Improper BDSM Practices – Trigger Warning Database

Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with. Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slut-shaming
Improper BDSM practice recounted (not respecting safe words)
Intimate partner violence (on-page, protagonist slaps her love interest)
Parental infertility & miscarriage mentioned
Alochol consumption
Physical injury, including temporary loss of vision and gunshot wounds
Murder of a father by a mother mentioned (protagonist)
Attempted murder & physical assailt
Torture
Kidnapping & stalking
Fire
Loss of autonomy (memory manipulation, angelic possession with the intent to impregnate another)
Battle scene

Vanquish by Pam Godwin

Her life is like a prison cell. A self-made, to-hell-with-the-free-world existence that locks from the inside. Stop judging. Her agoraphobia doesn’t define her. It simply keeps her safe. He belongs in a prison cell. The 6×8, make-me-your-bitch variety that locks from the outside. But he’s free. To hunt. To take. To break. And he just found a sexy new toy. Capturing her is the easy part. Her fucked-up mind, however, makes him question everything he does next. But he’s a determined bastard. If all goes his way, this will hurt like hell.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Internalised fatphobia & body dysmorphia
Rape, sexual slavery & nonconsensual BDSM (on-page)
Sex trafficking (on-page & recounted)
Sex work recounted
Intimate partner violence (on-page)
Emotional & verbal intimate partner abuse recounted
Forced child abandonment
Divorce recounted
Agoraphobia, bulimia & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (protagonist)
Psychiatric institutionalisation of a parent mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Drug abuse recounted (protagonists)
Death of a mother from an overdose recounted
Murder by gun violence mentioned (secondary character)
Kidnapping (on-page)

Context : The male protagonist kidnaps, rapes, and abuses the female protagonist, his love interest. He is a former stalker and sex trafficker who has raped others in the past. He has a child with a different secondary character who was forcibly taken away. The female protagonist is divorced.

Descent by Sam Mariano

Calvin will do anything for me… except let me go. We were strangers, as far as I knew. He saw me once, but didn’t introduce himself like he could have. Calvin Cutler. Nice to meet you. But there’s nothing nice about Calvin Cutler. He’s ruthless and single-minded, and he zeroed in on me—a hapless target for his dark and twisted appetites. In the depths of Hell, I first looked into his sinful brown eyes, felt the greedy touch of his demanding hands for the first time. Not the last time, though. He wanted more. So much more. He wanted me, whether I wanted him or not.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape
Sexual assault
Dubious consent scenarios
Improper BDSM practices
Drugging
Involuntary pregnancy
Murder
Blackmail

Frost by Liza James

Frost by Liza James

Skilla. Trading one monster for another. That’s the unfortunate situation I’ve found myself in now. But it isn’t her cold and frozen demeanour that has me seeking more. It’s her touch. Her energy. The commanding nature she so easily emanates. I can’t help wanting to surrender. Even if that leaves me in pain begging for more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Incestuous sexual assault of a minor recounted (step-sibling)
Improper BDSM practices
Physical assault

Being Hers by Anna Stone

Being Hers by Anna Stone

Melanie has spent her entire life working her way up in the world. By day, she studies at law school, and by night, she serves drinks at an exclusive club to afford her tuition. But the hard-working Melanie will never admit her true desire: to escape from her fast-paced, high-pressure life, if only for a moment. When Melanie meets Vanessa, a glamorous executive and a regular at the club, she is drawn to the enigmatic black-haired woman. Vanessa is relentless in pursuing what she wants—and what she wants is Melanie. Soon, Melanie finds herself caught up in Vanessa’s sensual games of submission, power and control… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Improper BDSM practices
Parent with alcoholism mentioned
Asthma attacks mentioned
Stalking by an ex-partner mentioned

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

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink

Tyrant’s Revenge by Raven Dark & Olivia Alexander

The only way to stop the evil from my past is to put my life in the hands of the monster in my bed. Tyrant, president of the Soulless Assassins MC, is hot as hell and he scares me to death. Tyrant, president of the Soulless Assassins MC, is hot as hell and he scares me to death. I am just his pawn in a sick and twisted game. He will use and humiliate me as he sees fit until he has my brother’s head. I should be repulsed by what he does to me, so why do I crave his touch? When an evil man from my past stalks me from the shadows, Tyrant is my only hope of stopping him before he takes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault including forced nudity & unwanted touching
Dubious consent scenarios
Improper BDSM practices including noncon/dubcon blindfolding and knife play
Attempted gang rape
Forced pregnancy

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Parental abandonment & disownment
Child abuse recounted
Domestic abuse
Abusive dom-sub relationship
Psychosis
Suicidal ideation
Attempted suicide
Graphic self-harm
Pregnancy
Blood & gore depiction
Body horror
Death of an infant
Animal death & cruelty