Park City schools must remove seven more books from their shelves after Utah carried out its largest single-batch ban under the state's sensitive materials law on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
The action pushes the statewide banned-book total to 44, The Salt Lake Tribune first reported. Park City School District must comply even though the district did not initiate any of the removals.
Under House Bill 29, signed into law in 2024, a book is removed from all public schools once at least three districts determine it contains "objective sensitive material" meeting state definitions for pornographic or indecent content. The seven new titles crossed that threshold through removal decisions in Davis, Jordan and Tooele school districts, according to Book Riot's analysis.
None of the seven books were previously available in elementary schools. The newly banned titles are:
- "House of Earth and Blood" by Sarah J. Maas
- "Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins
- "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins
- "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews
- "Kingdom of the Cursed" by Kerri Maniscalco
- "Storm and Fury" by Jennifer Armentrout
- "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" by V.E. Schwab
Maas now has seven titles on Utah's removal list, making her the most banned author in the state. Hopkins is second with six.
The ban list has grown quickly. The law started with 13 titles when it took effect July 1, 2024. Twenty-five titles have been added since January 2026 alone, according to Book Riot. Of the 44 books now prohibited, 33 are written by women.
For Park City families, the removals arrive whether the local district agrees or not. When the original 13 titles were banned in August 2024, Park City School District had independently removed none of them but told TownLift it would pull the books to comply with state law.
Hopkins, one of the newly banned authors, is also among several bestselling writers suing the state over the law. On Sept. 17, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled the authors had legal standing to continue their First Amendment challenge, denying parts of the state's motion to dismiss.
Hopkins wrote on her website about "Identical," her 2008 novel that spent two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list: "I chose this subject matter because the issue touched the lives of three of my friends."
The statewide removals apply only to public schools. The books can still be sold in bookstores, held in public libraries and owned privately. State officials typically have not cited specific content details when placing books on the statewide list, the Tribune reported.
In Park City, two residents launched the Banned Book Babes Book Club in February 2026 specifically to read and discuss titles removed from Utah schools. The federal lawsuit challenging the law is still pending before Judge Shelby.
