Books Banned for Sexual Content
83 books · 5703 total challenges
Forever
Forever is Judy Blume's groundbreaking novel about Katherine and Michael, two teenagers who fall in love and make the de...
The Color Purple
The Color Purple is Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning epistolary novel about Celie, a young Black woman in the rural...
Nineteen Minutes
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult examines a school shooting and its aftermath through multiple perspectives, exploring b...
Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five is Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war masterpiece about Billy Pilgrim, who becomes 'unstuck in time' and exper...
Looking for Alaska
Looking for Alaska is John Green's debut novel about a teenager who enrolls at a boarding school and falls for the brill...
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie's semi-autobiographical novel about Arnold Spirit Jr.,...
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is Stephen Chbosky's coming-of-age epistolary novel about Charlie, a shy freshman naviga...
All Boys Aren't Blue
All Boys Aren't Blue is George M. Johnson's young adult memoir about growing up Black and queer in New Jersey and Virgin...
Tricks
Tricks follows five teenagers from different backgrounds whose lives converge as they are drawn into prostitution. Writt...
Crank
Crank is a novel-in-verse based on Ellen Hopkins' daughter's experience with methamphetamine addiction. Written in Hopki...
1984
1984 is George Orwell's dystopian novel about Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in the totalitaria...
Sold
Sold is a novel-in-verse about Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal who is trafficked and sold into sexual slave...
Speak
Speak is Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning novel about Melinda Sordino, a high school freshman who is ostracized aft...
Lawn Boy
Lawn Boy is Jonathan Evison's coming-of-age novel about Mike Muñoz, a young Mexican-American man working as a landscaper...
Thirteen Reasons Why
Thirteen Reasons Why follows high school student Clay Jensen as he listens to cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a...
Identical
Identical is a novel-in-verse about identical twin sisters Kaeleigh and Raeanne, whose seemingly perfect political famil...
Brave New World
Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel depicting a future society where humans are genetically engineered, c...
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Gender Queer is a graphic memoir by Maia Kobabe that explores eir journey with gender identity and sexuality. The book h...
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner follows Amir, the son of a wealthy Kabul businessman, and his complicated relationship with Hassan, the ...
Out of Darkness
Out of Darkness is a historical novel set in 1937 East Texas, interweaving a forbidden interracial love story between a ...
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale is Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel set in Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that has replaced the U...
This Book Is Gay
This Book Is Gay is a nonfiction guide for LGBTQ+ teens and their allies, covering topics from coming out to safe sex to...
Flamer
Flamer is a graphic novel memoir about Aiden Navarro, a half-Filipino boy at a Boy Scout camp in the early 2000s who is ...
Water for Elephants
Water for Elephants is a historical novel set in a Depression-era traveling circus, following veterinary student Jacob J...
A Court of Thorns and Roses
A Court of Thorns and Roses is a fantasy romance retelling of Beauty and the Beast, following huntress Feyre as she's ta...
A Court of Mist and Fury
A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR series, following Feyre as she navigates the after...
A Court of Wings and Ruin
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...
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a darkly comic young adult novel about Greg, a socially awkward high school senior who...
Empire of Storms
Empire of Storms is the fifth book in Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass fantasy series, following assassin-queen Aelin Gal...
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange follows Alex, a teenage delinquent in a dystopian future who leads his gang through nights of ultravi...
The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's debut novel, published in 1970, telling the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young Black g...
Wicked
Wicked reimagines the Land of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, exploring themes of good...
Beloved
Beloved is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison set after the American Civil War. Inspired by the true story ...
Beyond Magenta
Beyond Magenta presents the stories of six transgender and nonbinary teens through interviews and photographs. It has be...
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Set in 1950s San Francisco Chinatown, Last Night at the Telegraph Club follows Lily Hu as she discovers her attraction t...
Living Dead Girl
Living Dead Girl tells the story of Alice, a girl kidnapped at age ten and held captive by a predator for five years. Wr...
Push
Push tells the story of Precious Jones, an illiterate, obese Black teenager in Harlem who has been raped repeatedly by h...
The Lovely Bones
The Lovely Bones is narrated by Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old girl who watches from heaven as her family and killer ...
Breathless
Breathless follows Claudine Henry through a transformative summer of first love, self-discovery, and sexual awakening be...
A Clash of Kings
A Clash of Kings, the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, continues the epic struggle for the Iron Throne ...
Burned
Burned tells the story of Pattyn Von Stratten, a seventeen-year-old girl raised in a strict Mormon household who begins ...
Milk and Honey
Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry divided into four chapters dealing with survival, abuse, love, and femininity. ...
The DUFF
The DUFF follows seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper, who is labeled the 'Designated Ugly Fat Friend' and begins a complicat...
This One Summer
This One Summer is a graphic novel about Rose and Windy, two girls spending the summer at a lakeside town, navigating th...
