The Mermada Series
This is not intended to accurately represent or depict safe sex or kink.
• Mental health stigmas: relating to lunacy, insanity, and madness mentioned on page in derogatory, and dismissive manners through self-reference and other characters. This is prominent, recurring, and could be harmful to readers who are sensitive to this verbiage. --A running theme of the connection between the moon’s impact on the psyche and our unconscious impulses to act out on them is present. The most frequent words used are: lunatic, freak, crazy, mad/madness, fool/foolish, crazed, psychotic, maniac/maniacally and insane. These have been consciously kept in the manuscript through the author’s (my) choice. As someone who clinically and socially aligns with these terms and experiences, I felt that changing the language would drastically remove the impact, messaging, symbolism, and authenticity of this story. If these words or themes make you uncomfortable, this story is not for you.
• Chemical coercion / forced sedation: depictions of the heroine being drugged, trapped in room, and kept docile to suppress intuition, emotion, dreams, and spiritual power.
• Brainwashing / indoctrination by a trusted mentor: psychological manipulation, emotional abuse, and gaslighting.
• Extreme grief and prolonged trauma response.
• Morally grey characters.
• Severe body dysphoria in relation to being the wrong magickal species.
• Body horror (light and brief, recurring)
• Loss of parents and grandparent. Deep maternal grief.
Violence, Death, and Physical Harm
• Medium-level violence, including revenge killing of a villain.
• Light gore (a few sentences within a few scenes). Loss of a limb.
• Death of lovers, perceived death of parents and grandparent, and witnessing multiple deaths.
• Near-death experiences, loss of consciousness, physical trauma.
• Violence involving animals (notably death of a turtle, fish, sting-ray, eels, and other sea creatures).
• Blood magick using self harm (frequent, recurring).
• Self-harm to cope (varying levels and expressions of self-harm)
• Unexpected intentional gun violence causing death.
• Deadly oceanic elements such as mold, fungus, trenches, hypoxic waters, etc.
Substance Use and Coercion
• Drug and alcohol misuse, intoxication, and use of substances to alter consciousness.
• Non-consensual drugging and sedation as a method of control and suppression.
• Near death experience involving octopus neurotoxins.
• Frequent mention of oceanic and magickal neurotoxins, hallucinogens, and naturally occurring drugs for recreation and threat.
Loss and Existential Themes
• Loss of home / banishment.
• Betrayal by community and collapse of personal identity.
• Amnesia.
• Existential despair.
• Dark language and existential themes related to power, divinity, and madness.
Please email me directly at evie@evienoirauthor.com or through the CONTACT FORM on my website with questions, concerns, or suggestions to add items to this list.
Please read responsibly.
Your mental health matters.
E.N. // 3.29.26
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Actual sensitivity readers’ feedback:
• “This was handled with great care... It did not feel violent for violence’s sake.”
• “I had to take a break after (reading) the assault. It was very hard to read, but as a dark romance reader, it wasn’t something that would have stopped me from reading. I felt sufficiently warned with the triggers listed.”
• “It was impactful, but not disrespectful to survivors. Survivors will feel seen and safe in this book.”
• “I think (Evie) handled this with an incredible amount of grace. I have desensitized myself to the point where I don’t experience triggers and can read dark romance easily and do enjoy (the genre). However, the genre does not shed the same light on these topics as (Evie) did… (Evie) showed how real it is to actually deal with these emotions from these traumas. I think this will speak to SO MANY. I really appreciate the grace (Evie) used to convey what was happening.
Actual sensitivity readers’ feedback:
• One Black woman’s sensitivity read feedback: “(Evie has) crafted a racialized world with different hair and skin, but otherwise not a racially coded world. People of color exist, but it does not impact their ability to live. Somebody’s lived experience as a person of color fae vs white fae is not different because the world is not racialized in that way. It feels like color doesn’t matter- not that they’re not described in color, but because the characterization of that character is not necessarily something that affects their life. It didn’t feel offensive. It didn’t feel like a big part of the novel. It didn’t feel like it was integral to the positioning of the characters to explore whether or not they lived a racialized identity atop being a racialized color.”
• Another Black woman’s sensitivity read feedback: “Overall, the bigotry between races is realistic but not overt. Snab jabs at each other and feeling an undertone of violence that has been done is realistic. It was not racially triggering.”
Actual sensitivity reader feedback:
• “This story spoke to me in ways that I haven’t really experienced in books before.”
• “(Evie) is incredible at writing truly what mental health feels like inside. It’s never sugar coated or held back for the comfort of the reader.
• “Way to make a character real; to make a person any woman can relate to. The journey of self-actualization is harrowing. Kanta feels real.”
• “(Evie) did not come across as judgmental of Kanta’s experience of (her traumas), or her processing. Kanta feels consistently strong and admirable without seeming indestructible or incapable of being hurt.”
Pearl of Illusions
The Mermada Series Book 1
(Version 5/21/26)
I do not write traumatic themes for shock value. If any writing comes off this way, please point it out. I intend to handle sensitive material with appropriate context and care. Please email me directly at evie@evienoirauthor.com with questions, concerns, or suggestions to add items to this list.
