War Themes & Military Violence – Page 45

The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann

The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann

Pikey Thomas doesn’t know how or why he can see the changeling girl. But there she is. Not in the cold, muddy London neighborhood where Pikey lives. Instead, she’s walking through the trees and snow of the enchanted Old Country or, later, racing through an opulent hall. She’s pale and small, and she has branches growing out of her head. Her name is Henrietta Kettle.

Pikey’s vision, it turns out, is worth something. Worth something to Hettie’s brother—a brave adventurer named Bartholomew Kettle. Worth something to the nobleman who protects him. And Pikey is not above bartering—Pikey will do almost anything to escape his past; he’ll do almost anything for a life worth living… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Starvation mentioned
Eyeball trauma
Battle scenes

The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann

The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann

Don’t get yourself noticed and you won’t get yourself hanged. In the faery slums of Bath, Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie live by these words. Bartholomew and Hettie are changelings–Peculiars–and neither faeries nor humans want anything to do with them.

One day a mysterious lady in a plum-colored dress comes gliding down Old Crow Alley. Bartholomew watches her through his window. Who is she? What does she want? And when Bartholomew witnesses the lady whisking away, in a whirling ring of feathers, the boy who lives across the alley–Bartholomew forgets the rules and gets himself noticed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abuse mentioned

Sophia’s War by Avi

Sophia’s War by Avi

On the remote island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intIn 1776, young Sophia Calderwood witnesses the execution of Nathan Hale in New York City, which is newly occupied by the British army. Sophia is horrified by the event and resolves to do all she can to help the American cause. Recruited as a spy, she becomes a maid in the home of General Clinton, the supreme commander of the British forces in America. Through her work she becomes aware that someone in the American army might be switching sides, and she uncovers a plot that will grievously damage the Americans if it succeeds. But the identity of the would-be traitor is so shocking that no one believes her, and so Sophia decides to stop the treacherous plot herself, at great personal peril: She’s young, she’s a girl, and she’s running out of time. And if she fails, she’s facing an execution of her own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Physical injury
Hanging, on-page
Incarceration of a sibling
Gun violence
War themes (central)

The Dying Game by Åsa Avdic

The Dying Game by Åsa Avdic

On the remote island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees, and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment is to stage her own death and then observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure?

But as soon as Anna steps on to the island she realises something isn’t quite right. And then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Substance addiction
Murder
War themes

We Are All That’s Left by Carrie Arcos

We Are All That’s Left by Carrie Arcos

Zara and her mother, Nadja, have a strained relationship. Nadja just doesn’t understand Zara’s creative passion for, and self-expression through, photography. And Zara doesn’t know how to reach beyond their differences and connect to a closed-off mother who refuses to speak about her past in Bosnia. But when a bomb explodes as they’re shopping in their local farmers’ market in Rhode Island, Zara is left with PTSD–and her mother is left in a coma. Without the opportunity to get to know her mother, Zara is left with questions–not just about her mother, but about faith, religion, history, and her own path forward.

As Zara tries to sort through her confusion, she meets Joseph, whose grandmother is also in the hospital, and whose exploration of religion and philosophy offer comfort and insight into Zara’s own line of thinking.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Attempted rape
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
SMoking
Blood & physical injury depiction
Murder
Gun violence
Explosions
Physical assault
Bosnian War

A Horse Called Hero by Sam Angus

A Horse Called Hero by Sam Angus

It is 1940. As the Second World War escalates and London becomes a target for German bombs, Dodo and her horse-mad little brother Wolfie are evacuated to the country, away from everything they know. After weeks of homesick loneliness, they come across an orphaned foal. They name the horse Hero for surviving against the odds and together they raise him, train him, and learn to ride. Their days are suddenly full of life and excitement again, but the shadow of war looms over their peaceful existence, and soon Hero must live up to his name…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Alcohol consumption mentioned
Explosion
Fire
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a pet
Animal hunting and poaching
Animal dead body (horse) described
World War Two, including air raids & Wormhout Massacre

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island… Read more.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antisemitism & Nazism
Concentration camps
Genocide
Emesis
Death of a parent
Torture
War themes
Animal death

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antisemitism
Death of a parent
Death of a friend
Auschwitz & the Holocaust

Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh

Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh

The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. Never mind her cunning, which rivals that of her twin brother, Kenshin, or her skills as an accomplished alchemist. Since Mariko was not born a boy, her fate was sealed the moment she drew her first breath.

So, at just seventeen years old, Mariko is sent to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed, a man she did not choose, for the very first time. But the journey is cut short when Mariko’s convoy is viciously attacked by the Black Clan, a dangerous group of bandits who’ve been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace… Read more.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Alcohol consumption
Drugging
Seppuku*
Decapitation
Murder & attempted murder
Knife & sword violence
Poisoning
Fire
Battle scenes

* Note : Ritual samurai suicide.

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abuse
Sexual assault mentioned
Substance addiction
Recreational drug use & abuse
Blood & physical injury depiction
Hospital
Needles
Emesis
Death of a parent
Murder
Gun violence
Immolation
Torture
Vivisepulture (being buried alive)
Drowning mentioned
Kidnapping
War & rebellion themes, including child soldiers (themes)