This is a list of authors whose books have been criticized for problematic content.
There are authors on the Code Orange and Code Red lists who have also written books with problematic content, but in those cases, they have done or said something more.
This page exists in large to recognize authors who, as people, have not spoken out or behaved in such a a way that hurts communities so much as they have had books which have been heavily criticized for their content. If other information comes to light, these authors may migrate to different lists.
On my reviews, look out for this banner:
Clicking the banner will link back to this page and allow the reader to look into the author in question and further understand what their book(s) have featured and decide how to proceed.
C
Cline, Ernest
- Cline’s Ready Player One has been criticized for erasure of Black culture in its 80s pop culture worshipping as well as sexist, transphobic, and racist comments. There’s a great blog post on Rhetorical Questions discussing the racial and gender concerns in the use of OASIS avatars as well.
- Ready Player Two has some cringe-worthy moments regarding a trans character and “non-binary sex”.
Chainani, Soman
- Both The School for Good and Evil and A World Without Princes are called out for sexism in its fairytale worldbuilding, as well as homophobic moments.
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De La Cruz, Melissa
- Melissa De La Cruz was one of the editors of the book Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, an essay collection about girls and their gay best friend. Many of the reviews speak for themselves about the fetishization, homophobic slurs, and stereotypes.
F
Faring, Sara
- There are multiple reviews on Goodreads calling out Faring for racist representation of the Mapuche and severe issues with the presentation of colonization in The Tenth Girl.
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Hodgson Burnett, Frances (Historical)
- In The Secret Garden, Mary has an outburst when Martha expresses disappointment her new charge is not Black. Mary goes so far as to say that they are not people just servants.
- Also in The Secret Garden, those who live in India are described as having yellow skin, and India is referred to as a place where people are always ill, perpetuating negative stereotypes about India. This does not appear in A Little Princess, where Sara has a similar background to Mary.
- Colin, a wheelchair-bound child in The Secret Garden, is “miraculously cured”, thus enforcing the harmful ableist stereotype that “curing” a disability is the only way to be happy. In addition, Colin’s disability is coded as “all in his head”, which is another extremely harmful belief.
L
Lim, Elizabeth
- I recently came across a series of posts discussing problematic content in Spin the Dawn, including ableism in that the MC impersonates her disabled brother and transphobia (crossdressing – again, impersonating her brother). Lim listened to early reviewers and some elements were edited out, but many readers felt this wasn’t enough.
Lu, Marie
- Marie Lu has received criticism of Warcross for using ableist language (see this review and this review), as well as some ableist representation in The Rose Society (this review, this review, and this review) where “hearing voices” is equated to “being evil”.
- There is some criticism of her short story “The Journey” included in A Tyranny of Petticoats where she is writing about Alaskan native culture, and it was not received well (see also this overall anthology review which notes some other concerning elements).
- In 2021, Lu and several of her colleagues announced Realms of Ruin, a project that encouraged fan fiction in a new universe that would then be turned into NFT. While this project was quickly cancelled and Lu has apologized (as of 10/24/2021), she received considerable backlash for soliciting free labor from teen writers and disregarding the extreme, negative impact NFTs have on the environment.
M
Meyer, Marissa
- The Lunar Chronicles have come under scrutiny for a couple different things. For one, Winter is heavily criticized for the treatment of mental health and both Winter and Fairest are called out for ableist content. There is a lot of heated discussion about race in Cinder and The Lunar Chronicles in general, both criticizing the author for being appropriative or not doing her research, and others who say there’s racism in the books, but the fandom is worse. Either way, something to look into.
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Oyeyemi, Helen
- Oyeyemi’s novel Boy, Snow, Bird contains a last minute twist that has been high criticized for transphobic content that ruined an otherwise good book. Additionally, the next book she wrote (Gingerbread) had further concerning perspectives on trans people and the LGBTQIAP+ community in general.
P
Patterson, James
- Patterson’s books are the likely origin for the “anonymous dead woman” trope in thrillers, which problematically shows women as expendable.
- In Invisible, Patterson casually criminalizes a trans individual.
- His middle-grade novel I Funny has been criticized for some problematic/ableist choices.
- As a side note, it’s well-known that James Patterson employees a series of ghostwriters to fill in the story from his plot outlines, which he then puts his name on. Basically, he doesn’t write his own books.
Pessl, Marisha
- It’s pretty easy to find reviews calling out Night Film for its problematic content. From racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia… you’ve got them all in the main characters of this book. Night Film is highly criticized for these things. It’s up to the reader to decide if Pessl was following traditional pulp and noir stereotypes or if these are reflections of her own opinions.
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Rutkoski, Marie
- The depiction of slavery in The Winner’s Trilogy has been widely criticized for being romanticized. In particular, readers note that the more horrific aspects of slavery are glazed over, and the dark-skinned Herrani are villainized for trying to secure freedom from their oppressors.
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Shakespeare, William (Historical)
You may be wondering why the heck Shakespeare is only a Code Yellow. This is the historian in me coming out, the one who is looking at Shakespeare in the context of his time (over 400 years ago) and also nodding to the theory that it’s possible/likely Shakespeare did not pen many of the works we attribute to him. Frankly, these works are so old that we just don’t have reliable proof of who he was or even entirely what he wrote.
It’s undeniable that when held to a modern standard, many of his plays are highly problematic. Racism, sexism, and antisemitism run rampant. Sadly, at the time of publication his ideals would have been radical and progressive. How far we have come. Modern readers will be highly disturbed by Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice among others.
Many believe that Shakespeare is a relic of the past to be disregarded. I empower you to make your own decision whether these works can be salvaged and updated, discussed with pressure put on the problematic points, or should be tossed into a bonfire.
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Verne, Jules (Historical)
Jules Verne is a bit of a complicated character in figuring out his true alignment based on his books. As a French author who was incredibly successful, his books have been translated around the world with varying levels of accuracy. Readers and scholars have noted problematic illustrations of Black and Jewish characters in the books, and a lack of female characters aside from those that are to be married or rescued (common for the era). Some of these things may come from the original text, others from translation. Depending on which version you read, characters may have different attributes. Verne did not take much time at character depth in his books, so minorities are flat and underdeveloped… but in all fairness, so are the white protagonists.
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White, Kiersten
White’s And I Darken trilogy has been criticized for irreverence against Islamic cultures. Specifically, White writes And I Darken from an outside culture and the story did not keep accurately to history. The book has also been criticized for homophobic elements and general problematicness. Proceed with caution before reading.
Wrede, Patricia C.
Wrede’s Thirteenth Child is a fantastical retelling of the American West. It has been criticized for deliberately excluding Native Americans.
Last Updated: 2/8/2022