One common response to this increase in censorship attempts is that nothing makes people want to read a book more than it being banned. Also known as the Streisand effect, the idea is that book bans will actually make those book more popular and sell more copies. It’s a comforting thought, but it’s misleading. For one thing, in a list of 850 titles, no single book is getting a boost in popularity through word of mouth or media coverage: they all blend together. And in a seemingly never-ending wave of book challenges, it’s hard to think any of these titles are getting a lot of traction even if they do get news stories. The more books are challenged, and the more that the frequency makes these stories seem everyday, the less publicity those titles are getting. More importantly, this effect would only work if people know the book is being banned or challenged. Harder to track is the kind of quiet self-censorship that leads librarians and teachers to leave books off syllabi and shelves because they fear being faced with the wrath of book banners. While the American Library Association and other groups keep track of formal book challenges, these quieter instances are impossible to record, and they can only take books away from readers. A somewhat new factor in this war against antiracist and LGBTQ-inclusive books is review bombing. Review bombing is when a large group of people (or a small group of people with a lot of accounts) leave targeted negative reviews of a product online. When star ratings are involved, this can tank the item’s average rating. Here are some of the books getting targeted by review bombing: Bizarrely, Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen is also receiving 1-star reviews from people mixing it up with Evison’s book of the same title. More books being review bombed for having LGBTQ or antiracist content include:
The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson Drama by Raina Telgemeier Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out edited by Susan Kuklin Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi
And many, many more. Of course, if you want to do more, check out our anti-censorship toolkit.
