ALA 2025 List
The Most Challenged Books of 2025
These are the titles the American Library Association identified as the most challenged books in the country in 2025. Some of them have been censorship targets for years. Some climbed fast. All of them tell us what kind of stories book banners are still trying to suppress.
Why this page matters
Annual challenge lists are a snapshot, not the whole story. They show which books drew the most pressure in a given year, but they also reveal bigger patterns: queer books stay under attack, books about trauma and sexual violence keep getting targeted, and contemporary YA fantasy is firmly in the censorship crosshairs.
ALA's Top Challenged Titles of 2025
What stands out
- Ellen Hopkins placed multiple titles on the list again, which says a lot about how often books about trauma get targeted.
- Sarah J. Maas appears twice, showing that commercially massive fantasy is now a routine censorship target.
- Older titles still rank high, including A Clockwork Orange and Looking for Alaska, which means the cycle does not burn out on its own.
- Queer books remain central targets, including Gender Queer and Last Night at the Telegraph Club.