Banned Books Database

Every book on this list has been banned or challenged in the United States. Browse, filter, and read them anyway.

Forever

by Judy Blume

Forever is Judy Blume's groundbreaking novel about Katherine and Michael, two teenagers who fall in love and make the de...

Sexual ContentAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 213 challenges

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

The Color Purple is Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning epistolary novel about Celie, a young Black woman in the rural...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ThemesLanguage

BANNED 198 challenges

Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult examines a school shooting and its aftermath through multiple perspectives, exploring b...

ViolenceSexual Content

BANNED 198 challenges

Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five is Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war masterpiece about Billy Pilgrim, who becomes 'unstuck in time' and exper...

ViolenceSexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 189 challenges

Looking for Alaska

by John Green

Looking for Alaska is John Green's debut novel about a teenager who enrolls at a boarding school and falls for the brill...

Sexual ContentLanguageDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 187 challenges

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie's semi-autobiographical novel about Arnold Spirit Jr.,...

Sexual ContentLanguageRacial Content

BANNED 185 challenges

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give follows sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, who witnesses the fatal shooting of her unarmed childhood friend ...

Racial ContentLanguageViolence

BANNED 176 challenges

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is Stephen Chbosky's coming-of-age epistolary novel about Charlie, a shy freshman naviga...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ThemesDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 174 challenges

All Boys Aren't Blue

by George M. Johnson

All Boys Aren't Blue is George M. Johnson's young adult memoir about growing up Black and queer in New Jersey and Virgin...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ Themes

BANNED 172 challenges

Tricks

by Ellen Hopkins

Tricks follows five teenagers from different backgrounds whose lives converge as they are drawn into prostitution. Writt...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseViolence

BANNED 168 challenges

Crank

by Ellen Hopkins

Crank is a novel-in-verse based on Ellen Hopkins' daughter's experience with methamphetamine addiction. Written in Hopki...

Drug/Alcohol UseSexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 167 challenges

1984

by George Orwell

1984 is George Orwell's dystopian novel about Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in the totalitaria...

Political ContentSexual ContentViolence

BANNED 162 challenges

Sold

by Patricia McCormick

Sold is a novel-in-verse about Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal who is trafficked and sold into sexual slave...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 161 challenges

Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak is Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning novel about Melinda Sordino, a high school freshman who is ostracized aft...

Sexual ContentViolenceAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 156 challenges

Lawn Boy

by Jonathan Evison

Lawn Boy is Jonathan Evison's coming-of-age novel about Mike Muñoz, a young Mexican-American man working as a landscaper...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ Themes

BANNED 155 challenges

Thirteen Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why follows high school student Clay Jensen as he listens to cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a...

ViolenceDrug/Alcohol UseSexual Content

BANNED 154 challenges

Identical

by Ellen Hopkins

Identical is a novel-in-verse about identical twin sisters Kaeleigh and Raeanne, whose seemingly perfect political famil...

Sexual ContentViolenceDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 153 challenges

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel depicting a future society where humans are genetically engineered, c...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UsePolitical Content

BANNED 151 challenges

Gender Queer: A Memoir

by Maia Kobabe

Gender Queer is a graphic memoir by Maia Kobabe that explores eir journey with gender identity and sexuality. The book h...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ThemesAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 148 challenges

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner follows Amir, the son of a wealthy Kabul businessman, and his complicated relationship with Hassan, the ...

Sexual ContentViolenceReligious Objections

BANNED 146 challenges

Out of Darkness

by Ashley Hope Pérez

Out of Darkness is a historical novel set in 1937 East Texas, interweaving a forbidden interracial love story between a ...

Sexual ContentRacial ContentViolence

BANNED 143 challenges

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel set in Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that has replaced the U...

Sexual ContentPolitical ContentReligious Objections

BANNED 142 challenges

This Book Is Gay

by Juno Dawson

This Book Is Gay is a nonfiction guide for LGBTQ+ teens and their allies, covering topics from coming out to safe sex to...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content

BANNED 138 challenges

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped is a young adult adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning, remixed by Jason Reynolds to trace t...

Racial ContentPolitical Content

BANNED 136 challenges

Flamer

by Mike Curato

Flamer is a graphic novel memoir about Aiden Navarro, a half-Filipino boy at a Boy Scout camp in the early 2000s who is ...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content

BANNED 132 challenges

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants is a historical novel set in a Depression-era traveling circus, following veterinary student Jacob J...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 108 challenges

A Court of Thorns and Roses

by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a fantasy romance retelling of Beauty and the Beast, following huntress Feyre as she's ta...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 104 challenges

A Court of Mist and Fury

by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR series, following Feyre as she navigates the after...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 102 challenges

A Court of Wings and Ruin

by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin is the third book in Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR series, following Feyre as she leads a dangerous m...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 98 challenges

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

by Jesse Andrews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a darkly comic young adult novel about Greg, a socially awkward high school senior who...

