Tag Archives: Torture

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

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

Every Winter, the human population hibernates. During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, and devoid of human activity. Well, not quite. Your name is Charlie Worthing and it’s your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cannibalism
  • Loss of limb
  • Medical experimentation
  • Murder
  • Torture

Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

Civilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. But Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back. Yet with the first winter, Ruthie retreats into silence. Flesh-eating Beaters still dominate the land. And Smoke, Cass’s lover and strength, departs on a quest for vengeance that can end only in disaster. Now the leader of the survivalist community where Cass has planted roots needs Cass’s help. Dor wants to recover his own lost daughter, taken by the Rebuilders. Soon Cass finds herself thrust into the dark heart of an organization… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Gang rape mentioned
  • Attempted rape
  • Torture

Tiger’s Quest by Colleen Houck

Tiger’s Quest by Colleen Houck

Back in Oregon, Kelsey tries to pick up the pieces of her life and push aside her feelings for Ren. Kelsey Hayes’s eighteenth summer was crazy. The kind of crazy nobody would ever believe. Aside From battling immortal sea monkeys and trekking the jungles of India, she fell in love with Ren, a 300-year-old prince. When danger suddenly forces Kelsey on another Indian quest, with Ren’s bad-boy brother, Kishan, the unlikely duo begins to question their true destiny. Ren’s life hangs in the balance–so does the truth within Kelsey’s heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood & injury depiction including bloodletting and broken bones
  • Gun, knife & arrow violence
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal attack

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint. One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers. But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics. What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Familial disownment
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Death of a spouse mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Imprisonment
  • Blackmail
  • Earthquake
  • Colonialism

The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton

The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton

With a price on her head, the evil Queen Sophia out for blood, and no idea who to trust, Camellia Beaureguard, the former favourite Belle, must race against time to find the ailing Princess Charlotte, who has disappeared without a trace. Sophia’s imperial forces will stop at nothing to keep Camille, her sister Edel, and her loyal guard, Rémy, from returning Charlotte to the palace and her rightful place as queen. With the help of an underground resistance movement called the Iron Ladies–a society that rejects beauty treatments entirely-and the backing of alternative… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Suicide
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

If the night sky holds many secrets, it holds Sheetal Mistry’s secret the closest. A secret that explains why her hair is the silver of starlight, or why some nights the stars call Sheetal by name. Stars like her mother, who returned to her place in the constellation Pushya years ago. Since that day, Sheetal has been forced to hide. But as her seventeenth birthday draws near, the pull from the sky is growing stronger. So strong that Sheetal loses control, and a flare of starfire burns her human father—an injury only a full star’s blood can heal. Sheetal has no choice but to answer the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Kidnaping & Captivity
  • Torture

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Stephanie’s uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn’t fiction. Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source – the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of an uncle
  • Torture

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

If you find one, he’s already found you. A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery—a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago. A tragic coincidence—or something more twisted? To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the... Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anti-immigration rhetoric
  • Paedophilia & rape of a child
  • Child pornography
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Mutilation
  • Torture
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping & disappearance of a child
  • Stalking
  • Fire

The Goddess of Nothing At All by Cat Rector

The Goddess of Nothing At All by Cat Rector

Perhaps you know the myths. Furious, benevolent Gods. A tree that binds nine realms. A hammer stronger than any weapon. And someday, the end of everything. Furious, benevolent Gods. A tree that binds nine realms. A hammer stronger than any weapon. And someday, the end of everything. Looking back, it’s easy to know what choices I might have made differently. At least it feels that way. I might have given up on my title. Told my father he was useless, king of Gods or no, and left Asgard. Made a life somewhere else. Maybe I would never have let Loki cross my path. Never… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Coming out scene
  • Psychological, emotional, and verbal abuse
  • Rape mentioned
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Death of an infant & teenager mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Torture
  • Battle scenes
  • Animal death

Defend the Dawn by Brigid Kemmerer

Defend the Dawn by Brigid Kemmerer

To save their kingdom, they must embark on a dangerous journey… The kingdom of Kandala narrowly avoided catastrophe, but the embers of revolution still simmer. While King Harristan seeks a new way to lead, Tessa and Prince Corrick attempt to foster unity between rebels and royals. But the consuls who control the Moonflower will not back down, and Corrick realizes he must find a new source for the lifesaving Elixir. When an emissary from the neighbouring kingdom of Ostriary arrives with an intriguing offer, Tessa and Corrick set out on an uncertain journey as they attempt to mend their own fractured relationship. This… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Torture mentioned
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping