Tag Archives: Gun Violence

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

See also Police brutality, School shootings, Murder, and War themes & military violence.

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

To the outside world, they look like American royalty, giving to charities, feeding the homeless, and rebuilding the city. But behind closed doors is a constant battle for dominance between two bosses, cultures, and hearts. Ruthless People is a romantic crime fiction set in modern day Chicago and follows the life and marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan – rivals by blood and leaders through fear. Theirs is an arranged marriage with the goal of ending years of bloodshed between the Irish and the Italians. Liam assumes he’s getting a simple-minded wife, one he can… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Arranged marriage
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Neglect & abandonment
  • Nyctophobia
  • Substance addiction
  • Drugging
  • Miscarriage
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Needles mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Plane crash

This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagán

This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagán

No new people: that’s Annie Mercer’s vow. It’s bad enough that her boss sabotaged her chemistry career and her best friend tried to cure her with crystals. But after her fiancé, Jon, asks for space while he’s gallivanting around Paris, Annie decides she needs space too – form everyone. Yet when Harper moves in next door, Annie can’t help but train a watchful eye on the glamorous but fragile woman. And if keeping Harper safer requires teaming up with Mo, a maddeningly optimistic amateur detective, who is she to mind her own business?… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Domestic abuse
  • Hoarding Disorder
  • Depression
  • Mass shooting

When the Light Went Out by Bridget Morrissey

When the Light Went Out by Bridget Morrissey

Five years after the accidental shooting of Marley Bricket, her friends, who were there the day she died, reunite when a box of letters from Marley is found in her former home. The discovery leads them on a scavenger hunt that reopens old memories, wounds, and betrayals, and leads them to question what they thought they knew about Marley’s death.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide discussed
  • Gun violence (accidental), on-page

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke – until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighbourhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Racism mentioned
  • Ableism (r slur), on-page
  • Sexual assault mentioned (groping)
  • Child abuse and neglect recounted including a mention of child sexual assault
  • Spousal abandonment
  • Abusive relationship (scs)
  • Cheating
  • Sex work, on-page
  • Familial estrangement mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption, on-page
  • Alcohol abuse (implied)
  • Recreational drug use, on-page
  • Chronic leg injury
  • Grief and loss depiction
  • Death of a girlfriend from an oxycontin overdose mentioned
  • Death of a husband and a pet dog in a car accident recounted
  • Death of a sister from drowning recounted
  • Murder by drowning
  • Murder by gun violence
  • Murder by poisoning
  • Stalking
  • Animal dead body mentioned (seagull)

The Twisted Dead by Darcy Coates

The Twisted Dead by Darcy Coates

Keira is ready for her life to return to normal. Though, to be fair, normal is a tall ask when your ability to see ghosts has landed you the job of groundskeeper in a small town’s cemetery. When Keira receives an invitation to dinner at Dane Crispin’s crumbling ancestral estate, she knows she can’t refuse. The last living descendant of the Crispin family is reclusive. Keira only met him once…on the night he tried to kill her. The mansion is steeped in history that is equal parts complicated and bloody. Keira senses the presence of restless spirits the moment she steps through its door. And Dane, waiting for her inside, wants to ask for her help.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement mentioned
  • Amnesia
  • Parent with a chronically, and possibly terminally, ill parent (sc)
  • Blood and physical injuries, on-page
  • Needles
  • Arson and damage to property discussed
  • Murder including murder by stabbing and knife violence, on-page
  • Gun violence

The Reaper by RuNyx

The Reaper by RuNyx

Tristan ‘The Predator’ Caine had been unprepared for Morana Vitalio. After spending his entire life with a vow he broke on a rainy night, he finds himself torn in a battle between his painful past and an uncertain future. The only thing he knows? Her life still belongs to him. For Morana, the line between enemies and allies has blurred. Everything she once held dear to her has disintegrated and the unknown gapes at her, leaving her with both her freedom and life on the line in enemy territory. The only thing she knows? His life has always belonged to her. With twenty years of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Rape recounted
  • Panic attack
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent, on- & off-page
  • Death of a sibling mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder, including the murder of children
  • Torture mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • Kidnapping mentioned

Triple-Duty Bodyguards by Lily Gold

Triple-Duty Bodyguards by Lily Gold

As one of the world’s most hated celebrities, I’m used to unwanted attention. But when I wake up one morning to find a mysterious man has broken into my house, I know I need security, fast. Enter “The Angels”, my three ex-military bodyguards: Glen, the Scottish sweetheart with the scarred face and gentle hands. Kenta, the long-haired soldier with the tattooed skin and secretive smile. And Matt, the blue-eyed, bad-tempered leader haunted by his military past. Having three gorgeous men guarding me 24-7 sounds like a dream come true, but it turns out to be a nightmare. They’re always here, watching me. Caring for me. Protecting… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Victim-blaming
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including flashbacks and night terrors
  • Dieting & weight loss mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Needles mentioned
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Torture recounted
  • Bombing
  • Kidnapping
  • Stalking (theme)

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

I vow. You vow. We vow. Barrington University is home of the Lords, a secret society that requires their blood in payment. They are above all—the most powerful men in the world. They devote their lives to violence in exchange for power. And during their senior year, they are offered a chosen one. Barrington University is home of the Lords, a secret society that requires their blood in payment. They are above all—the most powerful men in the world. They devote their lives to violence in exchange for power. And during their senior year, they are offered a chosen one. People think… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Arranged relationship
  • Sex slavery
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Dubious consent scenarios including consensual somnophilia and rape-play
  • Improper BDSM practices
  • Drugging including nonconsensual manipulation of birth control prescription
  • Depiction of a dead body
  • Branding (consensual)
  • Genital mutilation
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Drowning
  • Cult
  • Stalking & nonconsensual surveillance

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect–a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion. Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases–a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he knew. The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you’d rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them… at terrible cost.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Seizures
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal cruelty
  • Bullying