Here are the most banned books of 2025.

As we round out #BannedBooksWeek, it’s time to observe a grim new tradition. PEN America has announced its annual most-banned-books-of-the-year list.

This year’s crop of “objectionable” titles may surprise you. If we consider censored books by theme, critique of an authoritarian government—as embodied in the year’s most hunted book—seems to have netted fewer bees in bonnets across the board. This year’s censors were most freaked out by teenage sexuality of any kind.

At least six of the books on the list were ousted on the basis of erotic or obscene scenarios—whether queer, straight, or magically tinged. Fantasy worlds like Oz and the Fae Land of Prythian were not exempt from the ruthless gaze of literal-minded Puritan descendants. Cheekiness or historical aspects be darned.

But don’t take my armchair analysis for it. Here are the most banned titles of 2025.

23 bans: A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess.

Almost two dozen school districts came for this dystopian opera, written in 1962. Violent and filled with pyrotechnic language, this was one of my favorites in high school. So here’s to sneaking it around the thought prison bars.

20 bans: Breathless, by Jennifer Niven; Sold, by Patricia McCormick.

Here, the romance creeps in. Twenty districts came for Niven’s tender tale of youth romance and McCormick’s hard-hitting historical fiction about a young Nepalese girl who is trafficked into sex work. A gamut emerges.

19 bans: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo. 

This historical novel, set in the 1950s, follows a young Chinese American woman coming into sexual consciousness care of a popular lesbian bar.

18 bans: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas. 

The sequel to Maas’ seismic first novel, this follow-up was called “obscene” in Virginia on the basis of certain sex scenes. A werewolf may or not be involved in these.

17 bans: Crank, by Ellen Hopkins; Forever…, by Judy Blume; The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky; Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire.

A four way tie takes the 17 ban title. Here we have a tale of teen addiction, a sweet look at teen virginity loss, a classic (to-my-generation) yarn of a teen unpacking childhood abuse while finding fellow weirdos and getting into Rocky Horror. And, of course, there’s the hot-button origin story for a fictional witch.

Hard to draw a precise CW pattern from this set. But the sex panic clearly continues.

16 bans: All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson; A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas; Damsel, by Elana K. Arnold; The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend, by Kody Keplinger; Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult; Storm and Fury, by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

This crop of banned books is among the strangest for being calibrated for high-schoolers. Johnson’s award-winning memoir manifesto was intended as a “reassuring testimony for young queer men of color.” And DUFF, an edgy chronicle from the oft-overlooked best friend of trope, was written by an actual high-schooler when she was 17.

And while the Picoult engages a tougher subject (a school shooting and its fallout), the other three titles in this crop are pure romantasy. I’m left extra curious about the districts that made a point to ban the Maas sequel while letting the original stand. Guess it doesn’t get better everywhere.

As the week concludes, the PEN Report reminds us readers to stay vigilant. According to the org, “never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country. Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide.” As censorship rises, we pledge to keep calm and carry our library cards.

Meanwhile, you can find the full index of the most banned books during the 2024-2025 school year here.