Tag Archives: Torture

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of torture, including psychological torture and non-consensual sensory deprivation.

He Is Mine by K.A. Merikan

A wedding should be a joyful affair, but it is far from that for Seth Villani. Thrust into an arranged marriage, back under the same roof with serpents and wolves who are his family, Seth has to watch his back if he is to survive until the despised event. Though with his love affair with Domenico Acerbi slipping out of his grasp, and his father forcing blood on his hands, sometimes Seth wishes the dark waves of the sea nearby could swallow him whole. Coming back home to Italy is full of bitterness and regret for Domenico. He knows he will have to see Seth, the first man who’s… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape & sexual assault of a teenager
  • Torture mentioned

He Is Poison by K.A. Merikan

Domenico Acerbi. The Villani Family’s best assassin. Ruthless. Vicious. With no patience for weakness. Seth Villani. The Don’s son. Clueless. Stubborn. In dire need of someone to keep him in line. Domenico Acerbi grew up ready to give his life for the Family. Ready to follow orders and exceed expectations. A proud man of honor. The last thing he wants to deal with is training the Don’s son for his future role within the organization. Lazy, annoying, spoiled, and as hot as a Sicilian summer, Seth Villani is no mafia material. But a man who could never become a threat might just be what Domenico needs. Seth Villani wants… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia & misogyny

Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh

With wings of midnight and an affinity for shadows, Jason courts darkness. But now, with the Archangel Neha’s consort lying murdered in the jewel-studded palace that was his prison and her rage threatening cataclysmic devastation, Jason steps into the light, knowing he must unearth the murderer before it is too late. Earning Neha’s trust comes at a price—Jason must tie himself to her bloodline through the Princess Mahiya, a woman with secrets so dangerous, she trusts no one. Least of all an enemy spymaster… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Graphic injury & gore depiction
  • Murder & torture
  • Imprisonment

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it? Let’s get started. Everyone in my family has killed someone. My brother. My stepsister. My wife. My father. My mother. My sister… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use (on-page)
  • Graphic physical injury & emesis
  • Death of a child recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Torture (off-page)
  • Kidnapping
  • Incarceration recounted (secondary character)

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming from relatives
  • Gang rape recounted
  • Paraplegia due to a motorcycle accident
  • Depression & suicidal ideation including discussions of a planned suicide and death by physician-assisted suicide
  • Alcohol consumption

On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel

Arcade and Daffodil are twins born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for escape, they form an unbreakable bond nurtured by their grandmother’s stories. Together, they disappear into their imaginations and forge a world all their own. But what the two sisters can’t escape are the generational ghosts that haunt their family. Growing up in the shadow of their rural Ohio town, the sisters cling tightly to one another. Years later, Arcade wrestles with the memories of her early life, just as a local woman is discovered drowned in the river. Soon, more bodies are found. As her… Read More.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sex work
  • Graphic drug use
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder & torture
  • Animal cruelty

The Last Girl To Die by Helen Sarah Fields

In search of a new life, sixteen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque. Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before. The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Sexual assault
  • Murder & torture
  • Animal death (off-page)

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position. What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical misogyny, antisemitism & religious bigotry
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including body horror and emesis
  • Torture indcuding waterboarding
  • Imprisonment
  • Fire
  • Animal cruelty & death (squirrel)

After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones

This collection of fifteen stories taps into the horrors and fears of the supernatural as well as the everyday. Included are two original stories, several rarities and out of print tales, as well as a few “best of the year” inclusions. Stephen Graham Jones is a master storyteller. What does happen after the people lights have gone off? Crack the spine and find out.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & homophobic slurs
  • Blood & gore depiction and body horror
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Fire

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at their front door. Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way. Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims. Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including loss of limb
  • Hospitalisation
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Animal death (pet mouse)