Tag Archives: Grief & Loss Depiction

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley

After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. Herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters her mother vows to purge.

Royal bastard Josse de Bourbon is more kitchen boy than fils de France. But when the Shadow Society assassinates the Sun King and half of the royal court, he must become the prince he was never meant to be in order to save his injured sisters and the petulant dauphin. Forced to hide in the sewers beneath the city, Josse’s hope of reclaiming Paris seems impossible―until his path collides with Mirabelle’s.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Parental neglect
  • Panic attacks
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father (on-page & recounted)
  • Death of a husband recounted
  • Torture
  • Death from hanging recounted
  • Explosions recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning (theme)
  • Fire
  • Incarceration
  • Political coup, rebellion & military violence
  • Regicide
  • Animal death

The God Game by Danny Tobey

The God Game by Danny Tobey

You are invited! Come inside and play with G.O.D. Bring your friends! It’s fun! But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.™ Lose, you die!

With those words, Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of creeping vines, smoldering torches, runes, glyphs, gods, and mythical creatures. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them with expensive tech, revenge on high-school tormentors, and cash flowing from ATMs. Slaying a hydra and drawing a bloody pentagram as payment to a Greek god seem harmless at first. Fun even… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Parental abuse
  • Depression
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Drug abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a family member
  • Blackmail

Remind Me How This Ends by Gabrielle Tozer

Remind Me How This Ends by Gabrielle Tozer

It’s the summer after high school ends and everyone is moving on. Winning scholarships. Heading to uni. Travelling the world. Everyone except Milo Dark. Milo feels his life is stuck on pause. His girlfriend is 200km away, his mates have bailed for bigger things and he is convinced he’s missed the memo reminding him to plan the rest of his life. Then Layla Montgomery barrels back into his world after five years without so much as a text message.

As kids, Milo and Layla were family friends who shared everything – hiding out in her tree house, secrets made at midnight, and sunny afternoons at the river. But they haven’t spoken since her mum’s funeral. Layla’s fallen apart since that day. She pushed away her dad, dropped out of school and recently followed her on-again-off-again boyfriend back to town because she has nowhere else to go. Not that she’s letting on how tough things have been.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Car accident recounted
  • Animal death

One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents’ tragic death and Kacey’s self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would…and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father in a car accident recounted

The Impossibility of Us by Katy Upperman

The Impossibility of Us by Katy Upperman

The last thing Elise wants is to start her senior year in a new town. But after her brother’s death in Afghanistan, she and her mother move from San Francisco to a sleepy coastal village.

When Elise meets Mati, they quickly discover how much they have in common. Mati is new to town too, visiting the U.S. with his family. Over the course of the summer, their relationship begins to blossom, and what starts out as a friendship becomes so much more.

But as Elise and Mati grow closer, her family becomes more and more uncomfortable with their relationship, and their concerns all center on one fact—Mati is Afghan.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Grief & loss
  • Death of a brother
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Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara & the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.

In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Terminal illness
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Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon

Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Niko Henrichon

In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad zoo during an American bombing raid. Lost and confused, hungry but finally free, the four lions roamed the decimated streets of Baghdad in a desperate struggle for their lives. In documenting the plight of the lions, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD raises questions about the true meaning of liberation – can it be given or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice? And in the end, is it truly better to die free than to live life in captivity?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Bombings
  • War themes
  • Animal death
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Saga, Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

The multiple Eisner Award-winning series returns with a spacefaring adventure about fake news and genuine terror. Get ready for the most shocking, most impactful SAGA storyline yet.

Collects Saga: #49-54

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Death of a fiancé
  • Death of a boyfriend
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Electrocution
  • Murder of a pet cat mentioned
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Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

After the traumatic events of the War for Phang, Hazel, her parents, and their surviving companions embark on a life-changing adventure at the westernmost edge of the universe.

Collecting: Saga 43-48.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Transmisia
  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Paedophilia mentioned & implied child sexual abuse
  • Physical child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Abortion discussed & abortion procedures (on-page)
  • Miscarriage & pregnancy-related medical trauma (theme)
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Hospital
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a wife
  • Death of a friend
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Hanging
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • War & military violence (theme)
  • Death of a pet dog
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Saga, Vol. 7 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 7 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

Finally reunited with her ever-expanding family, Hazel travels to a war-torn comet that Wreath and Landfall have been battling over for ages. New friendships are forged and others are lost forever in this action-packed volume about families, combat, and the refugee experience.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language (r word)
  • Racism
  • Transmisia
  • Trauma & nightmares
  • Attempted suicide & self-sacrifice
  • Drug abuse & recreational drug use
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • Strangulation
  • Hostage situation
  • War & military violence (theme)
  • Animal death
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