Tag Archives: Incest

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

See also Paedophilia, grooming & CSA.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Attempted incest mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Depressive episode
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drugging
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Car accident

The Widowmaker by Hannah Morrissey

Ever since business mogul Clive Reynolds disappeared twenty years ago, the name “Reynolds” has become synonymous with “murder” and “mystery.” And now, lured by a cryptic note, down-on-her-luck photographer Morgan Mori returns home to Black Harbor and into the web of their family secrets and double lives. The same night she photographs the Reynolds holiday get-together, Morgan becomes witness to a homicide of a cop that triggers the discovery of a long-buried clue. This could finally be the thing to crack open the chilling cold case, and Investigator Ryan Hudson… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Incest*
  • Rape of a minor*
  • Sexual assault*
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality
  • Fire

Context: The protagonist was raped by her uncle as a child. Her half-brother sexually assaults (and possibly rapes) her as well.

Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee

When the hexarchate’s gifted young captain Kel Cheris summoned the ghost of the long-dead General Shuos Jedao to help her put down a rebellion, she didn’t reckon on his breaking free of centuries of imprisonment – and possessing her. Even worse, the enemy Hafn are invading, and Jedao takes over General Kel Khiruev’s fleet, which was tasked with stopping them. Only one of Khiruev’s subordinates, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, seems to be able to resist the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao. Jedao claims to be interested in defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev or Brezan trust him? For that… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted
  • Incest (sibling)
  • Memory loss
  • Suicide
  • Mass shooting
  • Torture
  • Genocide

Kala by Colin Walsh

Kala by Colin Walsh

In the seaside village of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends meet for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann at its white-hot centre. But later that year, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now remains have been discovered in the woods—including a skull with a Polaroid photo tucked inside—and the town is both aghast and titillated at reopening this old wound. One the eve of this gruesome discovery, Helen had reluctantly… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Sexual assault
  • Incest
  • Child abuse

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door – an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter. Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he’s made a small fortune on his customer… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racial slurs
  • Rape
  • Incest (step-parent/step-child)
  • Suicide
  • Death of a husband from a brain injury
  • Murder by gun violence (dream sequence)

Harvest of Sighs by Sierra Simone

Harvest of Sighs by Sierra Simone

The genius and the sunshine girl. As children, we fought bitterly and often, bickering every chance we got. But then we grew up. Then we came back. Delphine Dansey carries her heart on the outside of her body; she’s looking for love and chasing dreams. She’s spoiled and selfish, the kind of beautiful that’s made for money and fame. But somehow she’s ended up in my keeping: a pretty submissive I can’t seem to resist, a lover who obsesses and tempts me.  thought I’d locked my heart away a long time ago, along with all my other weaknesses. But some doors won’t stay… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Bimisia
  • Coming out themes
  • Fatmisia & body-shaming discussed
  • Rape & attempted gang rape recounted
  • Suicide recounted
  • Graphic incest (theme)
  • Pregnancy from incest mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder recounted
  • Death of a mother & wife recounted

Come Closer by Sara Gran

Come Closer by Sara Gran

A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that’s replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off-kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she’s doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.. The new voice in Amanda’s head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Child abuse
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Body horror
  • Emesis
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Drowning
  • Animal attack

The Vatican Princess by C.W. Gortner

The Vatican Princess by C.W. Gortner

Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias became Italy’s most ruthless and powerful family, electrifying and terrorizing their 15th-century Renaissance world. To this day, Lucrezia Borgia is known as one of history’s most notorious villainesses, accused of incest and luring men to doom with her arsenal of poison.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Incest

Havoc at Prescott High by CM Stunich

Havoc at Prescott High by C.M. Stunich

There’s one word you don’t utter at Prescott High, not unless you want them to own you. H.A.V.O.C.. Hael, Aaron, Victor, Oscar, and Callum. The Havoc Boys rule the hellhole we call Prescott High. Once upon a time, they ruled me. For an entire year, I endured their shit. But senior year is going to be different. This year, I own them. I’ve made a pact with the Havoc Boys to get the vengeance I deserve. Their price? Me. At their beck and call, in their beds, a part of their gang. Those dirty, rotten boys are going to get revenge against everyone that’s wronged me—everyone but themselves…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body-shaming
  • Rape of a child & child sexual abuse
  • Death of a sister
  • Bullying recounted

*Context: The heroine’s stepfather raped her older sister, and sexually abused her and her sister.

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