Parent's Guide and Trigger Warnings

"Parent's Guide"

          I have added a new section to our reviews called the "Parent's Guide." This section will contain a brief explanation of any potentially inappropriate content a book may contain and "Trigger Warnings." From reading so many other book reviews I have noticed that people react very differently to the content in books so this will be my way of warning if a book may contain any material that may be objectionable for some. Common topics would include: sexual themes, violence, gore, swearing, and other obscene language. The "Parent's Guide" will have only a rough explanation of some of these topics you may encounter in the book. This will be a good resource for you if some topics are complete nonstarters. However, the Parent's Guide will not be perfect. I am not a professional rating evaluation specialist. For example, I apologize if at times I do not put "swearing" as a warning for example because the curse words slipped by my attention. I will try to take extra care to note any subject matter that could be objectionable in all of the future books I read for review. I have tried to add some trigger warnings to past book reviews but unfortunately cannot recall in great enough detail some of the inappropriate content. 

          "Trigger Warnings": Trigger warnings have been becoming more commonly used these days and are used to warn someone who may have had past traumatic experiences that the information they are about to read may have similar themes in it that could trigger a painful emotional reaction for them. Commonly topics that Trigger Warnings are use for are: abuse, rape, torture, or other kinds of violence. Book reviews for books that contain any of those previously listed topics will have a "Trigger Warning" listed in the Parent's Guide with a explanation of what kind of trigger, but none of the gory details. 

          Sexual Themes: I will describe the sexual content in a book as either: detailed/graphic (i.e. commonly found in erotica), or: sex scenes that are not overly detailed (common in lighter romance novels), or: implied sexual encounters (sometimes found in YA (young adult) books).

          Violence: I will include in the Parent's guide the warning of "violence" if there is any kind of harm acted upon one person by another in the book. This could include even small acts of violence and also the use of firearms. I will most likely not include any warning for violence that happens off-screen as it were. For example, in a murder mystery if the person is killed but that scene is not portrayed to the audience I may not think to add a violence warning.