Tag Archives: Slavery & Indentured Servitude

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of slavery and indentured servitude.

See also Racism.

Fear by KA Merikan

Fear by K.A. Merikan

London, 1907, twenty years into the zombie plague. Reuben is a baker living in the slums of London, sharing a room with his father and an extended family of cockroaches. Poor, uneducated, and repressing all his sexual desires, he leads a life of misery, only sometimes sprinkled with gin and a rough tumble in a filthy back alley. But when he is abducted into Bylondon to be the slave of a wealthy crime family member named Erik Dal, his values are put to the test. His new master is obsessed with all things equestrian, and Reuben soon learns that if he obeys and performs well… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Kidnapping
  • Poverty

Iron and Fire by Ariana Nash and Pippa DaCosta

Iron & Fire by Ariana Nash & Pippa DaCosta

From his mother’s cage to a human one, Lysander’s captors are the least of his concerns. Rumours of a monstrous bronze dragon ripple through human camps, a dragon tearing great holes in the world as though searching for something… or someone. It’s just a matter of time before the bronze chief, Dokul, finds Lysander and makes good on his promises. And should he find him, Lysander knows Dokul will not be merciful. Amidst the greatest of elven victories, Eroan failed. Failed his people, failed himself, and failed the dragon who saved him. But he will not falter. The dragonkin are in disarray, there will never be a greater opportunity… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Rape, on-page
  • Incest
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Torture

Silk and Steel by Ariana Nash and Pippa DaCosta

Silk & Steel by Ariana Nash & Pippa DaCosta

Eroan, one of the last elven assassins, lives for one purpose: kill the queen. He would have succeeded if not for her last line of defense: Prince Lysander. Now, captured and forced into the queen’s harem, Eroan sees another opportunity. Why kill just the queen when he can kill them all? It would be simple, if not for the troubled and alluring prince. A warrior, a killer, and something else…, something Eroan finds himself inexplicably drawn to. Trapped in a life he despises, Lysander knows his time is running out… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Slavery
  • Rape, on-page
  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Incest
  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drugging
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Imprisonment

The Prince’s Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner

The Prince’s Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner

Soren is a nameless, stateless man, tasked with keeping watch over Maricol’s borders. He isn’t meant for politics, only dealing with the dead. His past was buried in the poison fields, but after a fateful encounter with a prince, Soren comes to realize he can’t keep what magic burns inside him hidden forever. Vanya Sa’Liandel was the spare who survived the Houses’ murderous games to become the Imperial crown prince of Solaria. He has a duty to his country, but he’ll owe his life to the wardens. Payment of any kind is costly, especially when he’s at risk of losing his heart to the man who… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Infidelity
  • Death from childbirth
  • Involuntary medical experimentation
  • Torture
  • Arson

Activation Degradation by Marina Lostetter

Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter

When Unit Four—a biological soft robot built and stored high above the Jovian atmosphere—is activated for the first time, it’s in crisis mode. Aliens are attacking the Helium-3 mine it was created to oversee, and now its sole purpose is to defend Earth’s largest energy resource from the invaders in ship-to-ship combat. But something’s wrong. Unit Four doesn’t feel quite right. There are files in its databanks it can’t account for, unusual chemical combinations roaring through its pipes, and the primers it possesses on the aliens are suspiciously sparse. The robot is under… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Panic attack, on-page
  • Drugging
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Murder mentioned
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Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England’s first African Sorcerer Royal. And that’s only the first of his problems. He must juggle the conflicting demands of a wayward Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, where a faction schemes to remove him from his position by fair means or foul. He must cope with the Fairy Court refusing to grant Britain the magical resources it needs. And now the British Government is avid to deploy this increasingly scare magic in its war with France. He must also contend with rumours that he murdered his predecessor and guardian… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Colourism
  • Misogyny
  • Classism
  • Slavery & indentured servitude
  • Hallucinations mentioned
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Burns
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a husband
  • Death of a father
  • Murder discussed
  • Fire
  • Death by drowning recounted
  • War & colonialism themes
  • Workplace bullying
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The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king, the sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha, and the sworn enemy of Julius Caesar. When Fallon was a child, Caesar’s armies invaded her homeland, and her beloved sister was killed in battle. Now, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is eager to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in the fearsome Cantii war band. She never gets the chance. Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Child neglect
  • Attempted rape & sexual assault
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a baby brother from fever mentioned
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Murder
  • Sword violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Colonialism & military violence
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Witchmark by CL Polk

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family’s interest or to be committed to a witches’ asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans’ hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witch… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Homophobia
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Dissociation & depersonalisation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Medical experimentation
  • Cancer
  • Death of a spouse
  • Poisoning
  • Strangulation
  • Torture
  • War themes

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly. Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism & ableism
  • Slavery
  • Forced sex work
  • Suicide
  • Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation
  • Murder of a father
  • Physical assault & kidnapping

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water. There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Graphic animal death & cruelty