General Discussion

Books really don't need them. Unlike movies, you can instantly remove yourself from the book by closing it. There are no visuals and no audio that could cause any more harm, and honestly it is so easy to see the set-up of a traumatizing moment. There's no reason to keep reading if you know what's about to happen will upset you. In this kind of medium where intentional interaction is required to experience it, the only interaction anyone should have with a trigger is the initial discovery. After that it's completely avoidable.

I've never really liked nor agreed with the argument for harsh censorship on books. A 'mature content', 'sexual content' or 'violent content' sticker warning maybe, but that should be as far as it goes. It's not content you're viewing, it's content you're reading. You can skip over something or put a book down at any time if it begins to get too much or something unexpected surprises you in a bad way.

The thing is ... what constitutes as deserving as a trigger warning? You have the obvious things that set people off, but then when do we draw the line? You start causing more people to argue that 'such a thing should be marked for' and 'I wasn't warned about this in advance', and before you know it you pretty much might as well have the entire contents of the book written out in a small blurb. You're then taking away from discovering a new story, the potential for large spoilers, and also, the possibility that something you might actually enjoy and not find triggering going overlooked.

Books come in genres and sort of 'age bands', yes? (children, teen, young adult, adult). You can somewhat determine how graphic a book will have it's descriptions from those bands. If you're picking up an adult crime fiction, then you're already taking the risk of being exposed to violence and swearing. That's what we've come to accept and understand that genre to sometimes include. If you're picking up a children's adventure book, then the chances are that you're not going to have swearing or heavy violence: because it's for children. Yes, genres can sometimes blend together, but the main point is that when you pick up a book and read the blurb on the back you are being given a good idea of what it is you're about to be thrown into. One of the reviews on the books for 'a Game of Thrones' basically says 'as horrid as the Borgia's'. The Borgia's aren't nice: that one line is giving you a very good imagining of what it is you've just picked up.

Also, trigger warnings start encouraging writers to categorize their work more. There becomes the argument of 'does this warrant a trigger or can we pass this?' and then writers sometimes just decide not to bother with the hassle of attempting to create certain scenes that may actually be a turning point in their story.

Certain books are known for what they entail. Fifty Shades is notorious for what it's about, and even classic books like Lolita and Lord of The Flies are well known for what their subject matters are about. There are reviews online for all books, and usually if something particularly horrifying happens, it's pointed out in those reviews as a sort of warning anyway. I am always reading spoiler-free reviews for potential books I want to buy these days, simply because I've been disappointed in potentially good plots before now!

The thing is ... and I say this whilst bearing in mind that everyone has a trigger of some sort, or even simply a thing they're uncomfortable with ... the world itself is not a trigger-free environment. People are going to have discussions about triggering subject matters. Books and shows and movies are still going to tell stories with those things included. They are still a part of life, and something many people fight with and suffer with on a day to day basis. I'm ... wary, of some reasons for trigger warnings, because I feel that some matters (not all) should not be hidden or covered. There are things that need to be discussed and tackled more, and books have always been a way to do this. Have you seen the amount of books that tackle mental health issues in good ways have cropped up more and more as more people understand just a little bit more? Think of how those books, if trigger-tagged with 'content considered sensitive' could have been overlooked in general.

TL;DR I say yes to content-warning stickers for stories particularly heavy and their plot revolves around sexual content, violence, swearing etc., but no for trigger warnings.

I don't think this would be entirely necessary. The difference between a book and a film or show, is that the latter two are 100% visual. They also only tend to warn if the subject itself is depicted, not just mentioned. The mention of a triggering subject shouldn't be enough to cause a problem (and if it is, the onus is on the triggered person to get help for that).

If books had a warning the same as films or shows, maybe a sticker on the front saying "this book contains graphic [subject]", I could perhaps get behind it, but if people suddenly expect books to go above and beyond and warn for mentions, implications and minor potentially triggering content ... no.

For example, many of the books I've read, aimed at a variety of ages, have dealt with the subject of sexual abuse in varying degrees. I don't think any of them have depicted it explicitly (note my name, here) and when it comes to the written word, an explicit, blow by blow description would be a problem. A casual mention that it exists in the universe, either outright or veiled, should not.

The same for violence. Warnings come up for visual media because you're actually seeing the violence and blood and injury. Writing about that in the context of a battle? There's a HUGE difference between "his blade hacked his hand clean off" and SEEING that happen on a screen.

In general, I do not agree with trigger warnings on books. Warnings are generally reserved for visual depictions of graphic content because they upset people for more than just trigger-related reasons (such as squicks, sensitivities, etc) or for news articles, when they are dealing with real-world instances of things. Even then, the warnings are vague 'the following clip might be distressing' and such.

Back again, haha.
I think "Warning! Injury mention on page 75" would be a little unnecessary, yeah. I'd only want trigger warnings to be for things that are explicitly written out-- "This character was assaulted in the past" is probably less upsetting than a graphic, in-detail sexual assault scene.

A little "Warning for ____" snippet in the first few introductory pages that warns for something explicit like that couldn't hurt. Doesn't have to mention the chapter or page; just a heads-up to let readers know what they're dealing with. Even if it's not triggering, graphic scenes like that can be enough to make someone stop reading an otherwise-good book series.

And... yeah, no trigger warnings for uncommon/minor things. I say this as someone with emetophobia bad enough to give me panic attacks that'll shut me down for days. :'| I cannot realistically expect everyone to respect my trigger, so it's my responsibility to check if something is going to set me off before I check it out. (which i usually forget to do bc i'm dumb but. you know)

While I don't think it was entirely fair of the reviewer to ream Outlanders author considering the series was started in 1991 long before the internet was really off the ground and trigger warnings were even a thing I do think the idea of implementing it now isn't a bad one. You can have warnings about content without them being spoilery because surprise, movies do it all the time! There's no reason the same idea can't be utilized for books. The people saying they don't like the idea aren't looking at the big picture of it and why even though it's fiction the events of a book may not be fiction for a reader. There are people who get panic attacks if they read or see an abusive act in whatever entertainment media they're consuming and that just isn't healthy. It's damaging. Besides, why be against something that does you no harm to begin with? This could help a lot of people and you want to deny them that because it might be spoilery? That's selfish thinking and you need to put yourself in their place

i think a system similar to movie ratings could be implemented - nothing that would give away the plot, just something like "contains sexual violence/scenes of war/ect" for common triggers. i think it's rather difficult to cover things like violence, death, language, and many other movie ratings because what would be considered "mature content" for books is much different than for movies. a lot of YA books would, if a movie, be rated R (like the hunger games).

maybe another option would be trigger warnings on goodreads like a triggers section and the ability to mark a book as having certain triggers. they're relatively out of the way for people who are against them being on the physical book itself but they provide a way to find out what may be triggering before reading a book.

also, the inside cover usually doesn't provide enough information about what may be triggering. there are books which have suicide in them that aren't about suicide. there are books with **** scenes that aren't about ****. if you pick up, say, it's kind of a funny story, you know that it's going to be about suicide and mental illness, but if you pick up a book about the goings-on of a small town and don't expect the graphic descriptions of self-harm, mental illness and suicide, yeah. you might be triggered. (not naming the book, but it was an unpleasant surprise for me.)