REBELS READ BANNED BOOKS
Fahrenheit 451, Maus, Beloved+
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a 1999 novel that was adapted into the 2012 film of the same name, starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. It’s a high school story about grief, identity, friendship, support, and courage. It is also about queerness, depression, and abuse — all very real and common realities of our world today. I read it when I was 16 and lonely, and it made me feel seen and held. Today, in multiple states across the country, many young people don’t have access to its pages. This is because in 2025 it was the second-most targeted piece of literature for book bans.
Last year, we experienced an unprecedented record high of book bans throughout the US. In total, 5,668 books were banned, and hundreds of others were censored, reallocated, and restricted within schools and libraries. These books are largely being banned, not because of grassroots efforts or parental protests, but because of a movement fueled by government figures and pressure groups, all under the guise of protecting children. What we’re seeing is a removal of books that cover topics such as race, social justice, and LGBTQIA+ themes.
Notable books that have seen censorship include literary classics such as Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, A Clockwork Orange, and The Color Purple. Even George Orwell’s 1984, which ironically imagines a dystopian universe where free speech is completely eradicated, has faced banning disputes.
This is becoming the new normal; however, it is truly a slowly encroaching extremity that makes storytelling more important than ever before. At this time, AI companies are acquiring rare books just to ingest their contents before permanently destroying them; libraries are in a crisis, shutting down across the country due to insufficient funding and support, and books are disappearing from the shelves of public spaces — stories that might have otherwise helped someone on the fringes of what we are told is good and normal in our society. Queer, underrepresented, and marginalized voices are essential within the literary canon of our country, and they deserve the protections of free speech now more than ever.
Check out some of our favorite banned books below:
“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
“Go Tell It On The Mountain” by James Baldwin
“Maus” by Art Spiegelman
“The Handmaids Tale” by Margaret Atwood
“All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
“A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
“1984” by George Orwell
“Wicked” by Gregory Maguire
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” as told to Alex Haley