Tag Archives: Physical Injuries & Illness

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell

Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Claudette was once the most glamorous and infamous woman in cinema before she staged her own disappearance and retreated to blissful seclusion in an Irish farmhouse. But the life Daniel and Claudette have so carefully constructed is about to be disrupted by an unexpected discovery about a woman Daniel lost touch with twenty years ago… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Infidelity
  • Divorce
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Alcoholism
  • Infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Abortion (discussed, on-page)
  • Death of an ex-partner from anorexia
  • Death of a grandfather from a brain haemorrhage mentioned
  • Murder of a daughter by gun violence during a robbery (off-page)

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation for surgery complications

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart–the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Infertility & loss of pregnancy
  • COVID-19 pandemic including death from COVID (theme)

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who’s never met a party she couldn’t host or a charge she couldn’t lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion. But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abeism
  • Racism & colourism
  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Secondary character with cancer
  • Hospitalisation of a son for a seizure & concussion
  • Death of a parent from cervical cancer recounted (off-page)
  • Incarceration of a spouse for embezzlement

Keeping 13 by Chloe Walsh

Following a devastating injury that has left him sidelined and stripped of his beloved number 13 jersey, Johnny Kavanagh is struggling to hold onto his dreams. Lost, insecure, and desperately seeking comfort, he sets his sights on unravelling the mystery of the girl with the midnight-blue eyes, who haunts his every waking hour. Keeping secrets has never been a problem for Shannon Lynch. The life she was born into demands nothing less. She knows that demons and evil men don’t just exist in fairytales. They exist in her world, too. Traumatized beyond repair after her return from Dublin, and desperate to protect her little brothers… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect by a parent with alcoholism (on-page)
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Substance addiction (secondary character)
  • Unplanned teen pregnancy & miscarriage mentioned
  • Physical injury & illness and hospitalisation for surgery recounted
  • Murder by arson
  • Attempted murder by knife
  • Drowning
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)

Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

They are from opposites sides of the track – but when their two worlds collide, nothing will ever be the same again. Johnny Kavanagh has everything going for him. On the rugby pitch, he’s a force to be reckoned with. Primed for stardom, he’s heading straight for the top. Nothing can possibly get in his way, right? Not even the shy new girl at Tommen College. The one with the sad eyes and hidden bruises. The one that distracts him like no one ever has. Life has never been easy for Shannon Lynch. Bullied and tortured, she arrives at Tommen College mid-way through the school year.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect by a parent with alcoholism (on-page)
  • Foster care system experiences recounted
  • Sexual assault of a minor (side character, off-page)
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Teen pregnancy & miscarriage mentioned
  • Hospitalisation for surgery
  • Physical injury & illness including cyclic vomiting syndrome (on-page)
  • Physical assault
  • Graphic bullying (on-page)

Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt

Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school’s basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do? Everything starts falling apart when Jack’s mom is arrested for their family’s ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family’s chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something’s not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro: rival casino owner and jilted lover. Gross. Jack hatches a plan to find out what Carlevaro’s holding over his… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & abandonment
  • Infidelity recounted (side character)
  • Alcohol consumption & gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Incarceration of a parent

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book – Sortes Fortunae , the Book of Fortunes – with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother. Years ago, when the villagers whispered their deepest desires to the book, its pages revealed how to obtain them. All was well until someone used the book for an evil purpo… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse & parental abandonment
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Murder
  • Poisoning

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Minor physical injury (a child’s hand is crushed in a door)
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Child homelessness (theme)

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

Lesson #1: Trust no one. Eve has a good life. She wakes up each day, kisses her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except… Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. Addie can’t be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that’s what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Teacher-student relationship & grooming
  • Statutory rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Blood & injury including concussion
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder by strangulation