LanguageSexual Content

BANNED 96 challenges

Empire of Storms

by Sarah J. Maas

Empire of Storms is the fifth book in Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass fantasy series, following assassin-queen Aelin Gal...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 85 challenges

A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange follows Alex, a teenage delinquent in a dystopian future who leads his gang through nights of ultravi...

ViolenceSexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 47 challenges

The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's debut novel, published in 1970, telling the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young Black g...

Sexual ContentRacial ContentViolence

BANNED 40 challenges

Wicked

by Gregory Maguire

Wicked reimagines the Land of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, exploring themes of good...

Sexual ContentPolitical ContentReligious Objections

BANNED 38 challenges

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

Beloved is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison set after the American Civil War. Inspired by the true story ...

Sexual ContentViolenceRacial Content

BANNED 35 challenges

Beyond Magenta

by Susan Kuklin

Beyond Magenta presents the stories of six transgender and nonbinary teens through interviews and photographs. It has be...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 30 challenges

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

by Malinda Lo

Set in 1950s San Francisco Chinatown, Last Night at the Telegraph Club follows Lily Hu as she discovers her attraction t...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content

BANNED 30 challenges

Living Dead Girl

by Elizabeth Scott

Living Dead Girl tells the story of Alice, a girl kidnapped at age ten and held captive by a predator for five years. Wr...

Sexual ContentViolenceAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 30 challenges

Push

by Sapphire

Push tells the story of Precious Jones, an illiterate, obese Black teenager in Harlem who has been raped repeatedly by h...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage

BANNED 30 challenges

The Lovely Bones

by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is narrated by Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old girl who watches from heaven as her family and killer ...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage

BANNED 28 challenges

Breathless

by Jennifer Niven

Breathless follows Claudine Henry through a transformative summer of first love, self-discovery, and sexual awakening be...

Sexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 25 challenges

A Clash of Kings

by George R. R. Martin

A Clash of Kings, the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, continues the epic struggle for the Iron Throne ...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage

BANNED 25 challenges

Burned

by Ellen Hopkins

Burned tells the story of Pattyn Von Stratten, a seventeen-year-old girl raised in a strict Mormon household who begins ...

Sexual ContentReligious ObjectionsDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 25 challenges

Milk and Honey

by Rupi Kaur

Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry divided into four chapters dealing with survival, abuse, love, and femininity. ...

Sexual ContentViolenceAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 25 challenges

The DUFF

by Kody Keplinger

The DUFF follows seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper, who is labeled the 'Designated Ugly Fat Friend' and begins a complicat...

Sexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 25 challenges

This One Summer

by Mariko Tamaki

This One Summer is a graphic novel about Rose and Windy, two girls spending the summer at a lakeside town, navigating th...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage

BANNED 22 challenges

A Stolen Life

by Jaycee Dugard

A Stolen Life is Jaycee Dugard's memoir of being kidnapped at age eleven and held captive for eighteen years by Phillip ...

Sexual ContentViolenceAge Inappropriateness

BANNED 22 challenges

Damsel

by Elana K. Arnold

Damsel is a dark feminist fairy tale in which a prince rescues a girl from a dragon, only for her to discover that the r...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 22 challenges

Glass

by Ellen Hopkins

Glass is the sequel to Crank, continuing Kristina Snow's descent into methamphetamine addiction as she loses custody of ...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage

BANNED 22 challenges

Storm and Fury

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Storm and Fury follows Trinity Marrow, an eighteen-year-old with a dangerous secret, who is caught between warring angel...

Sexual ContentViolenceReligious Objections

BANNED 20 challenges

A Court of Frost and Starlight

by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Frost and Starlight is a bridge novella in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series, following Feyr...

Sexual Content

BANNED 20 challenges

Impulse

by Ellen Hopkins

Impulse follows three teenagers who meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide. It has been challen...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseViolence

BANNED 20 challenges

Kingdom of Ash

by Sarah J. Maas

Kingdom of Ash is the epic conclusion to Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series, in which Aelin Galathynius fights to sa...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 20 challenges

Lucky

by Alice Sebold

Lucky is Alice Sebold's memoir of being raped as a college freshman and the subsequent criminal trial. It has been chall...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 20 challenges

Perfect

by Ellen Hopkins

Perfect follows four teenagers whose pursuit of perfection leads them into eating disorders, steroid abuse, drug addicti...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLGBTQ+ Themes

BANNED 20 challenges

Red Hood

by Elana K. Arnold

Red Hood is a feminist retelling of Little Red Riding Hood in which Bisou Martel discovers a connection between her body...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 20 challenges

Tilt

by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt follows three teenagers whose lives intersect around love, sex, and identity, told in Ellen Hopkins's signature ver...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage

BANNED 18 challenges

A Court of Silver Flames

by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Silver Flames follows Nesta Archeron as she deals with trauma, trains as a warrior, and begins a relationship...

