PTSD & Trauma – Trigger Warning Database

Lock & West by Alexander C. Eberhart

Lock is awkward. He can’t make eye contact, counts when he’s nervous and has to remind himself several times a day how ‘normal’ teens behave. Homeschooled most of his life, he’s resigned himself to a friendless existence at his new Atlanta high school. Until he meets West. List Of Reasons Why My Life Is A Mess: How Much Time Do You Have? West has everything. Looks. Talent. Money. And secrets… so many secrets. Beneath the surface of West’s perfect existence is a pain he’s buried so deep a million therapists couldn’t unearth it and he’s determined to keep it that way. He’s an… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia
Attempted rape & sexual assault
Child abuse
Anxiety
Eating disorder & purging
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Attempted suicide

The Rebel Girls of Rome by Jordyn Taylor

NOW: Grieving the loss of her mother, college student Lilah is hoping to reconnect with her ever-distant grandfather who refuses to talk about his past. When a fellow student in Italy brings a long-lost family heirloom to her attention, Lilah travels to Rome with her grandfather in the hopes of unlocking his history as a survivor of the Holocaust once and for all. But as they get closer to the truth—and the possibility of healing through new connections—she begins to realize that some secrets may be too painful to unbury… THEN: It’s 1943, and nineteen-year-old Bruna and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical antisemitism & Nazism
Intergenerational trauma & survivor’s guilt
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother
World War Two & the Holocaust (on-page)

A Deeper Darkness by J.T. Ellison

As a medical examiner, Samantha Owens knows her job is to make a certain sense of death with crisp methodology and precision instruments. But the day the Tennessee floods took her husband and children, the light vanished from Sam’s life. She has been pulled into a suffocating grief no amount of workaholic ardor can penetrate;until she receives a peculiar call from Washington, D.C. On the other end of the line is an old boyfriend’s mother, asking Sam to do a second autopsy on her son. Eddie Donovan is officially the victim of a vicious carjacking, but under Sam’s sharp eye the forensics tell a darker story. The ex-Rang… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Death of a husband & children by drowning
Murder

Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

Because her mom is always on the move, Steph hasn’t lived anyplace longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNet—a social media site where users upload cat pictures—a place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesn’t know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I. When a threat from Steph’s past catches up to her and ChesireCat’s existence is discovered by outsiders, it’s up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Domestic abuse & parental neglect
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Torture
Kidnapping
House fire

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

In Edinburgh, a secret war rages between humans and fae, and the magic in Aileana Kameron’s blood is all that keeps the most lethal monsters imprisoned beneath the city. But when the creatures she once pursued now hunt her, Aileana has no choice but to ally with Kiaran MacKay – the beautiful fae assassin with his own agenda. The chemistry between them is as incendiary as the battles raging through the streets. And as the body count climbs, Aileana faces a choice: how much is she willing to sacrifice to save her city? Her friends? Herself? Because the fae won’t stop until… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical misogyny & classism
Parental neglect
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Alcohol consumption
Blood & gore depiction
Near-fatal bout of pneumonia recounted
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother recounted (detailed)
Death of a wife
Murder & physical assault
Sword violence & stabbing
Loss of autonomy (compulsion magic)
Battle scenes

Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens

Alexi Littrell hasn’t told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does. When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in “the Kool-Aid Kid,” who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from rape (theme)
Self-harm (protagonist, on-page)

Faith and the Dead End Devils by Kathryn Moon

Faith Robins has been torn away from her brother, kept captive by an omega trafficking ring, and auctioned to the highest bidder. But when fate twists a new key in her lock, she finds herself in the care of an alpha named Bear, safe for the first time in ages. She’s lost in this new world, surrounded by strange men, but she has claws now. And she’s prepared to dig them in and hold onto safety, no matter the cost. The Dead End Devils aren’t a pack. They aren’t Boy Scouts. And if their prez, King, has his way, they’re getting rid of this… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexual assault & sexual harassment (off-page)
Foster care system experiences discussed
Flashbacks & panic attacks
Drugging recounted
Murder
Gun violence
Captivity (off-page)

The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

An AI overseer and a human crew arrive on a distant planet to salvage an ancient UN starship. The overseer is unhappy. The crew, well, they’re certainly no A-team. Not even a C-team on the best of days. And worse? Urmahon Beta, the planet, is at the ass-end of nowhere. Everybody expects this to be a long, ugly, and thankless job. Then it all goes disastrously wrong. What they thought was an uninhabited backwater turns out to be anything but empty. Megafauna roam the land, a rival crew with some terrifyingly high-powered gear haunts the dig site, and a secret that will… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Indentured servitude
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Body horror
Medical experimentation
Animal death & hunting

The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Emily Proudman has been offered the chance of a lifetime – leave her messy London life, move to a beautiful estate in France and help her boss’s wife take care of their daughter. It seems like the perfect opportunity to start again. But once there, Emily soon starts to suspect that her charismatic new employers aren’t telling her the whole truth. That there are even dangerous secrets hidden beneath the glamorous facade. Why have the family been moved to this isolated house so far from home? Why does her boss’s daughter refuse to speak or be touched?… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Foster care experiences mentioned
Child abuse, including one slap scene, faking a child’s chronic illness, and forcing them to live in isolation (etc.)
Discussions of childhood trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD)
Parent with dementia
Panic attacks
Self-harm (on-page)
Suicide by jumping (on-page)
Alcohol consumption & abuse and implied drug abuse
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a daughter recounted
Minor blood & injury depiction and emesis
Attempted murder by gun violence
Kidnapping and captivity of a child
Stalking
Financial difficulties discussed

Some Kind of Famous by Ava Wilder

It’s been a decade since Merritt Valentine’s peak as a celebrated singer-songwriter… and her subsequent career-ending mental breakdown. Since then, she’s abandoned the glitz of Los Angeles to move in with her sister, Olivia, in the sleepy Colorado ski town of Crested Peak, hoping to heal her lingering emotional wounds of the spotlight. Life in Crested Peak would be uncomplicated if not for Merritt’s inconvenient crush on the local contractor and handyman, Nikolaos Petrakis. Niko is disarmingly handsome and too kind-hearted to ever be right for the complex and prickly… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slut-shaming & mentions of homophobia (secondary characters)
Minor fatphobia & mention of weight gain
Parental abandonment & familial estrangement
Statutory rape recounted (protagonist was 14-years-old and her sibling’s brother was ~roughly~ 19-years-old)
Workplace sexual harassment of a teen mentioned
Divorce & infidelity recounted (the protagonist’s ex-husband cheated on her, and she cheated in previous relationships)
Panic attacks recounted
Dissociation, Borderline Personality Disorder & Complex PTSD (protqagonist)
Protagonist in recovery for substance and alcohol addictions after an attempted suicide by overdose in the past, including on-page & recounted drug use & abuse and alcohol consumption & abuse
Unplanned teen pregnancy recounted & mentions of a pregnant secondary character
Emesis
Death of a father mentioned
Animal death mentioned (pet cat)