Murder & Attempted Murder – Page 249 – Trigger Warning Database

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something. Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand. But wisps of smoke on the horizon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Rape & attempted rape recounted, and forced sex work (off-page)
Child abuse & intimate partner violence recounted
Suicide (on-page) & suicidal ideation
Pregnancy & childbirth (on-page), including stillbirth (on-page)
Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies, graphic physical injuries & illness (cholera, seizures, fever), field surgery, and syringes & needles
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father
Death of a brother
Murder & attempted murder
Gun & knife violence
Torture
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Blackmail
Fire
Drought including death from starvation & dehydration
Death from exposure
Military deployment recounted
Animal death & death of a pet (on-page), including hunting & animal dead bodies
Animal cruelty

Asylum by Patrick McGrath

Asylum by Patrick McGrath

In the summer of 1959 Stella Raphael joins her psychiatrist husband, Max, at his new posting–a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. Beautiful and headstrong, Stella soon falls under the spell of Edgar Stark, a brilliant and magnetic sculptor who has been confined to the hospital for murdering his wife in a psychotic rage.

But Stella’s knowledge of Edgar’s crime is no hindrance to the volcanic attraction that ensues–a passion that will consume Stella’s sanity and destroy her and the lives of those around her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating
Psychosis
Psychiatric hospitalisation
Death of a wife
Murder

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. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Transphobia, deadnaming & misgendering
Sexism
Dieting mentioned
Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
Death of a parent & 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