Yes, Empire of Storms Is Banned!

Empire of Storms is the fifth installment in Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series, a sprawling fantasy saga that follows Aelin Galathynius, an assassin turned queen, as she fights to reclaim her kingdom and defeat the dark forces threatening her world. By this point in the series, the characters are older and the romantic content has escalated significantly, including an explicit sex scene that has been the primary target of challenges. The book also features intense battle sequences and themes of sacrifice and destiny that have made the series a global bestseller.

Empire of Storms has been caught up in the same wave of challenges targeting all of Maas’s work. With nearly 100 total challenges, it has been removed from school libraries in Florida, Texas, Iowa, Utah, and Missouri, typically as part of bulk removals of Maas’s entire catalog. The challenges are driven almost entirely by the book’s sexual content, though violence is also cited. As with the ACOTAR series, the banning of Empire of Storms highlights the tension between books that millions of teenagers are actively reading and a removal movement that treats any depiction of sexuality as grounds for exclusion from school libraries.