Tag Archives: War Themes & Military Violence

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of war themes & military violence, including political coups, battle scenes, and other related topics.

See also Genocide, Rebellion, revolution & mutiny, Military service & deployment, Conscription, Chemical gassing & warfare, and Police brutality & violence.

We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim

After her sister Lasya’s sudden death, Kajal vows to do whatever it takes to bring her back. No cost is too great, even if it means preventing Lasya’s soul from joining the cycle of reincarnation. But as Kajal prepares for the resurrection, her sister’s trapped soul warps into a bhuta—a violent, wraith-like spirit hell-bent on murdering those who wronged it in life. With each kill, the bhuta becomes stronger and fiercer, and Kajal’s chances of resurrecting Lasya with her soul intact grow slimmer. Blamed for Lasya’s rampage and condemned as a witch, Kajal is locked away with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death & resurrection of a sister (theme)
  • Death of parents
  • Murder, knife violence & torture
  • War themes

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Kipling’s epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Two men – Kim, a boy growing into early manhood, and the lama, an old ascetic priest – are fired by a quest. Kim is white, although born in India. While he wants to play the Great Game of imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama and he tries to reconcile these opposing strands. A celebration of their friendship in an often hostile environment, Kim captures the opulence of India’s exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood depiction
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • War themes

Grim and Oro by Alex Aster

This premium, dual-sided volume includes two complete novellas bound together to create one can’t-miss collector’s item. The first novella—told from Grim’s perspective—gives readers insight into his past: the motivations and events that cemented his fate as Isla’s eventual love interest. The second is narrated by Oro and offers a window into his complex identity: that of a king torn between desire for justice and passion for the woman he loves more than anything.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-injury for magic
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction and emesis
  • Torture of a child (on-page)
  • Poisoning (date rape drug)
  • Weapon violence & battle scenes

Crowntide by Alex Aster

Isla Crown has charted a new destiny and leapt into the unknown, determined to defeat her insidious ancestor, Lark, no matter the cost. But Skyshade is nothing like she anticipated, and she’ll have to use all of her skills just to survive, let alone end Lark for good. Meanwhile, Grim and Oro would sooner set fire to their own kingdoms than leave Isla stranded on a path toward certain death. But getting her back will involve forging an alliance―if they can find a way to forgive their long history of betrayals. The key to Isla’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & injury depiction and emesis
  • Murder by stabbing & torture
  • Knife, sword & weapon violence
  • War themes & battle scenes

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight. The power of the deathless waters flows through Priya’s blood. Now a thrice born priestess and an Elder of Ahiranya, she dreams of seeing her country rid of the rot that plagues it: both Parijatdvipa’s poisonous rule, and the blooming sickness that is spread… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & sexism
  • Suicide (self-immolation & self-sacrifice)
  • Self-injury
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder, physical assault & torture (off-page)
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping of a child
  • Drowning
  • Loss of autonomy (godly possession)
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal death (horse)

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen

In an age of miracles where our greatest heroes from history have magically, unexplainably returned to shake us out of our confusion and hate, Harriet Tubman is back, and she has a lot to say. Harriet Tubman and four of the enslaved persons she led to freedom want to tell their story in a unique way. Harriet wants to create a hip-hop album and live show about her life, and she needs a songwriter to help her. She calls upon Darnell, a once successful hip-hop producer who was topping the charts before being outed on a BET talk show. Darnell has no idea what to expect when he steps… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & slavery discussed
  • Outing & homophobia recounted
  • Smoking
  • Death of a friend from cancer mentioned
  • Kidnapping of a child
  • American Civil War mentioned

The Duke by Anna Cowan

Kate, Duke of Howard, is known throughout Europe as a merciless autocrat not to be crossed. Consumed by a bitter rivalry, she avoids society and has vowed never to trap a woman into marriage with a monster like herself. The beautiful, ambitious courtesan Celine Genet once threw herself on the mercy of the visiting Duke of Howard. She was desperate to escape the guillotine. But after a night of searing passion, the duke left her to the ravages of Revolutionary Paris and didn’t look back. Now Celine is in London and in possession of a dangerous letter that proves the Duke… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misgendering & sex worker-shaming
  • Sexual assault (unwanted kiss)
  • Nightmare
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of relatives in a fire
  • Death of an ex-partner in the French Revolution
  • Physical assault
  • Blackmail

The Rebel Girls of Rome by Jordyn Taylor

NOW: Grieving the loss of her mother, college student Lilah is hoping to reconnect with her ever-distant grandfather who refuses to talk about his past. When a fellow student in Italy brings a long-lost family heirloom to her attention, Lilah travels to Rome with her grandfather in the hopes of unlocking his history as a survivor of the Holocaust once and for all. But as they get closer to the truth—and the possibility of healing through new connections—she begins to realize that some secrets may be too painful to unbury… THEN: It’s 1943, and nineteen-year-old Bruna and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & Nazism
  • Intergenerational trauma & survivor’s guilt
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • World War Two & the Holocaust (on-page)

Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with. Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Improper BDSM practice recounted (not respecting safe words)
  • Intimate partner violence (on-page, protagonist slaps her love interest)
  • Parental infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Alochol consumption
  • Physical injury, including temporary loss of vision and gunshot wounds
  • Murder of a father by a mother mentioned (protagonist)
  • Attempted murder & physical assailt
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & stalking
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (memory manipulation, angelic possession with the intent to impregnate another)
  • Battle scene

Ashes of Gold by J. Elle

Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the East Row break themselves out. But reuniting with her friends is only half the battle. When she finds them again, Rue makes a vow: she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit—with half a foot back in Houston and half a heart… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self-harm for ritual
  • Blood depiction
  • Poisoning
  • Torture
  • Battle scenes with physical assault & stabbings