I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

It’s the summer before senior year for best friends Tolly Driver and Amber Dennison. They’re not in the marching band, they’re not in the FFA – they don’t really count. Amber’s the only Native student in town, and Tolly’s only on the radar due to his father’s recent death. This is all about to change. Bodies are going to be dropping fast in this small West Texas town. For a few unbearably hot days that will resonate through the decades and even get made into a TV movie, Tolly and Amber will be famous. Notorious even. Finally, everyone will know their names.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Emesis & allergic reacction
  • Murder & torture
  • Car accident
  • Stalking
  • Bullying
  • Animal death & cruelty

Twisted Kingdom by Rina Kent

The truth screws you over before it sets you free. Masks drop. Secrets unravel. Elsa’s race after the past blinds her from the present. I’ll fight for her. I’ll bring her back. I’ll protect her even if it’s the last thing I do. We made a promise. She’s mine. Are you ready for one final game, sweetheart?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent in a coma from a gunshot wound
  • Torture & whipping
  • Kidnapping & captivity

Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent

I’m a golden boy. A genius law student, the heir to the Carson empire, and the dutiful son. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like from the outside. Deep inside, I have the urge to set the world on fire. I keep these impulses in check, rarely indulging in mayhem. Until one night of debauchery backfires, and I’m caught by a villain. I bury the entire ordeal with the rest of my skeletons. That is, until that night walks into my classroom in the form of my new professor. Kayden Lockwood. A criminal who’s teaching criminal law. I can’t expose what he’s done without unmasking my secret life. What I can do, however, is force him to taste the poison… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (protagonist) including dubious consent scenarios, consensual non-consent (cnc), mentions of the protagonist’s wife being gang-raped and murdered, and mentions of the rape of the protagonist’s high school girlfriend by her father
  • Intimate partner abuse including one partner shooting the other with an arrow (twice)
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Self-harm
  • Drugging
  • Murder of a wife recounted
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping

Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she’s just inherited — to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement — Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead. Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family’s property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can’t really live, either. Not while he’s bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There’s only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-injury
  • Suicide by cutting throat
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Minor body horror
  • Torture recounted
  • Physical assault (fistfights) & stabbing
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Choking
  • Cult
  • Fire & arson
  • Animal death (chicken)

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her 18th birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers. The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to: Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse. Try not to fall in love.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, racism, sexism & classism
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Blood & injury depiction including body horror
  • Forced institutionalization
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire

Moth to a Flame by Eva Marks

I never lose control. Just one moment of happiness might bring forth the evil that taints my blood. So, I stick to satisfying other people’s fantasies with my kink dating app. That’s how I found her. Regan Everglow is sweet. Deserving of all the beauty this life has to offer.
But she’s known darkness, too. Her control was stolen from her years ago. Now, she’s ready to take it back.
And I’m going to help. I wish I could say my intentions were pure. But they’re not. Truth is, I’m obsessed with her. I’d stalk her to the ends of the earth. Because she draws out the beast I keep locked inside… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent from suicide
  • Murder & torture

Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles

Five years ago, I nearly lost everything. But there was a glimmer of hope on that darkest night. There was him—a stranger I could never forget. Now, I’m finally getting the fresh start I’ve longed for. But when I show up to interview for a nanny position in the small mountain town, the single dad has startlingly familiar blue eyes. Eyes that have haunted my dreams for the past five years. Lawson Hartley is everything I know I can’t have. Older, handsome, and my boss. Not to mention the shadows in his eyes that tell me he has demons, too. Still, he seems to understand me better than anyone I’ve ever met. So gentle and careful of my… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & harassment
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder & panic attacks (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping, captivity & torture (on-page & recounted)

The Iron Flower by Laurie Forest

Elloren Gardner and her friends were only seeking to right a few wrongs, but their actions have propelled them straight into the ranks of the realm-wide Resistance against Gardnerian encroachment. As the Resistance struggles against the harsh rulings of High Priest Marcus Vogel and the Mage Council, Elloren begins to realize that none of the people she cares about will be safe if Gardneria seizes control of the Western Realm. With tensions heating up in Verpacia, more and more Gardnerian soldiers continue to descend upon the university…led by none other than Lukas Grey, now commander of the…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Genocide & battle scenes

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by Eric LaRocca

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship
  • Elder abuse
  • Incest
  • Cheating
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Death of a parent & spouse
  • Murder & torture
  • Kidnapping

You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood. You’ve lost a lot of blood . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Paedophilia mentioned
  • Body horror (theme)
  • Desecration of a corpse
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child & parent
  • Murder & torture