War Themes & Military Violence – Page 59

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Misogyny
Adult-minor relationship discussed
Parental abandonment
Domestic abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Depression
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use & abuse
Infertility mentioned
Emesis
Physical injuries
Death of a father & husband
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning
Torture
Whipping
War themes
Graphic animal death, including multiple death of pet dogs
Animal cruelty & abuse
Hunting
Animal attack mentioned

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something. Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand. But wisps of smoke on the horizon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Rape & attempted rape recounted, and forced sex work (off-page)
Child abuse & intimate partner violence recounted
Suicide (on-page) & suicidal ideation
Pregnancy & childbirth (on-page), including stillbirth (on-page)
Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies, graphic physical injuries & illness (cholera, seizures, fever), field surgery, and syringes & needles
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father
Death of a brother
Murder & attempted murder
Gun & knife violence
Torture
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Blackmail
Fire
Drought including death from starvation & dehydration
Death from exposure
Military deployment recounted
Animal death & death of a pet (on-page), including hunting & animal dead bodies
Animal cruelty

In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

Lundy is a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should. When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she’s found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Misogyny
Domestic abuse
Involuntary abortion
Child pregnancy, implied
Battle scenes mentioned

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden, at once feminist high fantasy and a thrilling indictment of monarchy.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Body shaming
Misogyny
Parental abandonment
Arranged marriage
Suicide discussed
Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
Nonconsensual & consensual adoption
Emesis mentioned
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a partner & wife mentioned
Murder
Exile
War themes, including rebellion & a political coup

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller – these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating
PTSD
Starvation
Kidnapping
War themes, including mentions of the Holocaust
Animal cruelty

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

This is the story of four Londoners – three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching. Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret. Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover. Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war.

Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Attempted suicide
Self-harm
Abortion
Blood & gore depiction
War themes

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

It’s 1788 and Alice Payne is the notorious highway robber, the Holy Ghost. Aided by her trusty automaton, Laverna, the Holy Ghost is feared by all who own a heavy purse. It’s 1889 and Major Prudence Zuniga is once again attempting to change history―to save history―but seventy attempts later she’s still no closer to her goal. But in 2020 the Farmers and the Guides are locked in battle; time is their battleground, and the world is their prize. Only something new can change the course of the war. Or someone new. Little did they know, but they’ve all been waiting until Alice Payne arrives.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Period-typical misogyny
Sexual assault of a minor & statutory rape mentioned*
Depression mentioned
Suicide, suicidal ideation & suicide pacts discussed
Minor blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
Gun violence
War themes, including refugee experiences & displacement

*Context : Mentions of sex between a seventeen-year-old girl and an adult man.

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

The battle on Sharr is over. The dark forest has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan he set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, and finally returning magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.

As the zumra plots to overthrow the kingdom’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power into a weapon, to wield not only against the Lion but against his father, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat—a darkness that hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of her sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dare not unleash. In spite of the darkness enclosing ever faster, Nasir and Zafira find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose…but time is running out to achieve their ends, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Grooming
Coerced sexual assault*
Child abuse
Parental abuse
Starvation mentioned
Eye horror
Gore depiction
Murder
Imprisonment
Mind control
War themes
Chemical warfare

*Kissing under the disguise of someone else

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya–but neither wants to be. War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism & misogyny
Child emotional and verbal abuse & neglect
Blood, gore & injury depiction including dead bodies
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother & father
Death of a child
Death of a friend
Death of a cousin
Murder & attempted murder
Torture
Imprisonment & captivity
Kidnapping & blackmail
War themes discussed
Animal death & hunting

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel. Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Misogyny & slut-shaming
Sexual harassment & sex work, implied
Parental abandonment recounted
Parent with paranoid schizophrenia with mentions of delusions and hallucinations
Nightmares
Alcohol consumption
Graphic blood and injury depiction, including dead bodies and body parts, cannibalism, dismemberment, scars, human experimentation, and nonconsensual body modification (theme)
Death of children discussed
Murder and attempted murder
Knife & gun violence
Physical assault
Torture
Poisoning
Kidnapping & captivity
War themes
Animal attack