Violence

Books Banned for Violence

48 books · 3509 total challenges

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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

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

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 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

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 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

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

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 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

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 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