OCD & Intrusive Thoughts – Page 2 – Trigger Warning Database

The Villain by LJ Shen

Cruel. Coldblooded. Hades in a Brioni suit. Cillian Fitzpatrick has been dubbed every wicked thing on planet earth. To the media, he is The Villain. To me, he is the man who (reluctantly) saved my life. Now I need him to do me another, small solid. Bail me out of the mess my husband got me into. What’s a hundred grand to one of the wealthiest men in America, anyway? Only Cillian doesn’t hand out free favours. The price for the money, it turns out, is my freedom. Now I’m the eldest Fitzpatrick brother’s little toy. To play, to mould, to break. Too bad Cillian forgot one, tiny detail. Persephone wasn’t only the goddess of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Attempted rape (on-page)
Emotional & physical domestic violence and child abuse (on- & off-page, secondary character)
Cancer
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder & Tourette’s Syndrome (protagonist)
Emesis (prologue)
Torture
Blackmail

The Restless Dark by Erica Waters

The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones. Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets. But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia & body-shaming
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including violent intrusive thoughts
Abusive relationship
Suicide
Alcohol consumption
Blood and gore depiction, emesis & body horror
Murder & attempted murder (theme)
Strangulation
Knife violence
Mugging recounted
Kidnapping recounted
Arson (off-page)

You Had Me at Happy Hour by Timothy Janovsky

O’ little town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—it may be charming, but Julien Boire can’t wait to get out of there. Soon he’ll be leaving to take an advanced wine course that will put him on track to become a master sommelier. Meantime, his OCD demands he keep clear of distractions, especially the hot new hire at his aunt and uncle’s restaurant, Martin’s Place. Which should be easy, because Greg Harlow is as ill-suited to Julien as a bold cabernet is to a delicate salmon entrée. As charismatic and confident as Julien is tightly wound, Greg is a TikTok mixologist who could… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Anxiety & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Alcohol consumption (theme)

Bellies by Nicola Dinan

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition. From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Transphobia & gender dysphoria
Infidelity
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Panic attacks
Bulimia (secondary character)
Emesis mentioned
Death of a parent from cancer recounted
Fatal car accident (off-page)

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures. Then Byron’s mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron’s perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Smoking (secondary character)
Anorexia, depression & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Bullying

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist – a chance encounter that spiralled into a daylong city adventure. The timing was wrong, but their connection was they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t. At thirty-two, Fern’s life hasn’t turned out how she imagined it. She’s back home, running her mother’s lakeside resort, which is in disarray – and her ex-boyfriend is the manager. She needs a lifeline. To Fern’s surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives – nine years too late… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Anxiety
Insomnia
Post-partum depression
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent, off-page

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life. But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child physical & sexual abuse
Domestic violence
Foster care system
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Childhood trauma

Everybody’s Favorite by Lillian Stone

Lilian Stone—childhood evangelical, AOL girlfriend, and professional nail biter is always living on the edge of anxiety. From the pitfalls of a girl plagued by religious trauma, the incomprehensible yet unforgiving need for perfection, and a twenty-pound beagle she never meant to keep, Everybody’s Favorite is a refreshing story of what it means to pick yourself when the world is telling you otherwise. Still navigating the ins and outs of adulthood, accompanied by an obsessive-compulsive disorder that’s become an exercise in self-acceptance and thus compassion… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Religious trauma
Eating disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Bullying

Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford

From “weird, scary, ingenious” ( The New York Times ) stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, a brutally honest and hilariously frenetic memoir about show business, mental health, and the comfort of rigid belief systems—from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, to Suzuki violin training, to Richard Simmons, to 12-step programs.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Suicidal ideation
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder & intrusive thoughts
Bipolar Disorder
Eating disorder (bulimia)
Death of a pet