Tag Archives: Murder & Attempted Murder

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

I vow. You vow. We vow. Barrington University is home of the Lords, a secret society that requires their blood in payment. They are above all—the most powerful men in the world. They devote their lives to violence in exchange for power. And during their senior year, they are offered a chosen one. Barrington University is home of the Lords, a secret society that requires their blood in payment. They are above all—the most powerful men in the world. They devote their lives to violence in exchange for power. And during their senior year, they are offered a chosen one. People think… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Arranged relationship
  • Sex slavery
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Dubious consent scenarios including consensual somnophilia and rape-play
  • Improper BDSM practices
  • Drugging including nonconsensual manipulation of birth control prescription
  • Depiction of a dead body
  • Branding (consensual)
  • Genital mutilation
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Drowning
  • Cult
  • Stalking & nonconsensual surveillance

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect–a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion. Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases–a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?
In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Sexual harassment
  • Familial estrangement
  • Murder

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he knew. The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you’d rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them… at terrible cost.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Seizures
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal cruelty
  • Bullying

Beyond the Gate by Mary SanGiovanni

Beyond the Gate by Mary SanGiovanni

Knowing that other dimensions exist is one thing. Venturing into them is quite another. In the course of its experiments, Paragon Corp—a government-sourced theoretical physics research institute—has discovered a supposedly empty alternate world. There is strange, alien flora but seemingly no sentient beings…just a huge, abandoned city that a team of scientists is sent to explore. Then the scientists disappear. Kathy Ryan is hired to make her first foray into an alternate dimension in order to locate the team, bring them back, and close the gate for good. Instead, she discovers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Murder

The Curse of Broken Shadows by Laura Winter

The Curse of Broken Shadows by Laura Winter

Shadow magic is extinct. The Veil Worshippers who honour the shadow god’s wall are hunted for their artifacts, including the Veil shards that break off the wall in Valisea. Brela vows to steal it all back. With the dagger of her people and a Veil shard embedded in her collarbone that has infected her with shadow-cursed magic, she is determined to keep her secrets or suffer a fate worse than death. That was a lot easier when the uptight and infuriatingly handsome Captain Cason Valkip wasn’t hunting her. Cason has spent his entire life hiding from the raids on Valisea, from,… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Abandonment
  • Rape & sexual assault mentioned
  • Physical & emotional child abuse mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & trauma
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & genocide
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire

Goodreads • The Story Graph

The Boy with the Spider Face by A.J. Franks

The Boy with the Spider Face by A.J. Franks

Jeff Pritchet isn’t much different from other teenage boys, with one exception. His monstrous, spider-like appearance and loner persona make him a target for bullying when all he wants is a friend who sees beyond the surface. Enter transfer student, Aarav Jain. Thoughtful, accepting, and insightful, he sparks an untapped hope in Jeff, transforming his life. But as the boys grow closer, their deepening relationship becomes hijacked by a darkness Aarav can’t escape and a life-altering secret Jeff can barely contain. The unconventional pair find themselves… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Queermisia
  • Child abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug abuse
  • Emesis
  • Body horror
  • Murder
  • Death of a parent
  • Animal death
  • Bullying

A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho

A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho

Fin and Betty’s close friendship survived Fin’s ninth-grade move from their coastal Maine town to Manhattan. Calls, letters, and summer visits continued to bind them together, and in the fall of their senior year, they both applied to NYU, planning to reunite for good as roommates. Then Betty disappears. Her ex-boyfriend Calder admits to drowning her, but his confession is thrown out, and soon the entire town believes he was coerced and Betty has simply run away. Fin knows the truth, and she returns to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Conversion therapy
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug & alcohol abuse
  • Murder

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex worker slur
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Drugging
  • Stillbirth
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Drowning
  • Fire
  • Death from exposure to the cold
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

Annihilator by RuNyx

Annihilator by RuNyx

She lives in the shadows. He rules them. She’s the moon, and he the dark night encompassing her. She’s surrounded by demons, and he’s the biggest devil of them all. And she’s his. Passion, obsession, possesion. Theirs is a tale of danger, deviance, dread, desires, and the darkest flavors of love.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Sexual assault of a minor
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Drug abuse
  • Murder