PTSD & Trauma – Page 27 – Trigger Warning Database

The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith

The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith

When he was four years old, Sam Abernathy was trapped at the bottom of a well for three days, where he was teased by a smart-aleck armadillo named Bartleby. Since then, his parents plan every move he makes.

But Sam doesn’t like their plans. He doesn’t want to go to MIT. And he doesn’t want to skip two grades, being stuck in the eighth grade as an eleven-year-old with James Jenkins, the boy he’s sure pushed him into the well in the first place. He wants to be a chef. And he’s going to start by entering the first annual Blue Creek Days Colonel Jenkins Macaroni and Cheese Cook-Off.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Claustrophobia

Tactical Submission by Ada Maria Soto

Tactical Submission by Ada Maria Soto

SWAT commander Jack Burnside is haunted by his craving to kneel before another man. Of all the things he hates about himself – his overtly masculine size and strength, his blue eyes, his insecurities – it is the need to submit that he fears will destroy him.

Doctor Isaac Bard is close to achieving his perfect life. He has a great job with the Coroner’s Office and an open marriage to a loving wife who understands his needs better than he does. The only thing he is missing is a handsome young man to dominate, spoil rotten, and love… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Murder
Gun violence
Domestic terrorism

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Recursion by Blake Crouch

That’s what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

That’s what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine it—and his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableist language
Gaslighting
Depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Alcohol consumption
Forced drug use
Alzheimers’ disease
Needles
Nonconsensual human experimentation, on-page
Forced & coerced sensory deprivation
Grief depiction
Death of a daughter, recounted
Death of a child
Torture, including psychological torture
Death by a fall, on-page
Captivity
Kidnapping
Atomic bomb
Animal medical testing

Trust by Kylie Scott

Trust by Kylie Scott

After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, seventeen-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.

While Edie’s beginning to run wild, however, John’s just starting to settle down. After years of partying and dealing drugs with his older brother, he’s going straight—getting to class on time, and thinking about the future… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fatmisia & body shaming
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Recreational drug use
Hostage situation recounted
Bullying

Lady of Shadows by Breanna Teintze

Lady of Shadows by Breanna Teintze

Outlaw wizard Corcoran Gray expected death to be final, but life, and his loved ones, had other plans. A year after being resurrected and flung into a new body, he’s still trying to come to terms with his situation – and his self – when the all-powerful Mages’ Guild demands his help to stop a deadly plague.

He’s inclined to refuse the organisation that still wants him dead, until his partner Brix starts showing symptoms – to save her, Gray will do anything, even if it means working with his greatest enemies.

But it quickly becomes clear that this is no normal plague. The situation is more complicated, and more lethal, than anyone has realised. Ancient dangers are stirring, and thousands of lives are at stake . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Slavery recounted
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Nightmares
Plague
Graphic dead body
Blood & gore depiction
Physical injury & illness
Emesis
Paralysis
Murder
Mass murder recounted
Explosion
Hanging mentioned
Imprisonment

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Slut shaming
Sexual assault (on-page)
Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Cheating
Eating disorder recounted
Post traumatic disorder implied
Memory loss
Suicide
Self harm*
Recreational drug use
Prescription drug abuse
Nonconsensual drugging
Overdose
Alcohol consumption
Physical injuries
Emesis
Coma
Hospital
Cancer
Death of a friend
Death of a boyfriend
Mass murder
Knife violence & stabbing
Kidnapping & captivity
Poverty themes
Homelessness & displacement

*Note: Faked self harm wounds.

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.

Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Nightmares
Suicide
Drug addiction
Overdose
Blood & gore depiction
Physical injuries
Death of a friend
Murder
Kidnapping & captivity

Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

Adaquate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden book cover

Each new school year brings familiar challenges to Brae Hill Valley, a struggling high school in one the biggest cities in Texas. But the teachers also face plenty of personal challenges and this year, they may finally spill over into the classroom.

English teacher Lena Wright, a spoken-word poet, can never seem to truly connect with her students. Hernan D. Hernandez is confident in front of his biology classes, but tongue-tied around the woman he most wants to impress. Down the hall, math teacher Maybelline Galang focuses on the numbers as she struggles to parent her daughter, while Coach Ray hustles his troubled football team toward another winning season. Recording it all is idealistic second-year history teacher Kaytee Mahoney, whose anonymous blog gains new readers by the day as it drifts ever further from her in-class reality. And this year, a new superintendent is determined to leave his own mark on the school—even if that means shutting the whole place down.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny and sexism
Classim
Racism & racial slurs
Slut-shaming
Body-shaming
Victim blaming
Child sexual assault
Statutory rape
Adult-minor relationship
Verbal abuse
Workplace harassment
Estrangement
Anxiety attacks
Depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Alcohol consumption
Abortion
Physical injuries
Poverty themes
White supremacy
Blackmail

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Eight years have passed since the young Princess Bitterblue, and her country, were saved from the vicious King Leck. Now Bitterblue is the queen of Monsea, and her land is at peace.

But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisers, who have run the country on her behalf since Leck’s death, believe in a forward-thinking plan: to pardon all of those who committed terrible acts during Leck’s reign; and to forget every dark event that ever happened. Monsea’s past has become shrouded in mystery, and it’s only when Bitterblue begins sneaking out of her castle – curious, disguised and alone – to walk the streets of her own city, that she begins to realise the truth. Her kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year long spell of a madman, and now their only chance to move forward is to revisit the past.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape
Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Child abuse
Domestic abuse
Suicide & suicidal ideation
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Physical injuries
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Torture

Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Jersey Cameron has always loved a good storm. Watching the clouds roll in and the wind pick up. Smelling the electricity in the air. Dancing barefoot in the rain. She lives in the Midwest, after all, where the weather is sure to keep you guessing. Jersey knows what to do when the tornado sirens sound. But she never could have prepared for this.

When her town is devastated by a tornado, Jersey loses everything. As she struggles to overcome her grief, she’s sent to live with relatives she hardly knows-family who might as well be strangers. In an unfamiliar place, can Jersey discover that even on the darkest of days, there are some things no tornado can destroy?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abandonment
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Panic attacks
Alcoholism mentioned
Death of a sibling
Death of a parent
Tornado, central theme