Tag Archives: Murder & Attempted Murder

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. His patronage offers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug use
  • Forced institutionalisation
  • Chronic migraines
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Earthquake (1906 San Francisco)

Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

An exciting debut novel that gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian American community in Baltimore—from young activists in conflict with their traditional parents to the poor who clean for the rich—lives which intersect across divides of class, generation, and religion. Their various fates and struggles cause their community dynamic to sizzle and sometimes explode: The wealthy Ammar family employs young Maysoon Baladi, whose family struggles financially, to clean up after their spoiled teenagers. Meanwhile, Marcus Salameh, whose aunt married into the wealthy Ammar family, confronts his father in an effort to protect his younger sister for “dishonor… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Eating disorder
  • Self-harm
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Gun violence

The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to bear—that her sister was murdered by a serial killer and there is precisely nothing she can do to change it. If there’s anything Zara cannot stand it’s feeling powerless, so she decides she will do whatever it takes—even if that means partaking in the occult—to bring her sister back from the dead.Jude Wolf might be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul is now slowly turning necrotic. Flowers and insects die in her wake and monstrous things come to taunt her at night. If Jude can’t find the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Minor self-injury for magic
  • Body horror
  • Emesis
  • Graphic murder
  • Gun & knife violence

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

It is the year 1814 and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers. Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape. However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchel…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Threats of rape
  • Death of a parent & sibling recounted
  • Murder
  • KIdnapping
  • Animal death (sacrifice)

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess. By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green – her best friend’s brother – moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Drugging
  • Graphic genital mutilation
  • Dismemberment
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Animal injury

Blood Gift by Vela Roth

Ancient magic is sleeping inside Cassia. Wielding it is her birthright, but her bloodright is to become an immortal Hesperine like Lio, her Grace. Until she masters her dormant magic, it’s too dangerous for him to transform her. To claim both her legacies, she must return to the land that holds the secrets of her power: the mortal kingdom where she was once powerless. Lio is ready to protect her with diplomacy, spells, or even his fists. He knows he’ll need them against the lord who is still betrothed to her under human law. Most dangerous of all, the necromancer known as the Collector lies in wait, planning to use… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Childbirth
  • Blood-drinking
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is. Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe, a notorious and unforgive….Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Persecution for witchcraft including mass murder of witches recounted
  • Enslavement recounted
  • Rape recounted (multiple, forced sexual relationship)
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism recovery (laudanum, opium)
  • Murder by gun violence and explosion
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence

Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined — to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue — the colour of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often – he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too―she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room. In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery & forced labour
  • Racism (theme)
  • Anxiety & agoraphobia
  • Death of siblings
  • Mentions of the real murders of Black Americans by the police
  • Death of a pet

Vengeance of the Pirate Queen by Tricia Levenseller

As an assassin working for the pirate queen, eighteen-year-old Sorinda is surprised when Alosa’s next task for her is not to kill a new target, but to captain a handpicked crew on a rescue mission. Unfortunately, her sailing master is twenty-year-old Kearan. He may be the best helmsman the pirate queen has, but Sorinda finds him a real pain in the arse. Sadly, there are few places on a ship to hide from an attentive man. As the crew of the Vengeance faces dangerous waters and deadly sea creatures, they accidentally awaken the King of the Undersea, a being who can control… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol abuse recounted
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Knife, sword & gun violence
  • Murder by drowning mentioned

The Ruined by Renée Ahdieh

The Sylvan Vale and the Sylvan Wyld are at war. Now that the unsteady truce between them has been broken, lines must be drawn. In an effort to protect the weakened Winter Court, Bastien rallies powerful allies and friends in New Orleans to come to their aid. Meanwhile, under protection alongside her injured mother in the Summer Court, Celine is uncertain of whom to trust. She cannot get word to Bastien, and does not understand why he has not returned. When she realises war between the fey courts is imminent, she journeys with Ali in an effort to find the time travelling mirror and change their fate… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption (secondary characters)
  • Blood-drinking
  • Attempted murder by poisoned arrow and knives
  • Murder by gun violence
  • Graphic torture
  • Accidental explosion resulting in mass death
  • Graphic battles scenes with cannonballs and gunfire