Take a trip back to the ’90s with Tenderness by Robert Cormier (published in 1997). 15-year-old Lori becomes obsessed with an 18-year-old serial killer who preys on girls and was just released from a juvenile detention center. It gets interesting when she sneaks into his van and ends up on a road trip with him. Lucky for her, she isn’t the kind of girl he normally goes for … or is she? Spoiler alert: this doesn’t end well.
Check here to see where it’s on the shelf. Also, Tenderness was turned into an awesomely bad movie with Russell Crowe.
Robert Cormier, who had a thing for writing teen books with sad, disturbing endings, is probably best known for The Chocolate War, which was banned by many schools and libraries.
Check out this list of other frequently banned books.
