(By necessity, this section has vague spoilers.)
Aftertaste is a novel only suitable for mature readers. It contains dissociation, gaslighting, violence, death, murder, gore, body horror, explicit sex, mild domestic violence, some BDSM, and a fantasy equivalent of alcohol/drug consumption and abuse.
There are several passages where the idea of how much consent the lead character is capable of in their situation is intentionally muddy. This dubious consent is addressed as such later in the book, when the character understands the situation better.
Sexual assault and rape are mentioned and discussed. There is a scene where rape is threatened, but does not occur. This scene still qualifies as a sexual assault, however.
The concept of forced-feminization, and what it might mean for people who fantasize about it, is explored regularly.
Suicidal ideation, and a story about a suicide in the past, occur briefly.
Dysphoria, internalized transphobia, and external transphobia are core motifs of the book and are present in every chapter. This is a story about surviving these things, but please use caution if reading the struggle of a young trans character finding themself through a lot of uncertainty is triggering for you.
There is a detailed, chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the individual content warnings below the break.
Love yourself, love your boundaries, and take time away from the book if sections are hurting too much.
Content Warnings by Chapter
One: Taste
Internalized transphobia: Simon struggles with being the only “man” in a space filled with women.
Fatphobia and racism: Simon wonders about Lisa and the Woman internally in thought patterns that question if he is being fatphobic or racist.
Gaslighting: The Woman convinces Simon he needs to drink the yuri to be a good server.
Dubious Consent: Simon may lose his job if he doesn’t please the customer, so he “chooses” to sit beneath her and have her pour the yuri down his throat. She then kisses him without asking and bites him as well.
Drug/alcohol abuse: Simon is forced to drink a large amount of the hallucinogenic yuri, sending him into a painful and distressing hallucination.
Two: Serving
Body horror: Simon hallucinates several different scenarios where he grows or has women’s features.
Gaslighting: The Woman tries to convince Simon he chose this scenario. Later, she pretends to not know him at Femmes Fatales
Internalized transphobia: Simon dismisses multiple cases where he’s thought about being a woman, but concludes that he isn’t one. Later, he doubts that Lisa could be trans because of her beauty. Lastly, he believes he doesn’t deserve to be treated well.
Domestic violence: The Woman slaps Simon hard enough to draw blood with a nail.
Three: Transformation
Internalized transphobia: throughout, Simon hating himself and denying that he is trans.
Dubious consent throughout: the Woman has barged into Simon’s home again, and he suspects he is in physical danger if he disobeys her.
BDSM: biting hard enough to draw blood, without a conversation first about what Simon’s boundaries actually are.
Sex: description of sexual situations between Simon and the Woman, up to almost having anal sex before the Woman calls it off.
Four: Magic
Body horror (potentially triggering for folks who aren’t satisfied with their bodies): lengthy description of an imagined transformation from Simon’s body to a cis woman’s body.
Deadnaming (sorta): The Woman calls Girl ‘Simon’ when internally she’s started moving on from that name.
Internalized transphobia: Girl defines being a “real girl” vs being a “trans woman” as two separate things.
Five: Force
Internalized Transphobia: Simon denies any and all progress on his identity from the night before, calls himself slurs, and throughout is in an awful and self-hating space.
Dysphoria: Simon spirals into repeating “I’m Simon” at length.
Transphobia: Simon shouts slurs and other horrific things at Lisa, including screaming at her that she could never birth a child.
Drug/alcohol abuse: Simon drinks the equivalent of a 12 pack rapidly, vomiting during the consumption.
Dubious consent: Izani pushes Simon into an HRT appointment, threatening death if he does not comply.
Suicidal ideation: briefly, Simon imagines someone shooting him.
Six: Static
Internalized Transphobia: constant, throughout, as she grapples with who she is and who she will be. Lots of calling herself a man, which she obviously isn’t at this point.
Dysphoria: Throughout, as she grapples with whether or not she is really trans.
Seven: Birthday
Dysphoria: realizing she does not physically fit her internal description, and others will see her as a man.
Eight: Femininity
Internalized Transphobia: Renata judges all of Kat’s qualities that make her look visibly trans, afraid of the ways in which she’ll be judged and clocked as trans by others.
Dysphoria: Renata spirals into thinking of herself as a man and panics, she also has difficulty with women’s underwear and whether or not she “deserves” to wear it.
Deadnaming: Jasmine accidentally almost deadnames Renata
Sex: Jasmine and Renata engage in consensual sex, including oral sex given and received between both of them.
Nine: Lies
Manipulative relationship/threatening: Izani threatens Renata for not answering her phone. Later, Izani threatens Renata with violence when she actually approves of her actions. Later, Izani demands that she and Renata be exclusive without explaining why.
Misgendering: Renata misgenders herself briefly.
Internalized transphobia: Izani describes a story from her human past where she attempted to murder a trans sex worker after discovering that she’s trans.
Transphobia: Chris calls Renata slurs.
Drugging: Chris has had more than just alcohol put in his system, and has been kidnapped by Izani.
Ten: Toxicity
Violence/Murder: Izani gouges out Chris’s eyes and severs his nose, before sucking out his blood through his leg, killing him, and leaving him a desiccated corpse for the rest of the chapter.
BDSM: Izani and Renata switch roles, with Renata commanding Izani in sexual play.
Sex: Izani gives Renata a blowjob, and penetrates herself.
