Tag Archives: Grief & Loss Depiction

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Transmisia mentioned
  • Child neglect
  • Deadnaming
  • Anxiety mentioned
  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Nightmares
  • Suicidal ideation, implied
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction including dead bodies and body parts
  • Body horror
  • Graphic cannibalism
  • Pandemic
  • Scars
  • Needles & syringes
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandparent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Captivity & confinement
  • Fire

*Context : The plot revolves around the protagonist eating people to survive. The deadname is not explicitly stated. The pandemic involves a fictionalised disease. Similarly, the drugging incident involves a fictional drug.

Wretched by Emily McIntire

Wretched by Emily McIntire

Evelina Westerly has always been the bad guy. As the brains, brawn, and botanist behind her family’s drug empire, she’s her father’s ruthless secret weapon. With her days divided between perfecting her greenhouse, seeking revenge for her sister’s murder, and putting a gun to the head of anyone in her way, Evelina doesn’t have time for anything else. Especially not for love. After a one-night stand with a gorgeous man at a nightclub, she’s sated her urges and is back to her criminal ways. That is, until that same man shows up as the new Westerly lackey under a totally… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emotional child & sibling abuse recounted
  • Panic attack recounted
  • Drug use
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Graphic torture
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault

The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

Seventeen-year-old Dinah runs her family’s farm in the Ozarks. When she finds her grief-stricken mother dead in the living room with wealthy rancher Gabriel Gates standing over her, Dinah’s life narrows to a single point: kill Gabriel Gates. But Gates has built his wealth giving out bad loans and surrounds himself with bodyguards. Dinah’s mountains are now one giant foreclosure, including her own farm. It all belongs to him. Once he puts a ten-thousand-dollar reward on Dinah’s head, everyone in the starving county wants a piece of her. Homeless and alone in the woods, all she has is Johnny, the moonshining bootlegger at home in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder of a mother
  • Bullying
  • Homelessness

Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne

Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne

Sawyer Dodd is a star athlete, a straight-A student, and the envy of every other girl who wants to date Kevin Anderson. When Kevin dies in a tragic car crash, Sawyer is stunned. Then she opens her locker to find a note: You’re welcome. Someone saw what he did to her. Someone knows that Sawyer and Kevin weren’t the perfect couple they seemed to be. And that someone—a killer—is now shadowing Sawyer’s every move…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Abusive relationship
  • Suicide
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a boyfriend in a car accident
  • Murder
  • Stalking

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a grandfather from drowning

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

Charlie Jordan is being driven across the country by a serial killer. Maybe. Behind the wheel is Josh Baxter, a stranger Charlie met by the college ride share board, who also has a good reason for leaving university in the middle of term. On the road they share their stories, carefully avoiding the subject dominating the news – the Campus Killer, who’s tied up and stabbed three students in the span of a year, has just struck again. Travelling the lengthy journey between university and their final destination, Charlie begins to notice discrepancies in Josh’s story. As she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide & attempted suicide mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Stabbing, on-page
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Car accident, on-page & mentioned

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two. But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Infidelity mentioned (sc)
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Sports injury
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

In words and illustrations, Ingrid left behind a painful farewell in her journal for Caitlin. Now Caitlin is left alone, by loss and by choice, struggling to find renewed hope in the wake of her best friend’s suicide. With the help of family and newfound friends, Caitlin will encounter first love, broaden her horizons, and start to realize that true friendship didn’t die with Ingrid. And the journal which once seemed only to chronicle Ingrid’s descent into depression, becomes the tool by which Caitlin once again reaches out to all those who loved Ingrid–and Caitlin herself.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Graphic self-harm
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend from suicide (theme)

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical, verbal & emotional child abuse recounted
  • Parental abandonment
  • Panic attack
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging mentioned
  • Stillbirth recounted
  • Blood & physical injuries depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father in a fire recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Explosion
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Colonialism & slavery discussed
  • Animal death mentioned

The Godparent Trap by Rachel Van Dyken

The Godparent Trap by Rachel Van Dyken

Colby’s living her best life: as a popular food blogger, she gets to fulfill her dreams of exploring the globe. But her world comes crashing down when a tragic accident leaves her co-guardian of her best friend’s two adorable children. Not only does she need to put down roots—fast—but she’ll be sharing custody with the one man she can’t stand sharing a continent with, let alone a house. Accountant-extraordinaire Rip values rules and plans. But when he loses his sister and his best friend and becomes an insta-guardian all in one night, Rip sees his organized life imploding. What he really doesn’t need is his sister’s irresponsible, flighty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents and sibling in a car accident, off-page
  • Death of a friend, off-page