What Are The Trigger Warnings For 'In The Likely Event'?

As someone who's read 'In the Likely Event' multiple times, I can pinpoint several intense themes that might need warnings. The novel deals heavily with military trauma, including vivid descriptions of combat zones and PTSD episodes that feel uncomfortably real. There's a romantic subplot involving emotional manipulation that borders on psychological abuse, with one character constantly gaslighting the other. Grief is portrayed rawly after a major character death halfway through. The most jarring scene involves graphic depictions of a terrorist attack in a crowded metro station - explosions, blood, and civilians screaming. Several chapters explore alcoholism as a coping mechanism, showing relapse in painful detail. Sexual content isn't overly graphic but includes power dynamics some might find problematic.

Having analyzed this book for a reading group, I'd categorize the triggers into three escalating tiers. Mild warnings include frequent profanity, casual drug use in party scenes, and moderate violence like bar fights. The middle tier gets darker with a realistically depicted panic attack during a helicopter crash sequence, detailed descriptions of self-harm scars, and recurring nightmares about wartime atrocities. The heaviest material comes late in the story - there's an extended interrogation scene using psychological torture techniques, a miscarriage revealed through flashbacks, and the protagonist's gradual breakdown where he starts hallucinating his dead comrades.

The political subplot adds another layer of triggers. It explores unethical CIA operations in the Middle East, including drone strikes that kill civilians. One particularly brutal chapter alternates between a senator's press conference denying collateral damage and the actual aftermath of such an attack in a Pakistani village. The romance arc isn't safe either - it features emotional infidelity, one partner sabotaging the other's career, and a toxic reconciliation where both characters seem trapped in their dysfunction.

What makes these elements particularly jarring is the author's unflinching style. Scenes aren't softened through poetic language or fade-to-black transitions. When describing a veteran's suicide attempt, we get the exact method, his roommate finding the body, and the bloodstains that won't come off the bathroom tiles. The book doesn't judge these moments but presents them with clinical detachment that some readers might find triggering in itself.

From a therapist's perspective reading 'In the Likely Event', the most concerning elements involve realistic portrayals of mental health crises. The main character exhibits textbook symptoms of complex PTSD - dissociative episodes, hypervigilance that disrupts daily life, and substance abuse to suppress memories. A supporting character's eating disorder is shown through subtle but frequent behaviors like calorie counting and body-checking that could trigger those in recovery.

The novel handles grief in a way that feels dangerously relatable. There's no sugarcoating how the characters lash out after loss - breaking possessions, cutting off friends, making reckless decisions. One chapter details a funeral where the widow vomits from crying too hard. Military families might find the deployment scenes triggering, especially when characters receive ambiguous news about loved ones in combat zones.

Romantic triggers include an abusive relationship pattern where arguments escalate to physical intimidation without actual violence, leaving the victim constantly on edge. The sex scenes involve consensual but aggressive encounters that blur lines of healthy intimacy. Financial trauma also appears unexpectedly when a character suddenly loses their life savings, depicted through authentic details like choosing between medication and groceries.