Queerphobia – Page 73 – Trigger Warning Database

How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi

How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi

Eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi always knew coming out to his Muslim family would be messy–he just didn’t think it would end in an airport interrogation room. But when faced with a failed relationship, bullies, and blackmail, running away to Rome is his only option. Right?

Soon, late nights with new friends and dates in the Sistine Chapel start to feel like second nature… until his old life comes knocking on his door. Now, Amir has to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to a U.S. Customs officer, or risk losing his hard-won freedom.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racial profiling
Islamophobia
Homomisia
Coming out themes, including threatened outing
Blackmail

Traffick by Ellen Hopkins

Traffick by Ellen Hopkins

In Tricks, Ellen Hopkins introduced us to five characters tackling these enormous questions: Eden, the preacher’s daughter who turns tricks in Vegas and is helped into a child prostitution rescue; Seth, the gay farm boy disowned by his father who finds himself without money or resources other than his own body; Whitney, the privileged kid coaxed into the life by a pimp and whose dreams are ruined in a heroin haze; Ginger, who runs away from home with her girlfriend and is arrested for soliciting an undercover cop; and Cody, whose gambling habit forces him into the life, but who is shot and left for dead.

And now, in Traffick, these five are faced with the toughest question of all: Is there a way out?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Disownment
Sexual assault
Sex trafficking
Forced sex work
Substance addiction
Gambling addiction
Gun violence

The You I’ve Never Known by Ellen Hopkins

The You I’ve Never Known by Ellen Hopkins

For as long as she can remember, it’s been just Ariel and Dad. Ariel’s mom disappeared when she was a baby. Dad says home is wherever the two of them are, but Ariel is now seventeen and after years of new apartments, new schools, and new faces, all she wants is to put down some roots. Complicating things are Monica and Gabe, both of whom have stirred a different kind of desire.

Maya’s a teenager who’s run from an abusive mother right into the arms of an older man she thinks she can trust. But now she’s isolated with a baby on the way, and life’s getting more complicated than Maya ever could have imagined… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Queermisia
Racism
Physical & verbal child abuse
Emotional child abuse & gaslighting
Child neglect & abandonment
Death of a father
Kidnapping

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that fatal night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated.

Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life as a migrant worker on a California ranch. But is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language
Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Lesbomisia & lesbomisic slurs
Racism
Misogyny
Hate crimes discussed
Victim blaming
Slut shaming
Rape & attempted rape
Domestic abuse
Child abuse
Suicidal ideation
Pregnancy loss
Parent with alcoholism recounted
Alcohol consumption
Death of a father
Death of a boyfriend
Murder & attempted murder
Gun violence
Explosions & bombings
Animal death
Bullying

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist language (r slur)
Homomisia, internalised homomisia & homomisic slurs
Fatmisia & body shaming
Slut shaming
Rape
Domestic abuse recounted
Child abuse recounted
Attempted child sexual assault recounted
Depression
Attempted suicide
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Recreational drug abuse
AIDS & HIV
Bullying

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching … for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words “I love you” are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?”

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Child abuse & neglect
Rape
Sexual assault
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug abuse
Hospitalisation
Murder

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

It all started with a dream. Nothing exceptional, just a typical fantasy about a boy, the kind of dream that most teen girls experience. But Pattyn Von Stratten is not like most teen girls. Raised in a religious—yet abusive—family, a simple dream may not be exactly a sin, but it could be the first step toward hell and eternal damnation.

This dream is a first step for Pattyn. But is it to hell or to a better life? For the first time Pattyn starts asking questions. Questions seemingly without answers—about God, a woman’s role, sex, love—mostly love. What is it? Where is it? Will she ever experience it? Is she deserving of it? … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Disownment*
Physical child abuse
Domestic abuse & violence
Suicide
Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
Alcohol consumption
Miscarriage
Car accident
Animal death & hunting

*Note: The protagonist’s half-brother is disowned by their father after he comes out as gay.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act—suicide.

Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade. Tony, after suffering a painful childhood, can only find peace through pills. And Conner, outwardly, has the perfect life. But dig a little deeper and find a boy who is in constant battle with his parents, his life, himself.

In one instant each of these young people decided enough was enough. Now they have a second chance, and just maybe, with each other’s help, they can find their way to a better life—but only if they’re strong and can fight the demons that brought them here in the first place.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Queermisia
Sexual, emotional & physical abuse
Teacher-student relationship mentioned
Depression
Bipolar Disorder
Substance addiction
Suicide & attempted suicide (theme)
Self-harm
Abortion mentioned
Psychiatric hospitalisation
Murder

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

There are six things very wrong with my life:
1. I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years. 2. It is on my nose. 3. I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room.
4. In fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic teachers. 5. I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home. 6. I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fatmisia & body shaming
Slut-shaming
Homomisia
Adult-minor relationships*
Anxiety

*Context : Romanticised relationship between a 14-year-old girl and a thirty-year-old man.

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchinson

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchinson

When Agent Mercedes Ramirez finds an abused young boy on her porch, covered in blood and clutching a teddy bear, she has no idea that this is just the beginning. He tells her a chilling tale: an angel killed his parents and then brought him here so Mercedes could keep him safe.

His parents weren’t just murdered. It was a slaughter—a rage kill like no one on the Crimes Against Children team had seen before. But they’re going to see it again. An avenging angel is meting out savage justice, and she’s far from through… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Paedophilia
Rape
Sexual assault
Domestic abuse
Recreational drug use
Blood & gore depiction
Murder
Kidnapping