Queerphobia – Page 88 – Trigger Warning Database

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

No one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals. Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a “baby farmer.” Mrs. Sucksby’s household also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, they all will share in Maud’s vast inheritance. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to regret her decision.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual assault
Alcohol abuse
Blood depiction
Death of a parent
Murder & execution
Torture
Wrongful incarceration
Kidnapping
Animal cruelty
Bullying

Affinity by Sarah Waters

Affinity by Sarah Waters

An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by an apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Queermisia
Suicide & attempted suicide recounted
Incarceration discussed
Drowning implied
Recreational drug use

I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.

She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Queermisia & queermisic parents mentioned*
Coming out themes recounted & on-page*
Fat-shaming & body shaming (theme)
Disordered food & weight thoughts discussed, including forced dieting
Verbal & emotional parental abuse
Hospitalisation of a child due to malnutrition mentioned
Bullying
Cyberbullying & cyberharassment

*Context: The love interest comes out as bisexual to the main character and she comes out as bisexual to him. She is closeted from her family for the whole book. Her love interest recounts how his family bribed his ex-boyfriend to break up with him. Side f/f couple talk about being disowned and kicked out of their homes when they came out to their families.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.

Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antiziganism, including the g slur
Antisemitism recounted
Queermisia & transmisia
Persecution for witchcraft and witch trials
Death of grandparents recounted
Near-drowning incident, on-page
Nightmares
Attempted execution
Possession and exorcisms discussed
Blood depiction & minor body horror

All Eyes on Us by Kit Frick

All Eyes on Us by Kit Frick

The daughter of small town social climbers, Amanda Kelly is deeply invested in her boyfriend, real estate heir Carter Shaw. He’s kind, ambitious, the town golden boy—but he’s far from perfect. Because behind Amanda’s back, Carter is also dating Rosalie.

Rosalie Bell is fighting to remain true to herself and her girlfriend—while concealing her identity from her Christian fundamentalist parents. After years spent in and out of conversion “therapy,” her own safety is her top priority. But maintaining a fake, straight relationship is killing her from the inside… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Queermisia
Parental abuse
Emotional abuse & gaslighting
Conversion therapy
Religious bigotry (theme)
Cheating
Parental with alcoholism
Gun violence
Bullying

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Queerphobia & mentions of disownment from queerphobic parents
Transphobia, internalised transphobia, misgendering & deadnaming
Biphobia & internalised biphobia
Coming out themes
Racism & racist microaggressions
Parental abandonment
Emotional parental & domestic abuse mentioned
Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
Top surgery recounted & Hormone Replacement Therapy
Needles & injections (on-page)
Scars
Bullying
Cyberbullying, cyberharassment, catfishing & doxxing

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.” Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her–a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical misogyny & sexism
Period-typical queerphobia & internalised queerphobia
Attempted nonconsensual arranged marriage
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a friend recounted
Murder
Gun violence
Hanging recounted (off-page)