Tag Archives: Hanging & Lynching

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she leads a meticulously ordered existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs — the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day browsing the overwhelmed stacks. But when a young BookFrog, Joey Molina, hangs himself in one of the upper rooms of the store, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Inside one of Joey’s pockets is a photograph of Lydia as a little girl. And when she flips through some of his books, she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a friend from suicide by hanging recounted

The Light of All That Falls by James Islington

The Boundary is whole once again, but it may be too late. Banes now stalk Andarra, while in Ilin Illan, the political machinations of a generation come to a head as Wirr’s newfound ability forces his family’s old enemies into action. Imprisoned and alone in a strange land, Davian is pitted against the remaining Venerate as they work tirelessly to undo Asha’s sacrifice – even as he struggles with what he has learned about the friend he chose to set free. And Caeden, now facing the consequences of his centuries-old plan, must finally confront its reality – heartbroken at how it began, and devastated by how it must end.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Attempted involuntary abortion
  • Graphic torture
  • Genocide mentioned
  • Hanging
  • Loss of autonomy (amputation & loss of limb)
  • Animal attack

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating
  • Suicide by hanging
  • Overdose
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Childbirth
  • Teenage accidental pregnancy
  • Blood depiction
  • Terminal illness
  • Death of an infant discussed
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death from a fall recounted
  • Death of a father
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence

The Dangerous Kingdom of Love by Neil Blackmore

How have I, Francis Bacon, well-known as the cleverest man in England, been caught in this trap? For years I survived the brutal games of the English court, driven by the whims of the idiot King James I – and finally, I was winning. Forget what my friends Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare say about love. I had that which men truly crave above all else: power. But now, at the moment of my greatest success, a deadly alliance of my enemies has begun closing in on me. Led by the King’s beautiful and poisonous lover Carr, this new alliance threatens to turn our foolish King against me, so that I may rot in the Tower. I refuse to go with… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Decapitation
  • Torture mentioned
  • Hanging
  • Blackmail
  • Animal hunting

Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton

On a struggling Texas plantation, six enslaved women slip from their sleeping quarters and gather in the woods under the cover of night. The Lucys—as they call the plantation owners, after Lucifer himself—have decided to turn around the farm’s bleak financial prospects by making the women bear children. They have hired a “stockman” to impregnate them. But the women are determined to protect themselves.

Now each of the six faces a choice. Nan, the doctoring woman, has brought a sack of cotton root clippings that can stave off children when chewed daily… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Lynching

Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban

After being jilted by her ex-boyfriend and best friend, Jade couldn’t be more ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime—11 countries in 4 months, all from the luxurious Campus on Board ship—and to wedge an entire globe between her and the people who broke her heart. But when Jade discovers the backstabbing couple are also setting sail, her obsession with them grows and festers, leading to a shocking murder. And as their friends begin to drop like flies, Jade and her new crush must race to clear her name and find the killer they’re trapped at sea with….before anyone else winds up in body bags.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Overdose mentioned (opiates)
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Death from hanging
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Car accident

The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies – death-traders, hired to kill quickly, quietly and mercifully. It is a job for women, and women only. Men will not do this sad, dark work.
Frey has no family, no home, no fortune, and yet her blood sings a song of glory. So when she hears of a monster slaughtering men, women, and children in a northern jarldom, she decides this the Mercies’ one chance to change their fate… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Child abuse
  • Attempted forced child sex work mentioned
  • Suicide & assisted voluntary euthanasia, on-page
  • Suicidal ideation & attempted suicide recounted
  • Self-flagellation, on-page
  • Dead bodies & body parts
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Eyeball trauma
  • Serious physical injury & illness
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child, on-page
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death of a girlfriend recounted
  • Death of a mentor recounted
  • Death of a parent from illness recounted
  • Death of a friend, on-page
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder (theme)
  • Knife, axe & attempted murder
  • Hanging, off-page
  • Poisoning
  • Graphic drowning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal attack
  • Graphic animal death
  • Animal abuse

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

It’s been six months since Deka freed the goddesses in the ancient kingdom of Otera and discovered who she really is… but war is waging across the kingdom, and the real battle has only just begun. For there is a dark force growing in Otera—a merciless power that Deka and her army must stop. Yet hidden secrets threaten to destroy everything Deka has known. And with her own gifts changing, Deka must discover if she holds the key to saving Otera… or if she might be its greatest threat.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Sex work-shaming
  • Parental abuse mentioned
  • Panic attacks
  • Body horror & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Murder
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a father
  • Torture
  • Immolation (burning alive) & fire mentioned
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Death from falling discussed
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)

To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins

Lying and cheating may be sins to some people, but for Raven Moreaux, it is a way of life. She comes from a long line of grifters and couldn’t be prouder…Until she’s forced to help the government. A former Confederate official is suspected of stealing the Declaration of Independence, and Raven, posing as his housekeeper, is tasked with getting it back. Her partner is the too handsome Braxton Steel. Masquerading as a valet/driver, Brax is also supposed to be her “husband.” He has his own reasons for doing this job, but when their pretend marriage ignites into fiery… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery recounted
  • Racism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Pregnancy & childbirth, off-page
  • Yellow Fever epidemic, off-page
  • Murder, off-page
  • Lynching mentioned
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • Blackmail

Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams

Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams

As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia. Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past. When Magnolia finally learns the truth, her reflection mysteriously disappears from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Klu Klux Klan
  • Hate crimes mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Forced institutionalisation mentioned
  • Starvation
  • Police violence mentioned
  • Lynching, off-page
  • Mass drowning mentioned
  • Animal sacrifice (snake)