Scars – Trigger Warning Database

Dreamfall by Amy Plum

Dreamfall by Amy Plum

Cata Cordova suffers from such debilitating insomnia that she agreed to take part in an experimental new procedure. She thought things couldn’t get any worse…but she was terribly wrong.

Soon after the experiment begins, there’s a malfunction with the lab equipment, and Cata and six other teen patients are plunged into a shared dreamworld with no memory of how they got there. Even worse, they come to the chilling realization that they are trapped in a place where their worst nightmares have come to life. Hunted by creatures from their darkest imaginations and tormented by secrets they’d rather keep buried, Cata and the others will be forced to band together to face their biggest fears. And if they can’t find a way to defeat their dreams, they will never wake up.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Mental health stigmatization
Child abuse
Domestic violence
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Depression
Narcolepsy
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Eating disorders
Psychosis
Suicidal tendencies
Self sacrifice
Sleep disorders, specifically chronic insomnia
Nightmares
Medical experimentation
Coma
Scars
Gore depiction
Genocide
War themes

The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard

The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard

Lord Nathaniel Harte, the disagreeable Duke of Beswick, spends his days smashing porcelain, antagonizing his servants, and snarling at anyone who gets too close. With a ruined face like his, it’s hard to like much about the world. Especially smart-mouthed harpies—with lips better suited to kissing than speaking—who brave his castle with indecent proposals.

But Lady Astrid Everleigh will stop at nothing to see her younger sister safe from a notorious scoundrel, even if it means offering herself up on a silver platter to the forbidding Beast of Beswick himself. And by offer, she means what no highborn lady of sound and sensible mind would ever dream of—a tender of marriage with her as his bride.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut-shaming
Child abuse recounted
Facial & body scarring
Death of a parent recounted
Military service in the Napoleonic War recounted

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Classism
Colourism
Racism
Mass rape
Gang rape
Sexual assault
Forced marriage
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Sterilization
Medical experimentation
Scars
Dead bodies
Death of a classmate or colleague
Decapitation and dismemberment
Knife violence
Graphic mass murder
Graphic murder
Physical assault
Torture
Trauma
Captivity and confinement
Military violence
War themes
Explosions
Fire and arson
Flooding
Bullying and hazing

The Revenant by Michael Punke

The Revenant by Michael Punke

The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke

Rocky Mountains, 1823. The trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is one of the most respected men in the company, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker.But when a scouting mission puts Glass face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two men from the company are ordered to remain with him until his inevitable death. But, fearing an imminent attack, they abandon Glass, stripping him of his prized rifle and hatchet.

As Glass watches the men flee, he is driven to survive by one all-consuming desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, he sets out on a three-thousand-mile journey across the harsh American frontier, to seek revenge on the men who betrayed him.

The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny and sexism
Racism and racial slurs
Sex worker shaming and slurs
Abuse, neglect and abandonment
Alcohol consumption
Blood and gore depiction
Body horror
Dead bodies and body parts
Decapitation
Physical injury and wounds
Medical treatment, including surgery
Death of a friend
Murder
Knife violence
Gun violence
Scars
Imprisonment and captivity
Starvation and dehydration depiction
Blizzard
Animal death
Hunting
Colonialism themes

King’s Captive by Amber Bardan

King’s Captive by Amber A. Bardan

Some people would think being stuck on a private island is heaven, but this is my hell. Because I’m not here as a guest. Not even close. I’m a prisoner. I’m his. Julius King. Powerful. Wealthy. Dangerous.

There are parts of me he wants that I can’t give him. When he looks at me, there are times I swear he sees someone else. And the scary part is that sometimes, when he touches me, I think he may be someone else, too.

