Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo has strong opinions on trigger warnings

Leigh Bardugo may be best known for her impact in YA fantasy, having written the hugely successful Grishaverse series (upon which the TV show Shadow and Bone is based), but that doesn’t mean she has ever shied away from tackling uncomfortable and difficult themes. The Shadow and Bone trilogy tells a story of manipulation and control, warning us of the way powerful men can treat vulnerable women; and the Six of Crows novels feature gang violence and the brutality of street life right from the first chapter.

So it should come as no surprise that when Bardugo first dipped her toes into Adult Fantasy with the publication of Ninth House in 2019, she was keen to explore themes and storylines which were once again somewhat brutal and not for those with a weak stomach. While gore and sexual assault are present in her Grishaverse novels, because the books are for Young Adults, they’re mostly only hinted at. You have to squint a bit to work out what’s going on.

No such squinting is necessary with Ninth House. The sequel to that book, Hell Bent, was released in February. Set amongst secret societies at Yale University, these two novels are dark academia fantasy; for anybody familiar with dark academia as a sub-genre, it usually contains disturbing and dark storylines.

Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo questions the utility of trigger warnings

In cases like that, some authors use trigger warnings (also known as content warnings) to let potential readers know what may be ahead. In books, these can take the form of a statement at the beginning that lists some of the potentially distressing stuff ahead. However, Bardugo isn’t a huge fan of them.

Speaking to Collider, Bardugo said that “if you research trigger warnings, even the most cursory research will show you that they don’t work. That in fact, trigger warnings are more likely to be damaging to people with PTSD and trauma. And once you know that, you have to start questioning what people are calling for when they call for trigger warnings.”

"If there are things in books that make you uncomfortable, that’s fine. You should absolutely, I think, have resources available to you where you can find the things that make you uncomfortable. But that is very different from being triggered or being thrown into a state of having to deal with past trauma."

Bardugo also opined that calls for trigger warnings can have a slightly sexist tone. “I have literally never seen somebody call for a trigger warning on a Stephen King book, for instance.” If trigger warnings are more widely used, Bargudo thinks, “it has to be on every single book. And I would be curious to know which things made it through that process, and which got flagged and which didn’t, I think would be pretty interesting.”

All in all, it seems that Bardugo has no problem with readers deciding certain topics are not for them to read about; she is just sceptical of whether trigger warnings actually protect readers.

Hell Bent and Ninth House are out now. Shadow and Bone Season 2 premieres on Netflix on March 16.

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