Physical Injuries & Illness – Page 4 – Trigger Warning Database

A Risk on Forever by N.S. Perkins

When Matthias Phillips imagined the new caretaker for his mother with ALS, the last thing he had in mind was a gorgeous twenty-something who didn’t look like she had a day of experience in the field. However, his mother has always been stubborn, and despite his objections, she’s insistent: it’s Adelaide Samson she wants him to hire. After losing her job, Adelaide needs a new gig to continue supporting her family, even if that means working for overprotective and rude Matthias. Once she earns his trust, though, she gets to see a whole other side of him—a funny, sweet… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Parent with depression
Chronic illness (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS))
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent recounted (on-page)

Under Wildwood by Colin Meloy

Ever since Prue McKeel returned home from the Impassable Wilderness after rescuing her brother from the malevolent Dowager Governess, life has been pretty dull. School holds no interest for her, and her new science teacher keeps getting on her case about her dismal test scores and daydreaming in class. Her mind is constantly returning to the verdant groves and sky-tall trees of Wildwood, where her friend Curtis still remains as a bandit-in-training. But all is not well in that world. Dark assassins with mysterious… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Child labor
Mentions of mutilation of children including loss of hands and vision

Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

Adriana Russo is figure skating royalty, born to gold-medalist parents and an equally talented sister. Adriana’s dream? To conquer the Junior World Championships and uphold the family legacy. But when the family’s legendary skating rink faces financial ruin, everything she’s worked for is at risk. Training with her new partner, Brayden, sparks an let the world believe their on-ice chemistry isn’t only for show. The fake-dating gains traction, and Adriana realizes maybe she actually is falling for Brayden. But then her past crashes into her present and changes everything… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Hospitalisation for sports injury
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent discussed

Audrey Under the Big Top by Jessica Gunderson

12-year-old Audrey wants nothing more than to be a performer & aerialist, but that feels far from reality in 1944 Connecticut. So when she learns the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is coming to town, Audrey is determined to be there under the big top. It’s her only chance to see the Flying Wallendas, a world-renowned highwire act, perform. Audrey convinces her mother to let her take her 6-year-old twin sisters with her to the show. But disaster strikes when a fire breaks out under the big top. Can Audrey escape–and find her siblings–before the tent comes crashing down?

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Hartford Circus Fire, including death from burning & burns (on-page)

Anya Flees the Fallout by Erin Falligant

In 1941, thirteen-year-old Alice’s days are filled with swimming in the Hawaiian sea, going to school, and helping watch her younger siblings. But on December 7, everything changes when she experiences an act of war, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As the United States enters World War II, Alice’s father is sent to a Japanese internment camp, leaving Alice and the rest of her family struggling to adjust to life without him.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Chernobyl tragedy (theme), including death from radiation poisoning
Mentions of abandoning pets during evacuations, which may be ‘put down’ (shot) by soldiers later

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him. So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Minor slut-shaming
Physical child abuse & neglect, including starvation, captivity, and forcing a child to write righthanded by tying up their left arm (on-page)
Protagonist with clubfoot
World War II (theme), including plane crashes and bombings (on-page)

Sarah Journeys West by Nikki Shannon Smith

n the midst of the California Gold Rush, twelve-year-old Sarah and her family are living in the North as free Black people. Seeking a better life, Sarah’s parents decide they will venture west on the Oregon Trail. On the trail, Sarah and her family face all kinds of hardship, including racism, extreme weather, difficult terrain, and disease. But the journey will be worth it if they can find fortune in California. Will Sarah and her family endure the trail and make a new life out west?

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Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical racism & slavery
Cholera epidemic

Stranded by Nikki Shannon Smith

Eleven-year-old Ava Adams is looking for something different. The tall Manhattan buildings around her feel like walls closing in. And what if she doesn’t fit in with her city-loving friends or busybody family who think Black folks “don’t do nature?” But in a twist of fate, Ava is shocked to learn that her parents are actually allowing her to stay with her Aunt Raven in the Adirondacks for the summer. In her Auntie’s simple cabin, living off the land with nature’s beauty filling her senses, the woods feel more like home than Manhattan. As Summer comes to a close and Aunt… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Physical injuries & illness, including fever from an infected tick bite
Animal death & hunting with a bow & arrow mentioned (coyote, rabbit, dogs, on- & off-page)
Snowstorm & lightning strike, resulting in property damage

Each and Every Spark by Claire Swinarski

Paris, present day. Penny Marks has never felt so alone. Forced to move to France for some fancy job her mom couldn’t turn down, she’s now miles away from her old life. If she hadn’t quit art after all that drama went down last year, she’d at least have something to keep her mind off the fact that life back home is moving on without her. Paris, 1943. Marie Bonnet has never felt so afraid. When the German army seized power over France, she and her sister Heloise watched their father get taken away, leaving them on their own. Then Marie finds evidence that Heloise has secret… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Protagonist with memory loss
Sibling with long-term illness leading to hearing loss
Death of a mother recounted
World War I (theme), including period-typical food scarcity

Hail Mariam by Huda Al-Marashi

Iraqi American Mariam Hassan transfers to a local Catholic school and before her first day her parents remind her that she might be the first Muslim her classmates have ever met. No big deal, right? Just represent an entire religion while making new friends, keeping up with schoolwork, and figuring out who she is. When Mariam’s younger sister, Salma, is diagnosed with a serious lung condition, her family faces endless doctor visits and sleepless nights. Mariam tries to lighten their burden and keep her own problems to herself—including the fact that she’s just… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sibling hospitalised for cancer treatment
Minor blood depiction