Book Review: That Book is Dangerous!

Adam Szetela, That book is dangerous! how moral panic, social media, and the culture wars are remaking publishing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2025. ISBN: 9780262049856.

Genre: books and reading

Subgenre: publishing, censorship, left politics

Format: hardcover

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College 

 

I picked up this book with some interest in the topic. These days when you think about banned and challenged books you mostly think of right wing conservatives and Christian extremists harassing teachers and librarians to remove books they dislike from libraries. I first picked up this book shortly after Banned Books Week 2025 ended as it seemed timely. 

This book deals with the other side of the coin: Left wing progressives who harass authors and publishers to censor books they don't deem progressive enough and/or not the correct form of progressive. Who determines what is progressive, diverse, etc.? Those activists do using harassment tactics such as review bombing books that often are not even published yet, pressuring authors to just withdraw their own works, and pushing publishers to not publish certain works. Basically while right wingers go after schools and libraries, left wingers go directly after authors and publishers, including authors and publishers who are actually progressive, with left wing politics, diverse, so on. 

The topic is interesting and timely, but the book itself is just not that interesting. It can get repetitive at times, and it just does not draw readers in. It is fairly well researched with extensive notes and features interviews with authors, publishing industry members, sensitivity readers, and others involved in the world of books and publishing. 

Speaking of sensitivity readers, well, they bring a few problems in their wake: 

"In the past decade and a half, the emergence of platforms as different as Twitter, Tumblr, TikTok, and Goodreads has allowed anyone with an internet connection to be a public literary critic. It has also allowed anyone with a 'marginalized identity' to be a gatekeeper" (4). 

And before anyone chimes, yes, I am a book reviewer, but I also bring academic qualifications and librarian skills and experience, plus I do not go using my identity for gatekeeping nor making money unlike the professional gatekeepers the author describes. As the author points out, it can pay to be that gatekeeper sensitivity reader for authors and publishers wanting to sell books and stay in the good graces of certain progressive groups. 

In the end, I would consider this book to be optional for libraries. It does provide a counterbalance to the usual banned and challenged books narrative, and it exposes a quite insidious censorship mechanism that most regular readers have no idea is happening. I just wish it offered a better reading experience, one does not feel like I am reading for homework. 

It was OK for me. 

2 out of 5 stars.