Terminal Illness – Trigger Warning Database

Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler

East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who happens to have the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS. So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she’ll see him again. There’s no way Mark wouldn’t give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment – and increasingly, her concern – Mark doesn’t appear. Renata has other problems, too. There’s something strange happening in her advertisements for paranormal ‘exte… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a best friend from AIDS (theme)

Tear Me Apart by J.T. Ellison

Competitive skier Mindy Wright is a superstar in the making until a spectacular downhill crash threatens not just her racing career but her life. During surgery, doctors discover she’s suffering from a severe form of leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope. But when her parents are tested, a frightening truth emerges. Mindy is not their daughter. Who knows the answers? The race to save Mindy’s life means unraveling years of lies. Was she accidentally switched at birth or is there something more sinister at play? The search for the truth will tear a family apart… and someone is going to deadly extremes to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Self-harm & suicide
Miscarriage
Physical injury sustained during a skiing accident
Cancer (leukemia, protagonist)

Pole Position by Rebecca J. Caffery

Kian Walker has always been the golden boy of motor sport. The four-time Championship winner has racing in his DNA – his father was a legend on the track, just don’t let him catch you comparing the two. As reckless and unreliable at home as he was behind the wheel, there’s nothing Kian wants less than to be just like his dad. Enter Harper James. This year’s rookie called up to compete with the big boys – and Kian’s new teammate. Cocky, hot-headed and with a reputation for breaking as many hearts as he does new track records, Harper’s the opposite of Kian in every way. But. when… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental abandonment & foster care system experiences recounted
Anxiety & panic attacks (protagonist, on-page)
Parent with Parkinson’s Disease
Death of a parent

Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer

Can you love someone to death? Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others claim she’s obsessed and can’t stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter’s expense. Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, doctors intervene and immediately suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioural disorder where the primary caretaker, typically the mother, seeks… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity
Domestic violence & child abuse
Alcohol consumption
Hospitalisation for medical treatment
Child with a terminal illness

AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler

After her brother’s death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school–especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family’s own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers. Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Hospitalisation mentioned
Death of a brother from a congenital heart defect
School shooting massacre (aftermath, theme)

Wrecked by Lauren Asher

Jax. Pills. Alcohol. Adrenaline. I’m addicted to destructive decisions that numb my pain. Until one night when I make a catastrophic mistake. To repair my broken reputation, my team hires Elena. An overpaid babysitter set on ruining my plans. She’s my damnation disguised as my salvation. And my newest addiction. Elena. I begged the universe to save me from my financial disaster. It answered my call with a Formula 1 team desperate for a PR miracle. One season. One job. One broody British racer. Except that Jax turns our hotel room into a battleground. To beat… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism mentioned
Drug & alcohol abuse
Alcoholism & substance addiction
Anxiety & panic attacks and nightmares
Relative with Huntington’s Disease & Alzheimer’s Disease
Emesis
Murder

The Broken Mirror by Melissa de la Cruz

The Never After crew is back for another twisted adventure. This time, they’re off to Snow Country―that is, after they rescue the beleaguered Lord Sharif of Nottingham from the evil Robin Hood, who has been plaguing the land with his thievery and mischief. But Robin’s antics aren’t the only dangers afoot in the Kingdom of Never After. At the behest of her daughter, the evil Cinderella, Queen Olga has turned Prince Charming into a Frog after his wedding to the beautiful Hortense. And how could we forget the ominous Prophecy, which still looms large over… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Physical injury (on-page)
Parent with life-threatening illness
Murder
Sword & weapon violence

Rally by Devney Perry

Pregnant. Homeless. Broke. Not what I’d expected for my senior year in college. Neither was Rush Ramsey. We met the day I went camping and got stranded on the side of a gravel road. I didn’t believe in white knights who freed damsels in distress. Life had taught me that if something bad could happen, it probably would. The only person who would save me was me. But Rush Ramsey rescued me that day. He was sweet and kind and charming. He made a dark, starry night a little less lonely. I should have realized it was too good to be true. That an incredible night of passion would… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parent with terminal illness
Unplanned pregnancy

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England. Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison. As Susan begins to read the manuscript’s opening chapters, the skeptical editor… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Domestic violence mentioned
Alcoholism & substance addiction
Suicide mentioned
Terminal illness
Knife violence
Animal injury

Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Sixteen-year-old Iris itches constantly for the strike of a match. But when she’s caught setting one too many fires, she’s whisked away to London before she can get arrested—at least that’s the story her mother tells. Mounting debt actually drove them out of LA, and it’s greed that brings them to a home Iris doesn’t recognize, where her millionaire father—a man she’s never met—lives. Though not for much longer. Iris’s father is dying, and her mother is determined to claim his life’s fortune, including his priceless art collection. Forced to live with him as part of an exploitive scheme, Iris soon realizes her father is far different… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Attempted rape (on-page)
Pyromania & fire (theme, protagonist)
Parent with terminal ilness