Police Brutality & Violence – Page 18 – Trigger Warning Database

The Silence of Bones by June Hur

The Silence of Bones by June Hur

Homesick and orphaned sixteen-year-old Seol is living out the ancient curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Indentured to the police bureau, she’s been tasked with assisting a well-respected young inspector with the investigation into the politically charged murder of a noblewoman.

As they delve deeper into the dead woman’s secrets, Seol forms an unlikely bond of friendship with the inspector. But her loyalty is tested when he becomes the prime suspect, and Seol may be the only one capable of discovering what truly happened on the night of the murder. But in a land where silence and obedience are valued above all else, curiosity can be deadly.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Religious persecution & hate crimes (central theme)
Misogyny & gendered slurs
Slut-shaming
Ableist language
Indentured servitude
Sexual assault (unwanted touching) mentioned (chp 9)
Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation recounted and discussed (multiple times)
Suicide from a fall mentioned (chp 1)
Suicide from hanging mentioned (chp 16)
Alcohol consumption mentioned
Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
Death of a baby and infanticide recounted
Graphic blood & gore depiction
Graphic dead bodies and autopsy scene
Graphic physical injuries, illness & wound descriptions
Needles
Nonconsensual branding and resulting scars recounted
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a brother (on-page)
Death of a father recounted
Death of a mother recounted
Death of a sister recounted
Death from starvation & exposure to the cold mentioned
Murder & attempted murder
Regicide (off-page)
Torture (one on-page scene, otherwise discussed or recounted)
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Whipping mentioned (chp 3)
Police brutality and violence
Drowning mentioned & near-drowning incident
Animal attack (chp 2)
Animal injuries mentioned (chp 9)
Animal death, hunting, & animal butchering mentioned
Poverty themes

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racial slurs
Ableism & ableist slurs (r slur)
Classism
Conversion therapy
Graphic domestic & parental abuse
Slavery and forced labour
Graphic rape & prison rape
Paedophilia & child sexual assault
Incest
Alcoholism & substance addiction
PTSD
Depression
Suicide & self-harm
Miscarriage & infertility themes
Blood & gore depiction
Graphic physical injuries
Starvation
Nonconsensual psychiatric hospitalisation
Death of a parent
Death of a sibling
Death of an infant
Police brutality & violence
Murder & executions, including the execution of a child
Death in police custody and in prison
Graphic animal abuse
Homelessness
Poverty themes

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Transmisia
Deadnaming & misgendering
Gender dysphoria
Coming out themes
Parental abandonment recounted
Disownment and child homelessness
Blood depiction & use of blood for magic and in rituals
Dead bodies
Serious injury of a loved one
Hospital (brief scene)
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father & mother recounted
Disappearance of a loved one
Murder & attempted murder
Knife violence & stabbing
Gun violence recounted
Police racial discrimination mentioned
Car accident mentioned
Smoking & alcohol consumption mentioned
Animal blood used for magic and in rituals

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom. But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Emotional & physical child abuse
Infidelity mentioned
Anxiety & panic attack (on-page, protagonist)
Depersonalisation & derealization
Hallucinations
Self-harm & self-harm ideation
Alcohol consumption
Emesis
Blood depiction
Grief & loss depiction (theme)
Death of a father & sister recounted
Death of a mother (on-page)
Murder & attempted murder and regicide
Police brutality
Whipping mentioned
Knife violence & stabbing
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Fire recounted
Colonialism themes, including refugee experiences, riots & stampede
Animal cruelty & death, including animal sacrifice

All of Us With Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil

Seventeen-year-old Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past: the mother who abandoned her, the man who betrayed her. Then one day, she meets Pallas, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives with her rock-star family in one of the city’s storybook Victorians. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas’s live-in governess and quickly finds her place in their household, which is relaxed and happy despite the band’s larger-than-life fame. But on the night of the Vernal Equinox, as a concert afterparty rages in the house below, Xochi and Pallas accidentally… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & sexism
Rape recounted & sexual assault
Adult-minor relationship*
Child sex trafficking, implied
Child abuse & neglect
Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use

*Context: The protagonist is a seventeen-year-old girl whose love interest is her twenty-eight-year-old male employer.

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds

A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galuzzi, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement? .But there were witnesses: Quinn Collins.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism & racial profiling
Police brutality (police shooting)
Gun violence

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy—that he thinks he might be gay. “You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay too, do you?” But when Sandy goes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs (theme)
Racism & racial slurs
Hate crimes mentioned
Coming out themes
Child abuse
Domestic abuse mentioned
Parental abandonment
Recreational drug use mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a brother from a heart attack (theme)
Police brutality mentioned
Animal death, on-page