Tag Archives: Knife, Sword & Axe Violence

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of knife, sword, and axe, and weapon violence and stabbing.

Curse of the Night Witch by Alex Aster

On Emblem Island all are born knowing their fate. Their lifelines show the course of their life and an emblem dictates how they will spend it. Twelve-year-old Tor Luna was born with a leadership emblem, just like his mother. But he hates his mark and is determined to choose a different path for himself. So, on the annual New Year’s Eve celebration, where Emblemites throw their wishes into a bonfire in the hopes of having them granted, Tor wishes for a different power. The next morning Tor wakes up to discover a new marking on his skin…the symbol of a curse that has… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Cannibalism mentioned (a mother forced to eat her children to survive)
  • Sword & arrow violence
  • Monsters attempting to drown their children mentioned
  • Loss of autonomy (magic)
  • Animal attack (frog, snake)

Grim and Oro by Alex Aster

This premium, dual-sided volume includes two complete novellas bound together to create one can’t-miss collector’s item. The first novella—told from Grim’s perspective—gives readers insight into his past: the motivations and events that cemented his fate as Isla’s eventual love interest. The second is narrated by Oro and offers a window into his complex identity: that of a king torn between desire for justice and passion for the woman he loves more than anything.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-injury for magic
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction and emesis
  • Torture of a child (on-page)
  • Poisoning (date rape drug)
  • Weapon violence & battle scenes

Crowntide by Alex Aster

Isla Crown has charted a new destiny and leapt into the unknown, determined to defeat her insidious ancestor, Lark, no matter the cost. But Skyshade is nothing like she anticipated, and she’ll have to use all of her skills just to survive, let alone end Lark for good. Meanwhile, Grim and Oro would sooner set fire to their own kingdoms than leave Isla stranded on a path toward certain death. But getting her back will involve forging an alliance―if they can find a way to forgive their long history of betrayals. The key to Isla’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & injury depiction and emesis
  • Murder by stabbing & torture
  • Knife, sword & weapon violence
  • War themes & battle scenes

Skyshade by Alex Aster

Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future—and the fate of the world—now hinge on a heart split in two. Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king. As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Self-injury for magic & scars
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction, including removal of the heart, decapitation & dead bodies
  • Murder
  • Near-drowning incident (in blood)
  • Knife, sword & weapon violence

The Crimson Crown by Cinda Williams Chima

A thousand years ago, two young lovers were betrayed—Alger Waterlow to his death, and Hanalea, Queen of the Fells, to a life without love. Now, once again, the Queendom of the Fells seems likely to shatter apart. For young queen Raisa ana’ Marianna, maintaining peace even within her own castle walls is nearly impossible; tension between wizards and Clan has reached a fevered pitch. With surrounding kingdoms seeking to prey on the Fells’ inner turmoil, Raisa’s best hope is to unite her people against a common enemy. But that enemy might be the person with whom… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted
  • Knife violence
  • Torture
  • Animal attack (bird)

The Vacation by John Marrs

Venice Beach, Los Angeles. A paradise on earth. Tourists flock to the golden coast and the promise of Hollywood. But for eight strangers at a beach-front hostel, there is far more on their minds than an extended vacation. All of them are running from something. And they all have secrets they’d kill to keep…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Rape & voyeurism
  • Drug use, overdose & drugging
  • Cancer & terminal stroke
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder by stabbing
  • Stalking
  • Car accident

Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson

Keyanna “Key” MacKay is used to secrets. Raised by a single father who never divulged his past, it’s only after his death that she finds herself thrust into the world he’d always refused to speak of. With just a childhood bedtime story about a monster that saved her father’s life and the name of her estranged grandmother to go off of, Key has no idea what she’ll find in Scotland. But repeating her father’s mistakes and being rescued by a gorgeous, angry Scotsman—who thinks she’s an idiot—is definitely the last thing she expects… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Parent with Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Imprisonment recounted (secondary character)
  • Physical assault with a knife
  • Kidnapping

Us Deadly Few by Alexis Patton

Khalani Kanes never imagined surviving Braderhelm Prison, let alone escaping to the desolate surface they had been told was uninhabitable. Haunted by the Governor of Apollo’s dark secrets, Khalani and her crew of criminals embark on a new perilous journey. Now, the true test begins as Khalani ventures through the treacherous “Death-Zone” toward the nearest underground city, Hermes. Abandoned relics of a once-great nation are not the only threats on the barren road. Violent storms sweep across the Death-Zone, the deadly Takeshi Steele has resumed…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & attempted rape, thwarted by the perpetrator being beaten to death & having his eyes plucked out
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of smoking
  • Drugging
  • Physical injury, including mention of secondary character going into septic shot from an arrow wound
  • Graphic fantasy violence including explosions, bombings, weapon violence (bow & arrow), physical assault/fight scenes & murder by gun violence
  • Torture, including electrocution, knife violence & lobotomy-like medical experimentation
  • Nuclear fallout & terrorism recounted (post-apocalyptic world, set 300 years after the events)
  • Kidnapping

Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and it’s rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and swap designer bodies like clothes, Ana can’t afford to escape her tattered form. When she fails the entrance exam to the prestigious Paragon Academy, her last hope of earning a new body implodes. As the clock ticks down to her last breath, she’s forced to use her illusion magic to steal a healthy chassis—before her own kills her. But Ana is caught by none other than the headmaster of Paragon Academy, who poses a brutal ultimatum: face execution for her crime… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide by overdose
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & illness depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Explosion
  • Imprisonment

Ashes of Gold by J. Elle

Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the East Row break themselves out. But reuniting with her friends is only half the battle. When she finds them again, Rue makes a vow: she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit—with half a foot back in Houston and half a heart… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm for ritual
  • Blood depiction
  • Poisoning
  • Torture
  • Battle scenes with physical assault & stabbings