Tag Archives: Grief & Loss Depiction

Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill

It’s 1853 London. Ex-medical student Victor Frankenstein has been missing for years now. Frankenstein’s great niece Mary Saville and her husband, Henry, are trying to follow in his scientific footsteps and become renowned paleontologists. They have the brains and the ambition; the only thing they lack is the reputation. Mary is a woman with a sharp mind but a fierce tongue and Henry is an unemployed gambling addict: none of this earning appeal with their peers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Classism
  • Misogyny
  • Ableism
  • Sexual assault
  • Chronic illness
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Death of an infant mentioned
  • Animal death & experimentation

The Nanny by Lana Ferguson

After losing her job and being on the brink of eviction, Cassie Evans finds herself with two choices: get a new job (and fast) or fire up her long-untouched OnlyFans account. But there are no jobs to be found, and as for OnlyFans… Well, there are reasons she can’t go back. Just when all hope seems lost, an ad for a live-in nanny position seems the solution to all her problems. It’s almost too perfect—until she meets her would-be employer… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Heart attack (sc)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

Sam Becker loves―or, okay, likes―his job. Sure, managing a bed and bath retailer isn’t exactly glamorous, but it’s good work and he gets on well with the band of misfits who keep the store running. He could see himself being content here for the long haul. Too bad, then, that the owner is an infuriating git. Jonathan Forest should never have hired Sam. It was a sentimental decision, and Jonathan didn’t get where he is by following his heart. Determined to set things right, Jonathan orders Sam down to London for a difficult talk, only for a panicking Sam to trip, bump.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation for concussion, on-page
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parent in a car accident recounted

A Winter in New York by Josie Silver

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice. But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s? Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Intimate partner abuse including emotional abuse and confinement recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Relative with memory loss from a stroke mentioned (uncle)
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted
  • Death of a wife recounted

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here. If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood… it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back. And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it… Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds. And stepping through those doors exacts a price.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual abuse of a child & grooming
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Panic attack
  • Minor self-injury for magic
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted

The Lady’s Champion by Marie Lipscomb

Lady Natalie Blackmere has always dreamed of meeting the renowned champions of Aldland, especially the legendary Brandon the Bear. When at last the Grand Tourney comes to Blackmere, Natalie swaps places with a barmaid and sneaks out to follow her dreams. But when bandits besiege her town, Natalie barely escapes with the surviving champions. Alone in the woods with the man she has always admired, Natalie must keep her identity a secret and step up to become the leader she was born to be, if she is to save her people… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Amputation of a finger, off-page
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a husband recounted
  • Fire

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pull apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Suicide
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of both parents in a car accident
  • Bombing
  • Workplace mass shooting
  • Bullying

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.

Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injuries including gunshot wounds
  • Emesis
  • Heart attack recounted*
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted
  • Death of a grandparent from a stroke
  • Attempted murder
  • Animal death recounted & discussed (dog)

*Context: Female protagonist’s father had a heart attack within the past year.

Teen Killers Club by Lily Sparks

Seventeen-year-old Signal Deere has raised eyebrows for years as an unhappy Goth misfit from the trailer park. When she’s convicted of her best friend Rose’s brutal murder, she’s designated a Class A–the most dangerous and manipulative criminal profile. To avoid prison, Signal signs on for a secret program for 18-and-under Class As and is whisked off to an abandoned sleep-away camp, where she and seven bunkmates will train as assassins. Yet even in the Teen Killers Club, Signal doesn’t fit in. She’s squeamish around blood. She’s kind and empathetic… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Paedophilia & grooming
  • Dead body
  • Decapitation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder
  • Death of a friend
  • Cult
  • Incarceration

Run by Ann Patchett

Since their mother’s death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children—all his children—safe… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted