Murder & Attempted Murder – Page 238 – Trigger Warning Database

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Ever Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire book cover

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Amisia
Transmisia
Deadnaming & misgendering
Sexism
Dieting mentioned
Blood & gore depiction
Dead bodies
Death of a parent
Death of a friend
Murder
Hostage situation
Animal death mentioned
Bullying

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

When her sister Patty died, Jenna blamed herself. When Jenna died, she blamed herself for that, too. Unfortunately Jenna died too soon. Living or dead, every soul is promised a certain amount of time, and when Jenna passed she found a heavy debt of time in her record. Unwilling to simply steal that time from the living, Jenna earns every day she leeches with volunteer work at a suicide prevention hotline.

But something has come for the ghosts of New York, something beyond reason, beyond death, beyond hope; something that can bind ghosts to mirrors and make them do its bidding. Only Jenna stands in its way.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Suicide*
Suicidal ideation*
Grief depiction
Death themes
Death of a sister
Death of a husband
Death of a daughter
Murder
Loss of autonomy
Death of pet/s, specifically cats

*Main character works at a suicide hotline

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you’ve got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fatmisia
Death of queer characters/ “bury your gays” trope
Forced gender roles, central theme
Parental neglect
Mysophobia
Pregnancy discussed
Blood & gore depiction
Vampirism & blood drinking
Dead bodies
Death of a girlfriend, on-page
Murder
Lightning & storms mentioned

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire’s award-winning, bestselling Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones

When Jack left Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister–whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice–back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn’t always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West’s “No Quests” rule is about to be broken.

Again.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Mysophobia
Dysphoria
Minor blood & gore depiction
Dead bodies
Resurrection, on-page
Vampirism & blood drinking mentioned
Medical experiments with corerced consent recounted
Cancer mentioned
Death of a girlfriend recounted
Death of a sister recounted
Death of a mentor, off-the-page
Murder recounted
Lightning storm

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden, at once feminist high fantasy and a thrilling indictment of monarchy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Body shaming
Misogyny
Parental abandonment
Arranged marriage
Suicide discussed
Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
Nonconsensual & consensual adoption
Emesis mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a partner & wife mentioned
Murder
Exile
War themes, including rebellion & a political coup

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to Mister, a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister’s letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racial slurs
Cultural appropriation, specifically Native American culture
Domestic violence
Physical, verbal & emotional abuse, including gaslighting
Rape, statutory rape & rape of a child
Incest (father-daughter)
Pregnancy, result of rape & incest
Forced estrangement
Cheating
Self-harm
Disordered eating (bingeing)
Alcohol consumption
Female genital mutilation mentioned
Emesis
Lynching recounted
Murder
Gun violence mentioned
Death of a mother
Death of an infant

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Breezy remembers leaving the party: the warm, wet grass under her feet, her cheek still stinging from a slap to her face. But when she wakes up, scared and pulling dirt from her mouth, a year has passed and she can’t explain how.

Nor can she explain the man lying at her grave, dead from her touch, or why her heartbeat comes and goes. She doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past.

Haunted by happy memories from her life, Breezy sets out to find answers in the gritty, threatening world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight, and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she discovers is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Racism
Victim blaming
Domestic abuse
Attempted suicide
Self-harm
Murder
Kidnapping
Stalking
Cults

Lover Awakened by JR Ward

Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion, and terror is his only passion—until he rescues a beautiful aristocrat from the evil Lessening Society.

Bella is instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses. But even as their desire for one another begins to overtake them both, Zsadist’s thirst for vengeance against Bella’s tormentors drives him to the brink of madness. Now, Bella must help her lover overcome the wounds of his tortured past, and find a future with her…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Slavery & sex slavery
Rape
Domestic violence recounted
Nonconsensual drugging
Pregnancy
Blood depiction, including blood-drinking
Kidnapping & captivity
Torture
Murder
Gun violence
Whipping
Bullying

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

Growing up poor in rural Georgia, Bree Cabbat was warned by her single mother that the world was a dark and scary place. Having married into a family with wealth and connections, Bree now has all a woman could ever dream of: a loving lawyer husband, two talented teenage daughters, a new baby boy, a gorgeous home, and every opportunity in the world.

Until the day she awakens and sees an old gray-haired woman peering into her bedroom window who vanishes as quickly as she appears. She spies the old woman again, in the parking lot of her daughters’ private school . . . just minutes before Bree’s infant son, asleep in his car seat only a few feet away, vanishes. There is a note left in his place, warning her that she is being is being watched; if she wants her baby back, she must not call the police or deviate in any way from the instructions that will follow.

To get her baby back, Bree must complete one small—but critical—task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price, making her complicit in a tangled web of tragedy and shocking secrets that could destroy everything she loves.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut shaming
Rape
Incest
Nonconsensual pornography
Substance addiction
Overdose
Poisoning
Infanticide, attempted and threats of infanticide, central theme
Drugging of infants
Drowning of an infant
Bombs
Gun violence
Kidnapping and child abduction
Blackmail

King of Fools by Amanda Foody

King of Fools by Amanda Foody

On the quest to find her missing mother, prim and proper Enne Salta became reluctant allies with Levi Glaisyer, the city’s most famous con man. Saving his life in the Shadow Game forced Enne to assume the identity of Seance, a mysterious underworld figure. Now, with the Chancellor of the Republic dead and bounties on both their heads, she and Levi must play a dangerous game of crime and politics…with the very fate of New Reynes at stake.

Thirsting for his freedom and the chance to build an empire, Levi enters an unlikely partnership with Vianca Augustine’s estranged son. Meanwhile, Enne remains trapped by the mafia donna’s binding oath, playing the roles of both darling lady and cunning street lord, unsure which side of herself reflects the truth.

As Enne and Levi walk a path of unimaginable wealth and opportunity, new relationships and deadly secrets could quickly lead them into ruin. And when unforeseen players enter the game, they must each make an impossible choice: To sacrifice everything they’ve earned in order to survive…

Or die as legends.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Drug abuse
Murder