A Stolen Life
A Stolen Life is Jaycee Dugard's memoir of being kidnapped at age eleven and held captive for eighteen years by Phillip ...
Damsel
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...
Glass
Glass is the sequel to Crank, continuing Kristina Snow's descent into methamphetamine addiction as she loses custody of ...
Storm and Fury
Storm and Fury follows Trinity Marrow, an eighteen-year-old with a dangerous secret, who is caught between warring angel...
A Court of Frost and Starlight
A Court of Frost and Starlight is a bridge novella in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series, following Feyr...
Impulse
Impulse follows three teenagers who meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide. It has been challen...
Kingdom of Ash
Kingdom of Ash is the epic conclusion to Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series, in which Aelin Galathynius fights to sa...
Lucky
Lucky is Alice Sebold's memoir of being raped as a college freshman and the subsequent criminal trial. It has been chall...
Perfect
Perfect follows four teenagers whose pursuit of perfection leads them into eating disorders, steroid abuse, drug addicti...
Red Hood
Red Hood is a feminist retelling of Little Red Riding Hood in which Bisou Martel discovers a connection between her body...
Tilt
Tilt follows three teenagers whose lives intersect around love, sex, and identity, told in Ellen Hopkins's signature ver...
A Court of Silver Flames
A Court of Silver Flames follows Nesta Archeron as she deals with trauma, trains as a warrior, and begins a relationship...
Beautiful
Beautiful follows Cassie as she reinvents herself at a new school, falling into a world of drugs, sex, and toxic friends...
Fallout
Fallout follows the three children of Kristina Snow from the Crank trilogy as they navigate the lasting damage of their ...
Grown
Grown follows Enchanted Jones, a teenage singer who is groomed and abused by a famous R&B artist, inspired by real cases...
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter follows Julia Reyes, a first-generation Mexican American teenager dealing with he...
The Haters
The Haters follows three jazz camp dropouts who start a band and go on a chaotic road trip through the American South. F...
The Poet X
The Poet X follows Xiomara Batista, a Dominican American teenager in Harlem who pours her frustrations with her strict r...
Tower of Dawn
Tower of Dawn follows Chaol Westfall as he journeys to the southern continent seeking healing and an alliance against th...
What Girls Are Made Of
What Girls Are Made Of follows sixteen-year-old Nina Faye as she searches for love and validation through her relationsh...
Homegoing
Homegoing traces two branches of a family tree across three centuries, from 18th-century Ghana through the slave trade t...
I'll Give You the Sun
I'll Give You the Sun follows twins Jude and Noah, whose bond is shattered by secrets, grief, and the discovery of Noah'...
Man o' War
Man o' War follows River, a nonbinary teen and competitive swimmer, navigating gender identity, first love, and family e...
Smoke
Smoke is the sequel to Burned, continuing Pattyn Von Stratten's story as she deals with devastating loss, her sister's r...
The Female of the Species
The Female of the Species follows Alex Craft, a girl who killed the man who raped and murdered her sister, and the two c...
The Infinite Moment of Us
The Infinite Moment of Us follows Wren and Charlie as they fall in love the summer after high school graduation, navigat...
Traffick
Traffick is the sequel to Tricks, following five teenagers trapped in sex trafficking as they fight to escape and rebuil...
Vampire Academy
Vampire Academy follows Rose Hathaway, a half-vampire guardian-in-training, and her best friend Lissa, a Moroi vampire p...
Shout
Shout is Laurie Halse Anderson's memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault, becoming a writer, and the decades she ...
This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story
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...
Forever for a Year
Forever for a Year follows Carolina and Trevor through the highs and lows of their first serious relationship, told in a...
House of Earth and Blood
House of Earth and Blood is the first book in Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series, following half-fae Bryce Quinlan as ...
Like a Love Story
Like a Love Story follows three teenagers in 1989 New York City navigating love, identity, and the AIDS crisis. It has b...
More Happy Than Not
More Happy Than Not follows Aaron Soto, a Bronx teenager who considers a memory-altering procedure to forget his emergin...
The Carnival at Bray
The Carnival at Bray follows Maggie Lynch, a Chicago teenager transplanted to a small Irish town in 1993, navigating gri...
The Sun and Her Flowers
The Sun and Her Flowers is Rupi Kaur's second poetry collection, exploring themes of growth, ancestry, immigration, loss...
The You I've Never Known
The You I've Never Known follows Ariel, a teen discovering her sexual orientation while uncovering the truth about her f...
We Are the Ants
We Are the Ants follows Henry Denton, a teen who has been periodically abducted by aliens and is now given a choice: pre...
The Upside of Unrequited
The Upside of Unrequited follows Molly Peskin-Suso, a plus-size teen with 26 unrequited crushes, as she navigates love a...