I see the conversation has moved on, but I wrote an answer in my head while biking to work this morning, and don't want to waste it
I don't understand why people have a problem with content warnings. It's like subtitles on films: If you need them, they are great, if you don't you can ignore them (except content warnings are a lot easier to ignore than subtitles).
The first few pages of a book have lots of stuff I just go past, all those copyright and edition notes etc. If I also have to flip past a few content notes, that's no hassle at all. (If there are major spoilers in the notes, I'd want them to be somewhat hidden, of course.)
It's not always obvious from the blurb that there's content which warrant a note. Take for instance KJ Charles' "The Magpie Lord", with this blurb:
Quote:
Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn’t expect it to turn up angry.
Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude…and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.
Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn’t the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.
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The content warning for it is:
Quote:
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Animal abuse/death, suicide (attempted on page, actual off page), violence, questionable consent, power exchange dynamics, occult horrors, deaths, homophobia, references to sexual abuse and incest (off page)
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(All her content warnings are
here.)
A lot of those warnings are redundant. If you've read the blurb you won't be blindsided by the violence, deaths, or occult horrors. But the animal abuse could still be an unpleasant surprise. It really
is graphic, I'm pretty sure it's not a coincidence that Charles has put it first on the list.
I didn't mind that scene, or any other part of the book, so for me the content note is redundant. But for others it could be welcome, and it doesn't inconvenience me in the slightest that it's there.