Physical Injuries & Illness – Trigger Warning Database

Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated Fiona Staples

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

From bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults.

Collecting: Saga 1-6

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language including r slur
Racism
Slut-shaming
Child sexual slavery & forced sex work
Rape mentioned
Child abuse mentioned
Trauma & PTSD, including flashbacks
Recreational drug use
Graphic childbirth (on-page)
Blood & gore depiction, including serious injury
Dead bodies
Death of a child recounted
Murder & attempted murder
Gun violence
Explosions
Stabbing
Imprisonment recounted
War themes & military violence (theme)
Animal death

100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis’s entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami’s predictable social scene with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends. While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty—like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens.

But paradise has its price. Dragged from their tents under the cover of dark, Genesis, Maddie, and their friends are kidnapped and held for ransom deep inside the jungle—with no diva left behind. It all feels so random to everyone except Genesis. She knows they were targeted for a reason. And that reason is her.

Now, as the hours count down, only one thing’s for certain: If the Miami hostages can’t thwart their captors’ plan, no one will make it out alive.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut shaming
Fat-shaming & body-shaming
Statutory sexual assault
Abusive relationship
Substance addiction recovery
Suicide attempt
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Blood depiction & physical injuries
Needles
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Dearth of a brother
Death of a cousin
Gun violence
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Murder
Explosions
Psychological torture

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard, known only as the Dragon, to keep the wood’s powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, her dearest friend in the world. There is no way to save her. But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl and when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Attempted rape (on-page, detailed)
Cheating recounted
Adult-minor relationship*
Alcohol consumption
Pregnancy mentioned
Body horror
Minor physical injuries (burns)
Death of a brother
Death of a mother & father mentioned
Murder
Knife violence
Kidnapping
Fire
War themes & military violence
Graphic animal death
Animal attack

*Note: The main romance is between a seventeen-year-old girl and an immortal 100-(plus)-year-old man.

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Misogyny
Adult-minor relationship discussed
Domestic abuse
Parental abandonment & child neglect
Child abuse
Suicide & attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Depression
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use
Infertility mentioned
Emesis
Physical injuries
Death of a father
Death of a husband
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning
Torture
Whipping
War themes
Graphic animal death, including multiple death of pet dogs
Animal cruelty & abuse
Hunting
Animal attack mentioned

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 mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableist language
Rape, implied and recounted
Attempted rape
Forced sex work, off-page
Child abuse
Toxic relationship
Intimate partner violence, implied and recounted
Suicide, on-page
Suicidal ideation
Medicinal drug use
Pregnancy
Childbirth complications, on-page
Stillbirth, on-page
Blood and gore depiction
Dead bodies
Graphic physical injuries
Physical illness, specifically cholera, seizures and fever
Field surgery
Serious illness of a loved one
Syringes and needles
Grief depiction
Death of a mother
Death of a brother
Death of a husband
Death of a father
Murder and attempted murder
Gun and knife violence
Torture
Hostage situation
Kidnapping
Blackmail
Fire
Drought
Death from stavation
Death from dehydration
Death from exposure
Mild war themes
Ex-soldier, side-character
Animal death, on-page
Death of a pet
Animal cruelty
Hunting
Animal dead bodies

Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

The world is not tame.

Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the realization that she’s alone – and far off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with nothing but the clothes on her back, Ashley must figure out how to survive despite the red streak of infection creeping up her leg.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableist language
Parental abandonment
Physical child abuse recounted, side character
Cheating
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use, off-page
Blood depiction
Graphic physical injuries
Death of a friend mentioned
Physical assault
Animal death
Animal dead bodies

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.

Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism mentioned
Misgendering
Child abuse
Minor physical injuries
Death of a mother & father
Kidnapping & captivity
Cults
Animal abuse
Homelessness

Stargazing by Jen Wang

Stargazing by Jen Wang

When Moon’s family moves in next door to Christine’s, Moon goes from unlikely friend to best friend―maybe even the perfect friend. The girls share their favorite music videos, paint their toenails when Christine’s strict parents aren’t around, and make plans to enter the school talent show together. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she sometimes has visions of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. Who reassure her that earth isn’t where she really belongs.

But when they’re least expecting it, catastrophe strikes. After relying on Moon for everything, can Christine find it in herself to be the friend Moon needs?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Colourism
Sexism
Hallucinations & delusions
Hospital
Brain tumour
Surgery
Death of a father
Bullying

To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters

To Have & to Hoax by Martha Waters

Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since.

Their once-passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached politeness. But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side—only to discover him alive and well at a tavern, and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.

Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses—and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought. Will the two be able to overcome four years of hurt or will they continue to deny the spark between them?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Toxic relationship
Minor descriptions of illness & injury

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

Can two broken boys find their perfect home?

Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.

But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism and ableist language
Child abuse
Physical and verbal abuse
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Suicidal ideation
Self-harm mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug use mentioned
Blood depiction
Physical injuries
Serious injury to a loved ones
Physical assault
Bullying
Homelessness
Incarceration of a parent