Plus, the most frequently banned books this year
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that book banning is on the rise in the United States. Over the past four years, the number of books pulled out of circulation in libraries and schools has increased dramatically. But it might surprise you to hear who the most-banned author of 2025 is.
Since the recent wave of book banning began in 2021, PEN America—an organization standing at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression—has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools nationwide in their annual banned books list.
Now, they’ve released the 2025 list of the most-banned books in the country. Read on to find out what books and authors made the report, and the states where books are most likely to get pulled off the shelves.
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What’s the recent history of book banning in the U.S.?
Americans have been banning books since the 17th century, but the practice has never been as common as it is today, at a time when our freedom of speech is under threat. So, what’s happening?
“This censorship is being mobilized by groups espousing conservative viewpoints—and has spread to nearly every state—and predominantly targets books about race and racism or books featuring individuals of color and LGBTQ+ people and topics, as well as those for older readers that have sexual references or discuss sexual violence,” according to PEN America.
Between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, the organization recorded 6,870 instances of book bans affecting nearly 4,000 unique titles across 23 states and 87 public school districts.
Who is the most frequently banned author?
Stephen King is the most frequently banned author of 2025, according to the PEN America report. A total of 87 of his books were censored 206 times during the 2024–2025 school year. Some of the controversial titles include Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary and The Shining.
A number of counties in Florida are responsible for removing dozens of King’s books from school libraries as part of a review of whether they’re in compliance with state laws, the Associated Press reports.
Why King? “His books are often removed from shelves when ‘adult’ titles or books with ‘sex content’ are targeted for removal—these prohibitions overwhelmingly ban LGBTQ+ content and books on race, racism and people of color—but also affect titles like Stephen King’s books,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read program and an author of the report, told the AP.
Meehan continues: “Some districts—in being overly cautious or fearful of punishment—will sweep so wide they end up removing Stephen King from access too.”
Which other authors top the list?
Other authors with multiple books on this year’s banned list include:
- Elizabeth Acevedo
- Becky Albertali
- Coe Booth
- Meg Cabot
- Bernard Evslin
- E.R. Frank
- Abbi Glines
- John Green
- Duchess Harris
- Colleen Hoover
- Ellen Hopkins
- Shaun David Hutchinson
- Tiffany D. Jackson
- Rupi Kaur
- David Levithan
- Sarah J. Maas
- George R.R. Martin
- Atsushi Ohkubo
- Jodi Picoult
- Louise Rennison
- Alice Sebold
- Mariko Tamaki
What are the most frequently banned books?
The most frequently banned books of 2025, according to PEN America, are:
1. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess (23 bans)
2. (tie) Breathless, by Jennifer Niven (20 bans)
2. (tie) Sold, by Patricia McCormick (20 bans)
3. Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo (19 bans)
4. A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas (18 bans)
5. (tie) Crank, by Ellen Hopkins (17 bans)
5. (tie) Forever…, by Judy Blume (17 bans)
5. (tie) The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (17 bans)
5. (tie) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire (17 bans)
6. (tie) All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson (16 bans)
6. (tie) A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas (16 bans)
6. (tie) Damsel, by Elana K. Arnold (16 bans)
6. (tie) The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend, by Kody Keplinger (16 bans)
6. (tie) Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult (16 bans)
6. (tie) Storm and Fury, by Jennifer L. Armentrout (16 bans)
Additionally, these books were banned in 50 or more school districts in the 2023–2024 school year:
- The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
- A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin
- A Court of Frost and Starlight, by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Wings and Ruin, by Sarah J. Maas
- Empire of Storms, by Sarah J. Maas
- The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
- The Haters, by Jesse Andrews
- The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
- Identical, by Ellen Hopkins
- Kingdom of Ash, by Sarah J. Maas
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
- Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green
- Lucky, by Alice Sebold
- Man o’ War, by Cory McCarthy
- Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
- Out of Darkness, by Ashley Hope Pérez
- Perfect, by Ellen Hopkins
- Red Hood, by Elana K. Arnold
- A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Dugard
- Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
- This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story, by Kacen Callender
- Tilt, by Ellen Hopkins
- Tower of Dawn, by Sarah J. Maas
- Tricks, by Ellen Hopkins
- Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
- What Girls Are Made Of, by Elana K. Arnold
Why are these books banned from schools?
According to PEN America, the majority of books that are targeted often explore themes of race and racism, gender identity and sexuality or depict sexual violence. More specifically, books depicting same-sex and trans identities have been labeled as inherently “sexual.” This characterizes LGBTQ+ identities as “sexually explicit” and erases LGBTQ+ representation from schools.
Additionally, many of the concerns about books stem from what some people perceive to be explicit material, offensive language or so-called age-inappropriateness, attorney Brent C.J. Britton previously told Reader’s Digest. Oftentimes, administrators find that it’s safer to remove books from their school’s library in the face of pressure from special-interest groups than to fight for their places on library shelves.
Which states ban the most books?
For the third year in a row, Florida was the state with the most book bans, with a total of 2,304.
Here’s the full list of states that ban the most books:
- Florida: 2,304 bans
- Texas: 1,781 bans
- Tennessee: 1,622 bans
- Idaho: 150 bans
- Iowa: 113 bans
- Virginia: 97 bans
- Pennsylvania: 73 bans
- Georgia: 43 bans
- Utah: 26 bans
- Colorado: 19 bans
- Minnesota: 16 bans
- Wyoming: 8 bans
- Maryland: 6 bans
- South Carolina: 5 bans
- Oregon: 4 bans
- Arizona: 2 bans
- Indiana: 2 bans
- Missouri: 2 bans
- North Carolina: 2 bans
- Wisconsin: 2 bans
- Kansas: 1 ban
- New Hampshire: 1 ban
Do any states have laws against banning books?
Yes. Since 2023, nine states have passed laws against banning books. These are California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington.
Many of these laws include three common features:
- Tying state-level funding to library agreements not to remove books for ideological, political or discriminatory reasons
- Requiring libraries to adopt formal policies governing collection development and challenge processes
- Providing librarians with strengthened legal protections
These laws show that states have the ability to push back against the increasing book bans with their own anti-book-banning legislation.
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At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite books for over 100 years. We’ve worked with bestselling authors including Susan Orlean, Janet Evanovich and Alex Haley, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning Roots grew out of a project funded by and originally published in the magazine. Through Fiction Favorites (formerly Select Editions and Condensed Books), Reader’s Digest has been publishing anthologies of abridged novels for decades. We’ve worked with some of the biggest names in fiction, including James Patterson, Ruth Ware, Kristin Hannah and more. The Reader’s Digest Book Club, helmed by Books Editor Tracey Neithercott, introduces readers to even more of today’s best fiction by upcoming, bestselling and award-winning authors. For this piece, Elizabeth Yuko tapped her experience as a writer and professor to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- PEN America: “Banned Books List 2025”
- PEN America: “The Normalization of Book Banning”
- PEN America: “PEN America index of school book bans – 2024-2025”
- Associated Press: “Stephen King is the most banned author in US schools, PEN report says”
- American Libraries Magazine: “Banning the Book Bans”