Sexual Content

BANNED 18 challenges

Beautiful

by Amy Reed

Beautiful follows Cassie as she reinvents herself at a new school, falling into a world of drugs, sex, and toxic friends...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage

BANNED 18 challenges

Fallout

by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout follows the three children of Kristina Snow from the Crank trilogy as they navigate the lasting damage of their ...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage

BANNED 18 challenges

Grown

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Grown follows Enchanted Jones, a teenage singer who is groomed and abused by a famous R&B artist, inspired by real cases...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage

BANNED 18 challenges

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

by Erika L. Sánchez

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter follows Julia Reyes, a first-generation Mexican American teenager dealing with he...

Sexual ContentLanguageDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 18 challenges

The Haters

by Jesse Andrews

The Haters follows three jazz camp dropouts who start a band and go on a chaotic road trip through the American South. F...

Sexual ContentLanguageDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 18 challenges

The Poet X

by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X follows Xiomara Batista, a Dominican American teenager in Harlem who pours her frustrations with her strict r...

Sexual ContentReligious ObjectionsLanguage

BANNED 18 challenges

Tower of Dawn

by Sarah J. Maas

Tower of Dawn follows Chaol Westfall as he journeys to the southern continent seeking healing and an alliance against th...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 18 challenges

What Girls Are Made Of

by Elana K. Arnold

What Girls Are Made Of follows sixteen-year-old Nina Faye as she searches for love and validation through her relationsh...

Sexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 16 challenges

Homegoing

by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing traces two branches of a family tree across three centuries, from 18th-century Ghana through the slave trade t...

Sexual ContentViolenceRacial Content

BANNED 16 challenges

I'll Give You the Sun

by Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun follows twins Jude and Noah, whose bond is shattered by secrets, grief, and the discovery of Noah'...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 16 challenges

Man o' War

by Cory McCarthy

Man o' War follows River, a nonbinary teen and competitive swimmer, navigating gender identity, first love, and family e...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content

BANNED 16 challenges

Monday's Not Coming

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Monday's Not Coming follows Claudia, a Black teenager whose best friend Monday goes missing and no one seems to care eno...

ViolenceLanguageRacial Content

BANNED 16 challenges

Smoke

by Ellen Hopkins

Smoke is the sequel to Burned, continuing Pattyn Von Stratten's story as she deals with devastating loss, her sister's r...

Sexual ContentViolenceDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 16 challenges

The Female of the Species

by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species follows Alex Craft, a girl who killed the man who raped and murdered her sister, and the two c...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage

BANNED 16 challenges

The Infinite Moment of Us

by Lauren Myracle

The Infinite Moment of Us follows Wren and Charlie as they fall in love the summer after high school graduation, navigat...

Sexual Content

BANNED 16 challenges

Traffick

by Ellen Hopkins

Traffick is the sequel to Tricks, following five teenagers trapped in sex trafficking as they fight to escape and rebuil...

Sexual ContentViolenceDrug/Alcohol Use

BANNED 16 challenges

Vampire Academy

by Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy follows Rose Hathaway, a half-vampire guardian-in-training, and her best friend Lissa, a Moroi vampire p...

Sexual ContentViolenceReligious Objections

BANNED 15 challenges

Shout

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Shout is Laurie Halse Anderson's memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault, becoming a writer, and the decades she ...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage

BANNED 15 challenges

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story

by Kacen Callender

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story follows Nathan Bird, a film-obsessed teen who realizes he's in love with his best fri...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content

BANNED 14 challenges

Forever for a Year

by B. T. Gottfred

Forever for a Year follows Carolina and Trevor through the highs and lows of their first serious relationship, told in a...

Sexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 14 challenges

House of Earth and Blood

by Sarah J. Maas

House of Earth and Blood is the first book in Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series, following half-fae Bryce Quinlan as ...

Sexual ContentViolence

BANNED 14 challenges

Like a Love Story

by Abdi Nazemian

Like a Love Story follows three teenagers in 1989 New York City navigating love, identity, and the AIDS crisis. It has b...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content

BANNED 14 challenges

More Happy Than Not

by Adam Silvera

More Happy Than Not follows Aaron Soto, a Bronx teenager who considers a memory-altering procedure to forget his emergin...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentViolence

BANNED 14 challenges

The Carnival at Bray

by Jessie Ann Foley

The Carnival at Bray follows Maggie Lynch, a Chicago teenager transplanted to a small Irish town in 1993, navigating gri...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage

BANNED 14 challenges

The Sun and Her Flowers

by Rupi Kaur

The Sun and Her Flowers is Rupi Kaur's second poetry collection, exploring themes of growth, ancestry, immigration, loss...

Sexual ContentLanguage

BANNED 14 challenges

The You I've Never Known

by Ellen Hopkins

The You I've Never Known follows Ariel, a teen discovering her sexual orientation while uncovering the truth about her f...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentViolence

BANNED 14 challenges

We Are the Ants

by Shaun David Hutchinson

We Are the Ants follows Henry Denton, a teen who has been periodically abducted by aliens and is now given a choice: pre...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentViolence

BANNED 12 challenges

The Upside of Unrequited

by Becky Albertalli

The Upside of Unrequited follows Molly Peskin-Suso, a plus-size teen with 26 unrequited crushes, as she navigates love a...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content