Military Violence & War Themes – Page 63

The Golden Tower by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

The Golden Tower by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

A generation ago, powerful mage Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn’t succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt.

Facing up to what he is, Callum has battled chaos and evil across four years of magical training at the Magisterium, eventually defeating the armies of chaos in an epic battle.

It came at a cost.

Now, triumphant and heartbroken, Callum Hunt has just about had enough, and is ready to complete his training. But the evil Callum faced has not given up just yet…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism, internalised ableism & ableist language
Nightmares
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend discussed
Death of a mother, wife and son recounted
Murder & mass murder
Kidnapping recounted & hostage situation
Imprisonment recounted
Fire
War themes & battle scenes
Bullying
Animal attack

The Silver Mask by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

The Silver Mask by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

A generation ago, Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn’t succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt.

Now Call is one of the most feared and reviled students in the history of the Magisterium, thought to be responsible for a devastating death and an ever-present threat of war. As a result, Call has been imprisoned and interrogated. Everyone wants to know what Constantine was up to-and how he lives on. But Call has no idea.

It is only when he’s broken out of prison that the full potential of Constantine’s plan is suddenly in his hands . . . and he must decide what to do with his power.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism, internalised ableism & ableist language
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend & son recounted
Murder
Kidnapping & captivity
Imprisonment
Fire
War themes & battle scenes
Bullying

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews

Magic Burn by Ilona Andrews

As a mercenary who cleans up after magic gone wrong, Kate Daniels has seen her share of occupational hazards. Normally, waves of paranormal energy ebb and flow across Atlanta like a tide. But once every seven years, a flare comes, a time when magic runs rampant. Now Kate’s going to have to deal with problems on a much bigger scale: a divine one.

When Kate sets out to retrieve a set of stolen maps for the Pack, Atlanta’s paramilitary clan of shapeshifters, she quickly realizes much more at stake. During a flare, gods and goddesses can manifest – and battle for power. The stolen maps are only the opening gambit in an epic tug-of-war between two gods hoping for rebirth. And if Kate can’t stop the cataclysmic showdown, the city may not survive…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Blood and gore depiction and physical injury
Death and loss
Violence
War themes
Animal death

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn’t exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city’s most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill’s personal study, she knows exactly who’s behind it.

With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. It’s a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she’s been waiting for. But as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she’s overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. But finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother—and why—keeps her holding on in this fast-paced nail-biting thriller.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Death of a parent
Murder and gang violence
War themes

Twinchantment by Elise Allen

Twinchantment by Elise Allen

Princesses Flissa and Sara are even closer than most twins. In fact, most of the kingdom thinks they’re the same person.
When magic was outlawed in Kaloon generations ago, twins, black cats, and other potentially -magical beings were outlawed, too. Since they were born, Flissa and Sara have pretended to be one princess, Flissara, trading off royal duties like attending glamorous balls, participating in fencing exhibitions, and making friends with other young nobles, all while hiding in plain sight.

But when the first magical attack in years puts their mother’s life in danger, the girls must break the rules that have protected them to save her. Enlisting a brave servant boy and his plucky black kitten as their guides, they set off on an epic quest to the Twists-a forbidden place full of dark magic-to find the evil mage who cursed the queen. With a case of mistaken identity, a wickedly powerful exile out for vengeance, and time running out for their mother, the twins might just need to make their own magic to save the day.
In the first book of this new series, author Elise Allen brings to life a fantastical world filled with high-stakes adventure, incredible twists, and all the spark and humor of sisterhood.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Death and loss depiction
War themes

The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

Callum Hunt’s summer break isn’t like other kids’. His closest companion is a Chaos-ridden wolf, Havoc. His father suspects him of being secretly evil. And, of course, most kids aren’t heading back to the magical world of the Magisterium in the fall.

It’s not easy for Call . . . and it gets even harder after he checks out his basement and discovers that his dad might be trying to destroy both him and Havoc.

Call escapes to the Magisterium — but things only intensify there. The Alkahest — a copper gauntlet capable of separating certain magicians from their magic — has been stolen. And in their search to discover the culprit, Call and his friends Aaron and Tamara awaken the attention of some very dangerous foes — and get closer to an even more dangerous truth.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism, internalised ableism & ableist language
Child abuse
Physical injuries, scars & surgery mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & wife recounted
Murder & mass murder (off-page)
Fire
Kidnapping
War themes
Animal experiments mentioned
Bullying

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up, and closed down.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism, including blackface, and antiziganism (g slur)
Anti-semitism and Nazism (theme)
Ableism & ableist language
Parental abandonment & verbal abuse
PTSD & nightmares
Recreational drug use (smoking)
Emesis
Starvation
Gore depiction (dead bodies)
Death of a brother
Death of a child
Death of a father & uncle mentioned
Murder
Explosions, including air raids, and fire
Death by exposure to the cold
War themes* and battle scenes
Poverty themes
Bullying

*Set during WWII and discussed the Holocaust.

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abwai

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abwai

In a country ripped apart by war, Tareq lives with his big and loving family . . . until the bombs strike. His city is in ruins. His life is destroyed. And those who have survived are left to figure out their uncertain future.

In the wake of destruction, he’s threatened by Daesh fighters and witnesses a public beheading. Tareq’s family knows that to continue to stay alive, they must leave. As they travel as refugees from Syria to Turkey to Greece, facing danger at every turn, Tareq must find the resilience and courage to complete his harrowing journey.

But while this is one family’s story, it is also the timeless tale of all wars, of all tragedy, and of all strife. When you are a refugee, success is outliving your loss.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape (mentioned)
Grief depiction and death of a parent, child and sibling
Murder and bombings
Drowning
War themes

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny (theme)
Religious persecution (theme)
Ableism & ableist language
Rape (multiple, off-page), martial rape & sexual assault
Adult-minor relationship and forced arranged marriage
Physical child abuse
Suicide (self-sacrifice)
Pregnancy & death from childbirth
Abortion discussed
Alcohol consumption
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a wife & mother
Death of a father
Graphic animal death & hunting
War themes mentioned

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

The dashing young king, Nikolai Lantsov, has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war–and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, Nikolai must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army. Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threat-ening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha general, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible…. Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia & body-shaming
Slavery
Sexual assault (implied)
Substance addiction & drug abuse
Suicide
Torture
Captivity
War themes
Bullying