Storm and Fury (Jennifer L. Armentrout)

Storm and Fury is a young adult fantasy novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout and the first book in her Harbinger series. It follows 18-year-old Trinity Marrow, who is protected from demons by shape-shifting Wardens. The main character lives with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye condition the author also has.

The book is not banned across the United States. It has been removed or restricted at school district level. PEN America listed it among the most banned books of the 2024-25 school year, with 16 recorded bans.

Why it was challenged: complaints focus on passages that critics consider too sexual for teens. According to Popular Information, the novel contains some make-out scenes and sexually themed content within a fantasy story. The author has said it was not written to incite sexual excitement.

Current situation: the case that drew most attention happened in Santa Rosa County, Florida. On 25 October 2023, two members of a local Moms for Liberty chapter took a copy of the book to the Sheriff’s Office and called it pornography under Florida law. The Sheriff’s Office referred them to the school district’s director of safety and the case was closed. The district said the book had not been formally challenged through its process but was unavailable for student check-out while reviews continued. The book had earlier been on the Florida Association of Media in Education’s Teen Reads list for 2020-21.

Other titles often removed in the same wave include Nineteen Minutes and The Bluest Eye; see our full list of banned and challenged books.