Banned Books Week 2025: Adult Fiction, Part ILike this list

100 items

• Bless Me, Ultima

  Anaya, Rudolfo A.

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  Banned/Challenged for mature content, being profane and anti-Catholic.

• Christine

  King, Stephen, 1947-

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  Banned for "unacceptable language"; "offensive passages", violence, and explicit sex.

• Fair and Tender Ladies

  Smith, Lee, 1944-

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  Challenged for crude words; too graphic for teens.

• My Sister's Keeper

  a Novel

  Picoult, Jodi, 1966-

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  Banned/Challenged for drugs, suicide, violence, sexism, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, offensive language, being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.

• The Clan of the Cave Bear

  a Novel

  Auel, Jean M.

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  Banned for being sexually explicit.

• Cracking India

  a Novel

  Sidhwa, Bapsi

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  Challenged for "pornographic material."

• Fifty Shades of Grey

  James, E. L.

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  Banned/Challenged for nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, being sexually explicit, and being unsuited to certain age groups.

• In the Time of the Butterflies

  Alvarez, Julia

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  Banned/Challenged because of a drawing of a homemade bomb.

• The Learning Tree

  Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006

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  Challenged for advocacy of atheism.

• Song of Solomon

  Morrison, Toni, 1931-2019

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  Banned/Challenged because passages from the book are "filthy and inappropriate"; Complainants referred to the novel as "filth," "trash," and "repulsive."

• The House of the Spirits

  a Novel

  Allende, Isabel,

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  Challenged: "defames" Catholic faith; contains "pornographic passages."

• The Tortilla Curtain

  Boyle, T. Coraghessan

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  Challenged as provocative

• Year of Wonders

  a Novel of the Plague

  Brooks, Geraldine

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  Challenged as provocative

• The Lords of Discipline

  Conroy, Pat

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  Banned for sex, violence, and profanity

• Dreaming in Cuban

  a Novel

  García, Cristina, 1958-

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  Banned for sexually explicit passage

• Forrest Gump

  Groom, Winston, 1944-2020

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  Challenged: “pokes fun at blacks, makes numerous references to sex, and uses foul language inappropriate for tenth-graders.”

• Snow Falling on Cedars

  Guterson, David

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  Banned for racial epithets and sexually graphic passages

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

  Haddon, Mark, 1962-

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  Banned/Challenged for religious viewpoint and "atheism," as well as for offensive language.

• A Prayer for Owen Meany

  Irving, John, 1942-

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  Banned for crude language, sexual content

• Ulysses

  Joyce, James, 1882-1941

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  Banned/Challenged for obscenity and sexual content; Burned in the U.S. (1918), Ireland (1922), Canada (1922), England (1923) and banned in England (1929).