Though my body might be tempted, and he might control everything else, I can’t let him have any piece of my heart. I won’t. But every day, the fight gets harder, and Julius manages to slip past my defenses in the most unexpected ways. I have to find out the truth about Julius King. Even if it destroys me.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Amnesia
Physical injury, including brain injury & gunshot wounds
Hospitalisation
Scar & burn scars
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a spouse, perceived
Death of a father from gun violence
Death of a mother in a car accident mentioned
Murder & attempted murder
Kidnapping

All in by Simona Ahrnstedt

All in by Simona Ahrnstedt

In the cutthroat world of Sweden’s financial elite, no one knows that better than corporate raider David Hammar. Ruthless. Notorious. Unstoppable. He’s out to hijack the ultimate prize: Investum. After years of planning, all the players are in place; he needs just one member of the aristocratic owning family on his side Natalia De la Grip.
Elegant, brilliant, driven, Natalia is curious about David s unexpected invitation to lunch. Everyone knows that he is rich, dangerous, and unethical. But she soon discovers he is also deeply scarred.

The attraction between these two is impossible, but the long Swedish nights unfold an affair that will bring to light shocking secrets, and force both Natalia and David to confront their innermost fears and desires.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist slurs
Racism & racial slurs
Antiziganism
Classism
Slut shaming
Intimate partner abuse
Emotional parent abuse
Alcohol consumption
Scars
Bullying & hazing recounted
Animal abuse mentioned

Reverie by Ryan La Sala

Reverie by Ryan La Sala

All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember how he got there, what happened after, and why his life seems so different now. And it’s not just Kane who’s different, the world feels off, reality itself seems different.

As Kane pieces together clues, three almost-strangers claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere—the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery—Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident. And when a sinister force threatens to alter reality for good, they will have to do everything they can to stop it before it unravels everything they know.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Amnesia
Emesis mentioned
Scars
Near-drowning incident mentioned
Car accident mentioned
Bullying

Jackdaw Summer by David Almond

Jackdaw Summer by David Almond

Also known as Raven Summer.

Daisy, Esther, and Susan’s last year at university is getting a bumpy start, with everything strange after Ed’s declaration of love followed by grievous injury, Daisy with nowhere to live, and McGraw and Susan at odds over their new flat!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating mentioned
Self harm
Alcohol consumption
Burn scars
Death of a child recounted
Murder & attempted murder
Knife violence & stabbing
House fire recounted
Animal death

Call Me Evie by JP Pomare

Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare

For the past two weeks, seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet has lived against her will in an isolated cabin in a remote beach town–brought there by a mysterious man named Bill. Part captor, part benefactor, Bill calls her Evie and tells her he’s hiding her to protect her. That she did something terrible one night back home in Melbourne–something so unspeakable that he had no choice but to take her away. The trouble is, Kate can’t remember the night in question.

The fragments of Kate’s shattered memories of her old life seem happy: good friends, a big house in the suburbs, a devoted boyfriend. Bill says he’ll help her fill in the blanks–but his story isn’t adding up. And as she tries to reconcile the girl she thought she’d been with the devastating consequences Bill claims she’s responsible for, Kate will unearth secrets about herself and those closest to her that could change everything.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Revenge porn
Physical child abuse
Panic attack
Self harm
Nonconsensual drugging
Burn scars
Death of a mother by suicide recounted
Murder
Cyberbullying

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

Martha can tell things about a person just by touching their clothes, as if their emotions and memories have been absorbed into the material. It started the day she fell from the tree at her grandma’s cabin and became blind in one eye.

Determined to understand her strange ability, Martha sets off to visit her grandmother, Mormor – only to discover Mormor is dead, a peculiar boy is in her cabin and a terrifying creature is on the loose. Then the spinning wheel starts creaking, books move around and terror creeps in . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Disfigurmisia & internalised disfigurmisia
Cheating
Child abuse mentioned
Parent with alcoholism mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Dead bodies
Hospitalisation recounted
Eyeball trauma & loss of vision (theme)
Scars
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father in a car accident recounted
Death of a grandmother
Murder
Gun violence
Hanging mentioned
Homelessness