Tag Archives: Racism

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of racism.

See also White supremacy, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and Antiziganism.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Slavery mentioned
  • Attempted incest mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Depressive episode
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drugging
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Car accident

Turning by Joy L. Smith

Genie used to fouetté across the stage. Now the only thing she’s turning are the wheels to her wheelchair. Genie was the star pupil at her exclusive New York dance school, with a bright future and endless possibilities before her. Now that the future she’s spent years building toward has been snatched away, she can’t stand to be reminded of it—even if it means isolating herself from her best friends and her mother. The only wish this Genie has is to be left alone.

But then she meets Kyle, who also has a “used to be.” Kyle used to tumble and flip on a gymnastics mat, but a traumatic brain injury has sent him to the same physical therapist that Genie sees… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & internalised ableism
  • Racism
  • Queermisia
  • Domestic abuse
  • Drug use
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Abortion
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Car accident recounted
  • Blackmail

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn

Evie Tanaka is the put-upon personal assistant to Aveda Jupiter, her childhood best friend and San Francisco’s most beloved superheroine. She’s great at her job—blending into the background, handling her boss’s epic diva tantrums, and getting demon blood out of leather pants.
Unfortunately, she’s not nearly as together when it comes to running her own life, standing up for herself, or raising her tempestuous teenage sister, Bea… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Parental abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Bullying

A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo

The most important thing is that Jess Wong is Angie Redmond’s best friend, even if Angie can’t see how she truly feels. It’s okay that Jess is the girl on the sidelines that nobody notices. That means she’s free to watch everyone else and be at Angie’s side. But when Angie starts falling for Margot, a girl from the nearby boarding school, Jess can already see what’s going to happen. As Angie drags Jess further into Margot’s circle, Jess finds more than her friend’s growing crush. Secrets lie just beneath the carefree surface of this world, and when they come out, Jess knows Angie won’t be able to handle the consequences… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Lesbomisia
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Statutory rape
  • Abusive relationship
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Bullying

Bite Me by Robyn Bachar

When an out-of-control spell triggers the zombie apocalypse, Lizzy Addams is left in the ruins of Chicago with only the unhinged commentary—and endless erotic appetites—of her inner demon for company. Her blood supply dwindling, Lizzy must find survivors to feed from, or die trying. Officer Angela Kinney was on duty when hungry corpses overwhelmed the city. Angie’s group of survivors look to her for leadership, but nothing prepared her for a beautiful monster who offers safety in exchange for blood. Sean MacMillan never expected to see Lizzy again after she rejected his attempts to lure her back to the vampire… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slur
  • Rape recounted & off-page
  • Child sexual abuse by a stepfather resulting in pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
  • Sex work mentioned
  • Emotional sibling abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction including body horror and blood-drinking
  • Physical injury & scar
  • Death of a mother from childbirth recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Stalking

Never a Hero by Vanessa Len

Despite all of the odds, Joan achieved the impossible. She reset the timeline, saved her family – and destroyed the hero, Nick. But her success has come at a terrible cost. She alone remembers what happened. Now, Aaron, her hard-won friend – and maybe more – is an enemy, trying to kill her. And Nick, the boy she loved, is a stranger who doesn’t even know her name. Only Joan remembers that there is a ruthless and dangerous enemy still out there. When a deadly attack forces Joan back into the monster world as a fugitive, she finds herself on the run with Nick as Aaron close… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Emotional parental abuse
  • Panic attack
  • Nightmare
  • Emesis
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent from a heart attack recounted
  • Execution of a parent recounted
  • Torture recounted
  • Attempted kidnapping
  • Imprisonment
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Poverty themes
  • Racism, specifically Nazis, mentioned
  • Prejudice against Indigenous peoples mentioned
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Suicidal ideations
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Substance abuse
  • Blood depiction
  • Cancer discussed
  • Grief depiction
  • Fire
  • Murder

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars–Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic–and they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Yet against all odds, they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds.

As they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Violent hate crimes
  • Child sexual abuse, including grooming & paedophilia
  • Domestic abuse, including emotional & physical
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol use
  • Drug use
  • Abortion
  • Murder
  • Animal death

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Hate crimes
  • Classism
  • Death of a parent
  • Child death
  • Physical assault
  • Animal cruelty

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism, including slurs & cultural appropriation
  • Classism
  • Colourism
  • Misogyny & sexism
  • Islamophobia
  • Violent hate crime
  • Slavery, including child labour
  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide discussed
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Feet binding discussed
  • Plague
  • Death of mother
  • Grief depiction
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
  • Genocide
  • Gun violence
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Colonization
  • War themes