Spicy Sexual Content and Themes
• Explicit sexual content: hate sex, primal play, and dubcon between main characters (specific to fated mates trope ambiguity of sovereignty/consent). // The author is not a reliable judge of the lines between consent/dubcon; and multiple sensitivity readers have been consulted for the story and these trigger warnings to help with informed consent to the reader.
• Power exchange dynamics involving: Domination and submission, blood play, choking, drowning, suffocating, masochism, sadism, debasement, and abasement.
• One instance of sex with a recently deceased body (non-fetishized, depicted as part of a resurrection scene).
• Questionable and/or unhealthy sexual practices explored within a dark fantasy context, including drowning/waterboarding.
• Blood lust (arousal at the scent of fated mate’s blood).
• Group sex, orgy, multi-partner sex scenes (ambient/minimal in Book 1). Active non-monogamy depicted and advocated for, betwixt possessive themes. // The author is an active participant in the non-monogamy community.
• Sex workers: Many exist throughout this series, and we meet some of them in Book 1. They are all humanized individuals. Sex work is normalized amongst the fae culture and depicted as royal court members. No violence, slurs, or harm in Book 1. // The author is an active sex worker with 15+ years in the industry.
Sexual Assault and Reproductive Trauma
• Sexual assault (rape): one brief, on-page depiction (not between MCs).
• Unwanted pregnancy resulting from sexual assault.
• Trauma-related abortion: depiction of an emergency abortion following sexual assault, during a period of extreme distress, physical vulnerability, and emotional manipulation by a morally gray figure. Bodily pain ensues throughout book in reference to this event.
• Themes of coercion, grief, bodily autonomy, and shame around sexual assault.
Cultural, Racial, and Colonial Themes Disclosure
The author is a biracial, nonbinary [white-passing, woman-passing] person writing from a position of partial proximity rather than authority. This disclosure is offered for transparency, not as a shield from critique.
• Racialized fantasy societies: The story depicts Black and brown humans, fae, mermada, and elves as full characters with agency. Discrimination is not based on skin color, but on magickal abilities and species. There are no modern racial slurs present in this story.
• There are made-up racial slurs within species (Example: “My family calls me vael-kin: kin by fire. Someone shaped by Eldrigon but not of their blood. Others call me drak’tal,” she spits the word, “shadow of the dragons, walking in their world but unworthy of their race. Not worthy to worship with them; but beneath them.”). These do not occur on-page often.
• Magickal and bodily discrimination: Prejudice occurs based on bloodline, magickal capability, and physical form (e.g., dragon-bodied vs. layocta-bodied beings). This discrimination is not based on skin color, but parallels real-world systems of racialization.
• Colonial violence: Classism, xenophobia, and hierarchical power systems appear on-page and are portrayed as harmful structures rather than moral truths. The most graphic depiction of Book 1 happens with militarized (colonizer) guards of Nautulan who murder a merchant turtle in fear of it bringing disease into the kingdom. The kingdom of Nautulan is seen as rapidly closing its borders to long-time traders and merchants. This is also mentioned for Eldrigon. The nation of Nautulan functions as a fantasy analog for early colonization of Indigenous Caribbean peoples, including land theft, cultural erasure, and ideological control. This story does not try to replicate the full impact of colonization and the horrible systems which have stemmed from it. These systems are framed as violent and oppressive. Colonial destruction is part of the long-term narrative arc of the series.
• Historical fantasy divergence: The story does not attempt to accurately portray real-world racism or enslavement of the Golden Era of Piracy; historical elements are intentionally altered and mythologized. There is no mention of the existence of slavery within Book 1.
• Cultural inspiration: Certain regions draw architectural, symbolic, and linguistic inspiration from real-world cultures, but they do not represent or replicate those cultures’ spiritual practices, belief systems, locations, language, or histories. For transparency, here are the cultural inspirations present in Book 1: Nautulan Kingdom (Taíno language, Dominican Republic, Bermuda Triangle), Zenrithia fae (Quechua language, lightning magick, and Incan puma symbolism), Bloodmoon Veils (Latin language), Incantress magick system (Egyptian language), Keepers magick system (Sanskrit language), Dragon language (Norse), Enki the turtle (Mesopotamian mythology). The world turtle myth is present across the globe, such as Indigenous American and Mesopotamian belief systems, and the world turtle myth is a recurring symbol throughout The Mermada Series.
• Character outcomes: One BIPOC character dies near the end of Book 1 as a hero. This character functions as an allegorical figure whose life, death, and afterlife shape the FMC’s character arc. While his loss is deeply traumatic, he is portrayed with joy, agency, and narrative significance beyond his death. He is not the sole representative of marginalized identities in the story.
• Villain representation: There are no major Black, Indigenous, or people of color who are villains in Book 1. (The MMC is an antagonist/enemies-to-lovers/ fated mate and is not intended to be read as a racialized villain archetype.)
Psychological and Emotional Themes
• Mental health challenges: psychosis, extreme dissociation, C-PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, unhealthy coping mechanisms, ‘lunacy’ (sanity revolving around the moon cycles), fear of ‘losing one’s mind.’ // The author has psychological experience and diagnoses related to these themes.