Eleven: Roleplay
Dysphoria: Renata is terrified of being clocked as trans while going outside.
Sex: Renata and Jasmine almost engage in sex before being interrupted. Jasmine asks if Renata can top, and she tries, but finds it too dysphoric to do so.
Discussion about Sexual Assault: Jasmine pressures Renata into talking about the nature of her relationship with Izani, and Renata tries to deny that she was assaulted or abused by Izani. Renata is wrong – she was assaulted by Izani. Jasmine’s tactics for getting her to talk about this encounter are harsh, however, when Renata clearly isn’t ready to share.
Discussion about Rape: Rape is mentioned, and dismissed.
Disassociation: Renata, feeling lost in how to handle talking to Jasmine, dissociates and begins identifying as “Nothing” – a shell, who wears Renata and acts like her, but does not experience her feelings. Later, when things get more tense with Vong and Merry, Nothing dissociates further, into Not.
Manipulative relationship behavior: Jasmine intentionally tells the story of how Merry lied to Vong about dating trans women in the past, in order to hurt both Vong and Merry’s relationship.
Domestic Violence: Vong calls Renata a bitch, and Jasmine slaps Vong.
Twelve: Daughter
Disassociating: Renata continues to identify as Not, and later, Renota, before coming back to herself.
Drug/alcohol abuse: Renata drinks a yuri that plunges her into a transfemme fantasy hallucination.
Dysphoria/internalized transphobia: Lisa describes growing up as trans and not understanding why she felt as awful as she did, in detail. This leads to her neglecting her wife and daughter, and the self-loathing that comes from that.
Manipulative relationship behavior: Lisa describes coercing her high school partner to keep a baby she doesn’t want, leading to both of them married and unhappy at a young age.
Description of a child’s death by suicide: Lisa’s young daughter Hailey is a victim of suicide . The details are not discussed but the body and blood are. Lisa blames herself.
Thirteen: Dead
Dysphoria: Renata recounts The experience of not feeling connected to the world, to the point that if she did not transition, she would have killed herself.
Disassociation: Renata describes how she disassociated in chapter eleven.
Deadnaming: Jasmine repeatedly deadnames Renata.
Fourteen: Caretaker
Dysphoria/deadnaming/misgendering: Renata assumes her “Simon” persona to visit her parents, who repeatedly deadname and misgender her up until and after she comes out to them. Neither of them do so maliciously, just ignorantly and carelessly.
Internalized homophobia: Henry is reluctant to reveal that he is gay, and is worried that he’s made Renata trans due to his homosexuality.
Alcohol abuse: Diane drinks constantly throughout the chapter, getting inebriated to the point of passing out.
Parental Trauma: Diane and Henry both rely on Renata to handle their emotions. When the two directly interact, it is through passive-aggressive behavior at best, except when Diane starts screaming at Henry.
Fifteen: Penetration
Dream of dying: Renata dreams she is being strangled by Izani.
Transphobia: Renata encounters a guard who questions her gender indirectly, causing Renata some dysphoria.
Guilt/trauma: Izani expresses guilt over all of the trans women she could not save over the centuries.
Sex: Izani and Renata have penetrative anal sex.
Body horror: Izani reveals, far too late, that Renata could have potentially deeply hurt Jasmine because of the poison (toxic masculinity) she put inside Renata when biting her. This toxicity has been growing inside Jasmine, taking control of her body.
Queer Death/Gore: Kat is found dead, there is a gory description of her body.
Sixteen: Masculinity
Dissociating/guilt/internalized transphobia: throughout, as Renata blames herself for Kat’s death and what happened to Jasmine. Renata calls herself several slurs.
Misgendering: Renata briefly misgenders herself while dissociating.
Violence/gore/queer death/misogyny: extensive and throughout the chapter. Merry and Vong are killed in gory manners. Izani is injured but not killed. Later, several queer women die near where the scene occurs, but it is not described. All of this violence is at the hand of Him, a masculine character.
Body horror: The toxic masculinity monster/angel (Him) is described in detail, with amorphous body parts and structure. That he is a white creature who perverted and corrupted a black body is discussed.
Threat of sexual assault: He threatens to rape Renata, but does not follow through on this.
Death of a cop: not a content warning, I’m just happy I got to kill a cop in my novel. ACAB.
Seventeen: Flames
Grief/trauma: throughout, as Renata, Lisa, and Izani process the people who have been killed.
Transphobia/deadnaming/gaslighting: He, wearing Jasmine, convinces Renata’s parents that Renata raped Jasmine. Renata’s mother believes the lie, and almost deadnames Renata as well.
Eighteen: Names
Transphobia: throughout, as He attempts to get under Renata’s skin by implying she’s a man, calling her slurs, and insulting her body. He also states that Renata would have been better off if she never transitioned.
Body horror: He is described in detail again, with teeth added to the occasion. Those sensitive to trypophobia may be triggered by this description.
Violence: Throughout in the fight. Nothing chokes Renata, Izani is pierced several times by his limbs, he is drained and weakened by Izani biting him.
Threat of rape: Nothing gets on top of Renata, strips her, and is about to penetrate her, when Izani stops him.
Deadnaming: Nothing’s true identity, Simon, is revealed, and Renata deadnames him several times.
After
Guilt/trauma: Throughout, as Jasmine recovers and processes what was done to her body and friends.
Sex: mild sexual activity is described between Renata and Jasmine and Renata and Izani.
Emoria Weidner 