) & mentions of smoking
  • Forced pregnancy & childbirth*
  • Miscarriage & abortion mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction, including eye trauma/ loss of eye, seizures, broken bones, emesis, traumatic brain injury, weight loss & gain due to malnutrition, disembowelment & amputation
  • Medical procedures, human experimentation. needles & surgery, including forced sterilization of a child
  • Cannibalism mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Attempted kidnapping
  • Arson & bombing
  • Imprisonment & captivity
  • Torture, including sensory deprivation and solitary confinement
  • War themes including war crimes & eugenics
  • Animal death & cruelty (experimentation)
  • Poverty

* Context: The female protagonist is raped by the male protagonist as part of a breeding program. The male protagonist cheats on his wife, who he was forced to marry and is also cheating on him, with the female protagonist.

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

When Lena Johnson’s beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed, the black millennial drops out of college to support her family and takes a job in the mysterious and remote town of Lakewood, Michigan. On paper, her new job is too good to be true. High paying. No out of pocket medical expenses. A free place to live. All Lena has to do is participate in a secret program—and lie to her friends and family about the research being done in Lakewood. An eye drop that makes brown eyes blue, a medication that could be a cure for dementia, golden… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & eugenics
  • Medical experimentation & body horror (on-page)
  • Death of a grandmother from cancer recounted
  • Financial difficulties (theme)

Dead Happy by Josh Silver

Friends. Welcome to Elmhallow. Seb, along with a select group of participants, finds himself washed up on an isolated island called Elmhallow, under the guardianship of a mysterious couple. As the experiment steps up another level, Seb is forced to team up with Eleanor once more. But where is Finn? And what does HappyHead have in store for them next?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Eugenics
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug use recounted
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Murder & torture
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death & cruelty

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical Nazism & antisemitism
  • Eugenics
  • Infidelity
  • Death of an infant
  • Murder mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • World War II (theme)

The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz

On a dark night, travelers from across France cross paths at an inn and begin to tell stories of three children. Their adventures take them on a chase through France: they are taken captive by knights, sit alongside a king, and save the land from a farting dragon. On the run to escape prejudice and persecution and save precious and holy texts from being burned, their quest drives them forward to a final showdown at Mont Saint-Michel, where all will come to question if these children can perform the miracles of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & misogyny, including the destruction & arson of a Jewish village by Christians, and a woman burned at the stake

Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz

Max Bretzfeld doesn’t want to move to London. Leaving home is hard and Max is alone for the first time in his life. But not for long. Max is surprised to discover that he’s been joined by two unexpected traveling companions, one on each shoulder, a kobold and a dybbuk named Berg and Stein. Germany is becoming more and more dangerous for Jewish families, but Max is determined to find a way back home, and back to his parents. He has a plan to return to Berlin. It merely involves accomplishing the impossible – becoming a British spy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Eugenics discussed
  • Period-typical Nazism, racial slurs & antisemitism
  • Suicide discussed
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking mentioned
  • Physical assault of a child by a teacher (protagonist)
  • World War Two (theme) including depiction of the Holocaust, Kristallnacht, the Kindertransport & the Blitz
  • Bullying

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Her city is under siege. The zombies are coming back. And all Nona wants is a birthday party. In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona’s not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger’s body, and she’s afraid she might have to give it back. The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicidal ideation & suicide (secondary character)
  • Protagonist with pica & food sensory issues
  • Panic attack
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including body horror, cancer, jellyfish sting, needles and dead bodies
  • Eugenics recounted
  • Murder by stabbing & shooting
  • Immolation (secondary characters)
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Nuclear bombs
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking (cigarettes)

Master Class by Christina Dalcher

Every child’s potential is regularly determined by a standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it’s off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy. Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immedia… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Ableism
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Abortion
  • Eugenices
  • The Holocaust mentioned
  • Bullying

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

They did the impossible – deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire. They did the impossible – deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Forced pregnancy
  • Eugenics
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
  • War themes
  • Animal cruelty

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult

An intricate tale of love, haunting memories, and renewal, Second Glance begins in current-day Vermont, where an old man puts a piece of land up for sale and unintentionally raises protest from the local Abenaki Indian tribe, who insist it’s a burial ground. When odd, supernatural events plague the town of Comtosook, a ghost hunter is hired by the developer to help convince the residents that there’s nothing spiritual about the property. Enter Ross Wakeman, a suicidal drifter who has put himself in mortal danger time and again. He’s driven his car off a bridge into a lake. He’s been mugged in New York City and struck by lightning… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Eugenics