Police Brutality & Violence – Trigger Warning Database

The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

It’s 1942. German Nazis occupy much of France. And twelve-year-old Miriam, who is Jewish, is not safe. With help and quick thinking, Miri is saved from the roundup that takes her entire Jewish neighborhood. She escapes Paris, landing in a small French village, where the spires of the famous Chateau de Chenonceau rise high into the sky, its bridge across the River Cher like a promise, a fairy tale. But Miri’s life is no fairy tale. Her parents are gone – maybe alive, maybe not. Taken in at the boarding school near the chateau, pretending to be Catholic to escape Nazi capture, Miri is called upon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical antisemitism & Nazism (theme), including physical beatings and setting houses on fire as a hate crime
Infidelity mentioned
Blood depiction
Death of a husband discussed
Police brutality & violence (on-page)
World War II (theme) with mentions of concentration camps
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre discussed

Saint Iggy by K.L. Going

When Iggy Corso gets kicked out of high school, there’s no one for him to tell. His mother has gone off, his father is stoned on the couch, and the phone’s been disconnected, so even the social worker can’t get through. Leaving his public housing behind, Iggy ventures into the world to make something of his life. It’s not easy when you’re sixteen, have no skills, and your only friend is mixed up with the dealer who got your mom hooked. But Iggy is . . . Iggy, and he has the kind of wisdom that lets him see what no one else can.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment & neglect
Infidelity
Parent with substance addiction
Alcohol consumption and recreational drug use & abuse
Murder
Gun violence
Police brutality

Go Fetch by Shelly Laurenston

Conall Víga-Feilan, direct descendent of Viking shifters, never thought that he’d meet a female strong enough to be his mate. He especially didn’t think that a short, viper-tongued human would ever fit the bill. But Miki Kendrick isn’t some average human. With an IQ off the charts and a special skill with weapons of all kinds, Miki brings the big blond pooch to his knees—and keeps him there. Miki’s way too smart to ever believe in love, and she knows that a guy like Conall could only want one thing from her. But with the Pack’s enemie… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Attempted kidnapping
Police intimidation

Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino

Sam is very in touch with their own queer identity. They’re nonbinary, and their best friend, TJ, is nonbinary as well. Sam’s family is very cool with it… as long as Sam remembers that nonbinary kids are also required to clean their rooms, do their homework, and try not to antagonize their teachers too much. The teacher-respect thing is hard when it comes to Sam’s history class, because their teacher seems to believe that only Dead Straight Cis White Men are responsible for history. When Sam’s home borough of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Queerphobia & coming out themes
Racism
Police violence mentioned

Against a Wall by Cate C. Wells

My high school bully is now my fake boyfriend. Cash Wall has been messing with me since junior high. Nuisance stuff, mostly. Name calling. Pranks. Honestly, he’s nowhere near the worst of my problems. Back in school, I had bigger fish to fry, and now, I’ve got a “scarlet letter” situation going on. The whole town hates me. For some reason, Cash offers himself up as my knight in shining armor. So now my former bully is my fake boyfriend. What could possibly go wrong? Cash: Glenna Dobbs thinks I’m an idiot, and she’s mostly right. I hunt. Fish. Go mudding. I’m not a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia & body shaming
Workplace sexual harassment & dubious consent scenario
Cheating mentioned
Emotionally abusive relationships recounted
Anxiety & insomnia
Alcohol consumption and drug use, including vaping & cigar smoking
Physical injury (gunshot wound)
Emesis mentioned
Parent with agina
Death of a mother from a heart attack recounted
Death of a grandparent mentioned
Murder of an uncle
Physical assault
Police corruption
Hunting & death of a pet dog mentioned
Bullying

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquillity is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & ableism, including mentions of police brutality
Physical child abuse by alcoholic parent(secondary character)
Dieting mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Parental infertility mentioned (secondary character)
Physical injury & mentions of the COVID-19 pandemic
Death of a father from a heart attack mentioned (secondary character)
Death of a sister in a mountaineering accident recounted
Murder
Mugging with knife (secondary character)
Phyiscal assault
Incarceration for the murder of a stepfather in self-defence (secondary character)
Homelessness mentioned
Bushfires mentioned

The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due

Due’s second collection of stories includes offerings of horror, science fiction, and suspense—all genres she wields masterfully. From the mysterious, magical town of Gracetown to the aftermath of a pandemic to the reaches of the far future, Due’s stories all share a sense of dread and fear balanced with heart and hope. In some of these stories, the monster is racism itself; others address the monster within, each set against the supernatural or surreal. All are written with Due’s trademark attention to detail and deeply drawn characters.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism
Police brutality
Pandemic
Animal death

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighbourhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked. A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives—a space… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Rape mentioned
Substance addiction
Suicide mentioned
Drug use & abuse
Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies & emesis
Murder
Gun violence
Police brutality
Lynching mentioned
Kidnapping
Incarceration & prison riot

Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins

Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn’t know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family–by her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student–and delivered.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & police brutality
Graphic miscarriage & teen pregnancy
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Animal attack

The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood

It is 1995, and Anvar Faris is a restless, rebellious, and sharp-tongued boy doing his best to grow up in Karachi, Pakistan. As fundamentalists in the government become increasingly strident and the zealots next door start roaming the streets in gangs to help make Islam great again, his family decides, not quite unanimously, to start life over in California. The irony is not lost on Anvar that in America, his deeply devout mother and his model-Muslim brother are the ones who fit right in with the tightly knit and gossipy Desi community. Anvar wants more. At the same time, thousands… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Islamophobia
Rape
Domestic abuse
Animal death
Police violence (fatal shooting)