Tag Archives: Mental Illness

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

See also Anxiety, Panic attacks, Suicide, Self-harm, Phobias, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Addiction.

Beard in Mind by Penny Reid

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually. Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone’s favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston’s charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket. Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever. She mumbles to herself, but won’t respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Depression
  • Self-harm (cutting)

Miss Quinces by Kat Fajardo

Sue just wants to spend the summer reading and making comics at sleepaway camp with her friends, but instead she gets stuck going to Honduras to visit relatives with her parents and two sisters. They live way out in the country, which means no texting, no cable, and no Internet! The trip takes a turn for the worse when Sue’s mother announces that they’ll be having a surprise quinceañera for Sue, which is the last thing she wants. She can’t imagine wearing a big, floofy, colorful dress! What is Sue going to do? And how will she survive all this “quality” time with her rambunctious family?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Panic attack (on-page)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Mentions of an uncle becoming paralysed after a horse-riding accident

Sparrow by Sarah Moon

Sparrow has always had a difficult time making friends. She would always rather have stayed home on the weekends with her mother, an affluent IT Executive at a Brooklyn bank, reading, or watching the birds, than playing with other kids. And that’s made school a lonely experience for her. It’s made LIFE a lonely experience. But when the one teacher who really understood her — Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian, a woman who let her eat her lunch in the library office rather than hide in a bathroom stall, a woman who shared her passion for novels and knew just the ones she’d love… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Protagonist with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation for attempted suicide by fall discussed
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a teacher in a car accident discussed

Last One Out by Jane Harper

Carralon Ridge, a once vibrant village in rural New South Wales, has become a shell of itself, its houses and buildings bought up and left to rot by the mining company operating at its borders. A decade into its slow death, surrounded by industrial noise and swathed in thick layers of dust, the skeletal town is all but abandoned, with just a handful of residents clinging onto what remains. After years of scorning those who left the Ridge behind as it fell into ruin, Ro never imagined she’d become one of them. But everything changed when she lost her son. Five… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Disappearance/missing person (theme)
  • Kidnapping

Dead in the Water by John Marrs

When Damon survives a near-drowning, his life flashes before his eyes. Every memory is crystal clear—except one. A dead boy. A face he can’t place. A moment he doesn’t remember living. At first he tells himself it’s a trick of the mind. But everything else he saw was real. So why not this? With his waking life stalked by the disturbing scene, confusion quickly turns to obsession. Desperate for answers, Damon digs into his fractured past, and becomes convinced that the only way to remember…is to die again. And again. And again. When he meets a perfect stranger who’s all too… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Depression mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Fatal hit-and-run car accident
  • Near-drowning incident

When I Was You by Minka Kent

After barely surviving a brutal attack, Brienne Dougray rarely leaves her house. Suffering from debilitating headaches and memory loss, she can rely only on her compassionate new tenant, Dr. Niall Emberlin, a welcome distraction from the discomfiting bubble that has become her existence. But Brienne’s growing confidence in her new routine is shaken when she stumbles across unsettling evidence that someone else is living as…her. Same name. Same car. Same hair. Same clothes. She’s even friended her family on social media. To find out why, Brienne must… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI), resulting in memory loss and chronic headaches, sustained in a robbery (protagonist)

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Alexander C. Eberhart

My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong. So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection. My clues are even… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction mentioned
  • Gun violence

Lock & West by Alexander C. Eberhart

Lock is awkward. He can’t make eye contact, counts when he’s nervous and has to remind himself several times a day how ‘normal’ teens behave. Homeschooled most of his life, he’s resigned himself to a friendless existence at his new Atlanta high school. Until he meets West. List Of Reasons Why My Life Is A Mess: How Much Time Do You Have? West has everything. Looks. Talent. Money. And secrets… so many secrets. Beneath the surface of West’s perfect existence is a pain he’s buried so deep a million therapists couldn’t unearth it and he’s determined to keep it that way. He’s an… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Attempted rape & sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety
  • Eating disorder & purging
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Attempted suicide

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater. Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won’t take her aunt’s advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic racist & anti-Asian hate crimes
  • Parental abandonment & nglect
  • Health anxiety & intrusive thoughts
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore dpeiction and body horror
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Murder
  • Police brutality mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Car accient
  • Fire
  • Animal cruelty & dead bodies

The Winter Garden by Alexandra Bell

Welcome to the Winter Gardens of Half Moon House. Please do not mishandle the exhibits. (The owners accept no liability for any events that occur, magical or otherwise…) The Winter Garden open at the stroke of midnight with no great fanfare – after all, this is a time when all virtuous folk should be in bed. But for the few curious souls that brave the opening of its gates what enchantments await. There is all manner of strange and spectacular flora and fauna collected on her travels by the scandalous Lady Beatrice Sitwell and exhibited for the delight of paying customers. By… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Depression
  • Death of a child & parent
  • Animal abuse