Tag Archives: Torture

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

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

It’s 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, friends, and a bright future in Communist China. But it’s also the year that China’s leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li’s world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. When Ji-li’s father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life..

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Depression
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Torture
  • Home invasion
  • Bullying

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

What if you could live forever—but without your one true love? Reincarnation Blues is the story of a man who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times, in search of the secret to immortality so that he can be with his beloved, the incarnation of Death. Neil Gaiman meets Kurt Vonnegut in this darkly whimsical, hilariously profound, and wildly imaginative comedy of the secrets of life and love. Transporting us from ancient India to outer space to Renaissance Italy to the present day, is a journey through time, space, and the human heart.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Slavery
  • Graphic rape
  • Sexual assault of a child
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Torture
  • Animal death

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted
  • Suicide discussed
  • Drug abuse
  • Drugging mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Torture mentioned
  • Murder
  • Loss of autonomy (demonic possession)
  • Blackmail
  • Graphic animal death (rabbit)
  • Animal cruelty

A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole

After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he’s waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him. Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents—until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae—and their notorious dark desires—ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & dubious consent (on-page)
  • Murder (on-page)
  • Torture recounted
  • Kidnapping & captivity (on-page)

Mafia King by CD Reiss

Mafia King by C.D. Reiss

Santino is my king. My lover. My husband. He’s the head of the Cavallo crime family and the moment he choked my vows from me, my life was bound to his. I’m done fighting my fate, until I hear two rumours, and I’m shaken to the core. One rumor about the past—that I wasn’t the first bride Santino took. Another about the future—a new bride is about to be taken. Changing the old ways is like dousing the flames of hell with tears. But I married the devil himself, and when I vowed to obey, I lied.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Smoking
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Organised crime (mafia)
  • Kidnapping

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Amidst the whir of city life, a girl from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear amongst its most dangerous denizens. But the ghosts from her past are always by her side—and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she loves most. Can one woman ever sacrifice enough to save an entire community?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
  • Lynching

A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St Clair

A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair

Persephone and Hades are engaged. In retaliation, Demeter summons a snowstorm that cripples New Greece and refuses to lift the blizzard unless her daughter calls off her engagement. When the Olympians intervene, Persephone finds her future in the hands of ancient gods, and they are divided. Do they allow Persephone to marry Hades and go to war with Demeter, or prohibit their union and take up arms against the God of the Dead? Nothign is certain but the promise of war.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Torture

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

To the outside world, they look like American royalty, giving to charities, feeding the homeless, and rebuilding the city. But behind closed doors is a constant battle for dominance between two bosses, cultures, and hearts. Ruthless People is a romantic crime fiction set in modern day Chicago and follows the life and marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan – rivals by blood and leaders through fear. Theirs is an arranged marriage with the goal of ending years of bloodshed between the Irish and the Italians. Liam assumes he’s getting a simple-minded wife, one he can… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Arranged marriage
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Neglect & abandonment
  • Nyctophobia
  • Substance addiction
  • Drugging
  • Miscarriage
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Needles mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Plane crash

Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson

Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson

Thirteen-year-old Annabella Ballinkay has never been normal, even by her psychic family’s standards. Every generation uses their abilities to help run the Ravenfall Inn, a sprawling, magical B&B at the crossroads of the human world and the Otherworld. But it’s hard to contribute when your only power is foreseeing death. So when fourteen-year-old Colin Pierce arrives at Ravenfall searching for his missing older brother and the supernatural creature who killed their parents, Anna jumps at the chance to help. But the mysteries tied to Colin go much deeper than either of.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Absent parent
  • Near-miscarriage mentioned
  • Blood and injury depiction
  • Murder of a mother and father (seen through visions, protagonist discovered his dead parents’ bodies)
  • Death of a mother in a hospital mentioned
  • Torture mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Animal death including the on-page death of a pet cat (resurrected)

Human Acts by Han Kang

Human Acts by Han Kang

In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho’s own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Torture