Police Brutality & Violence – Page 12 – Trigger Warning Database

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn’s happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father—Pikeville’s notorious defense attorney—devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night. Twenty-eight years later, Charlotte has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a lawyer herself—the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again, and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized, Charlotte is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism & racism
Misgendering
Graphic rape & paedophilia
Infidelity
Suicide mentioned
Miscarriage & late-term pregnancy loss
Police brutality
School shooting
Fire & arson
Bullying

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus is trying his best. He tries to be the best employee he can be at the local ice cream shop; the best boyfriend he can be to his amazing girlfriend, Talia; the best protector he can be over his little brother, Isaiah. But as much as Alex tries, he often comes up short.

It’s hard to for him to be present when every time he touches an object or person, Alex sees into its future. When he touches a scoop, he has a vision of him using it to scoop ice cream. When he touches his car, he sees it years from now, totaled and underwater. When he touches Talia, he sees them at the precipice of breaking up, and that terrifies him. Alex feels these visions are a curse, distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live an ordinary life.

And when Alex touches a photo that gives him a vision of his brother’s imminent death, everything changes.

With Alex now in a race against time, death, and circumstances, he and Isaiah must grapple with their past, their future, and what it means to be a young Black man in America in the present.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Self-harm
Depression
Anxiety
Death of a parent
Death of a sibling
Anti-black violence
Slavery
Inter-generational trauma
Poverty
Police brutality

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P Manansala

Arsenic & Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties. But when a notoriously nasty food critic ex-boyfriend drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fatmisia & body shaming
Racism
Domestic violence mentioned
Drug abuse
Police intimidation

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart

Iraya has spent her life in a cell, but every day brings her closer to freedom – and vengeance.

Jazmyne is the Queen’s daughter, but unlike her sister before her, she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother’s power.

Sworn enemies, these two witches enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat. But power is intoxicating, revenge is a bloody pursuit, and nothing is certain – except the lengths they will go to win this game.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Physical abuse
Rape mentioned
Blood & gore depiction
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Death of a sibling
Murder
Torture
Police brutality
Imprisonment
Stalking
Loss of autonomy (mind control)
Bullying

Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, surviving on the debris of its long-dead progenitors, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new, is Stefan Advani, rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Graphic blood & injury depiction including body horror and dead bodies
Death of a mother & father recounted
Death of a friend, on-page & recounted
Death of a girlfriend in a stampede recounted
Murder, mass murder & attempted murder, on-page
Tank accident
Physical assault, on-page
Gun violence, on-page
Shipwreck
Drowning discussed
Torture
Whipping mentioned
Knife violence & stabbing, on-page
Riots, on-page
Police brutality & violence, on-page
Fire & immolation
Graphic penal labour & inhumane imprisonment (theme)
Homelessness recounted
Animal death
Animal attack

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual assault
Abusive relationship
Cheating
Police brutality
Kidnapping & captivity

Intimations by Zadie Smith

Intimations by Zadie Smith

There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those—the year isn’t half-way done. What I’ve tried to do is organize some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed. These are above all personal essays: small by definition, short by necessity.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Hate crimes
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Pandemic (COVID-19)
Gun violence
Police brutality

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Misogyny
Homomisia
Transmisia & misgendering
Racism & racial slurs
Slavery
Graphic rape
Sexual assault mentioned
Child sexual abuse implied
Suicide & attempted suicide
Self harm
Abortion
Forced sterilization
Medical procedures, including graphic surgery & amputation
Needles
Death of a child
Death of a parent
Police brutality
Torture
Lynching
Fire
Captivity

Iron Cast by Destiny Soria

Iron Cast by Destiny Soria

In 1919, Ada Navarra—the intrepid daughter of immigrants—and Corinne Wells—a spunky, devil-may-care heiress—make an unlikely pair. But at the Cast Iron nightclub in Boston, anything and everything is possible. At night, on stage together, the two best friends, whose “afflicted” blood gives them the ability to create illusions through art, weave magic under the employ of Johnny Dervish, the club’s owner and a notorious gangster. By day, Ada and Corinne use these same skills to con the city’s elite in an attempt to keep the club afloat.

When a “job” goes awry and Ada is imprisoned, she realizes they’re on the precipice of danger. Only Corinne—her partner in crime—can break her out of Haversham Asylum. But once Ada is out, they face betrayal at every turn.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Murder
Torture
Police brutality
Imprisonment of a parent

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism mentioned
Slavery
Child neglect mentioned
Substance abuse mentioned
Eating disorder
Blood & gore depiction
Police brutality
Gun violence
Whipping