Sexual Assault – Page 107 – Trigger Warning Database

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Homomisia
Misogyny
Rape and rape of a child mentioned*
Self-harm (cutting) for ritual
Blood & gore depiction, and physical injuries
Graphic murder (on-page)
Torture

*Discussed in more detail on-page roughly around pages 277-278 in the UK edition.

The Program by Suzanne Young

The Program by Suzanne Young

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Depression
Sexual assault
Suicide (theme)
Self-harm

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

In the ancient river kingdom, where touch is a battlefield and bodies the instruments of war, Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood. The same women who killed her mother without a single scratch.

But when Mia’s father announces an alliance with the royal family, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Determined to forge her own path forward, Mia plots a daring escape, but could never predict the greatest betrayal of all: her own body. Mia possesses the very magic she has sworn to destroy.

Now, as she untangles the secrets of her past, Mia must learn to trust her heart…even if it kills her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny (central theme)
Homomisia, coming out themes and hate crimes
Rape (mostly recounted, one graphic on-page scene) and sexual assault
Forced non-consensual arranged marriage
Physical abuse
Suicide and suicidal ideation (mentioned)
Blood and gore depiction, including dead bodies
Grief and loss depiction
Death of mother & wife recounted
Death of a father & husband recounted
Emesis
Graphic physical injuries and illness
Torture (secondary character, off-page)
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning
Imprisonment
War themes
Graphic animal death, animal bodies, and hunting
Mind control discussed

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Classism
Ableist language
Fatmisia
Slavery (mentioned)
Kiss without consent
Blood and gore depiction, dead bodies and physical injuries
Death of a friend and parents (recounted)
Murder and attempted murder
Kidnapping, hostage situation and blackmail
War themes
Graphic animal death

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Classism
Victim blaming
Facial difference discrimination
Persecution for witchcraft (mentioned)
Rape and sexual assault (recounted)
Parental abandonment (implied)
Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Suicide attempt as self-sacrifice (recounted)
Alcohol consumption
Blood and gore depiction, dead bodies, eyeball trauma and branding
Physical sickness and scars
Death of a brother, son, girlfriend and friend (recounted)
Murder and attempted murder
Explosion, knife violence, physical assault and poisoning
Captivity, blackmail, hostage situation, exile and banishment
War themes
Animal death and bodies (recounted), hunting

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her–freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse
Death from childbirth
Death of an infant and parent
Murder
Explosion

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now . . .

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Queermisia
Misogyny (central theme)
Slavery
Racism and anti-semitism
Rape, sexual assault and non-consensual polygamy
Domestic abuse
Depression and suicide
Forced pregnancy and miscarriage
Death of a child
Murder

He Must Like You by Danielle Younge-Ullman

He Must Like You by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Libby’s having a rough senior year. Her older brother absconded with his college money and is bartending on a Greek island. Her dad just told her she’s got to pay for college herself, and he’s evicting her when she graduates so he can Airbnb her room. A drunken hook-up with her coworker Kyle has left her upset and confused. So when Perry Ackerman, serial harasser and the most handsy customer at The Goat where she waitresses, pushes her over the edge, she can hardly be blamed for dumping a pitcher of sangria on his head.

Unfortunately, Perry is a local industry hero, the restaurant’s most important customer, and Libby’s mom’s boss. Now Libby has to navigate the fallout of her outburst, find an apartment, and deal with her increasing rage at the guys who’ve screwed up her life–and her increasing crush on the one guy who truly gets her. As timely as it is timeless, He Must Like You is a story about consent, rage, and revenge, and the potential we all have to be better people.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Victim-blaming
Rape and sexual assault
Workplace sexual harassment
Depression & PTSD
Cyberbullying

Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Then. Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music.

Now. Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She’s fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her.

Then. When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia’s singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered.

Now. Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can’t figure out why she’s here . . . and why the music really stopped.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Sexual assault
Depression
Suicide
Bullying

Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer

Witches of Ash & Ruin by E. Latimer

Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.

And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. The killer’s motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, and Dayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. If they don’t stop the Butcher, one of them will be next.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia & forced outing recounted (off-page)
Conversion therapy mentioned
Physical & emotional abuse mentioned
Rape mentioned
Self-harm
OCD
Panic attacks