Yes, The Nowhere Girls Is Banned!

The Nowhere Girls follows Grace, Rosina, and Erin, three outcasts at a high school in a small Oregon town, who discover that a girl was run out of school after reporting a sexual assault that everyone covered up. They start an anonymous movement called The Nowhere Girls to fight back against the culture of silence. The novel weaves together multiple perspectives, including unnamed girls sharing their own experiences with consent, assault, and shame. Published by Simon Pulse in 2017, it won an Oregon Spirit Book Award.

The book has been challenged or banned in at least five states. In Flagler County, Florida, it was among 22 books challenged in the 2022-23 school year, though a 14-member appeals committee voted unanimously to keep it on shelves. In Escambia County, Florida, a Northview High School teacher challenged it alongside three other books, alleging “LGBTQ indoctrination” and “race-baiting.” Keller ISD in Texas and Wentzville in Missouri also removed it. The objections typically cite sexual content and LGBTQ+ themes, though the book’s real offense is showing teenagers who refuse to stay quiet.

Why You Should Read This

Reed wrote a book about girls who get angry and do something with that anger. That alone seems to be enough to get it pulled from shelves. The novel doesn’t sugarcoat sexual assault or pretend consent is simple. It lets its characters be messy, scared, and brave in ways that feel earned.

What makes The Nowhere Girls worth your time is the chorus of unnamed voices threaded through the main story. Girls you never see, speaking about what happened to them, what they wished they’d said, what they’re still carrying. It’s uncomfortable reading. It should be. The alternative is the silence the book was written to break. If adults are banning a novel about girls fighting rape culture, the book’s point has already been made for it.