Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

• Author: Kirsten Miller
• Genre: Contemporary Fiction
• Publication Date: June 18, 2024
• Publisher: William Morrow

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: book bans, prejudice, antisemitism, infidelity, xenophobia, suicide, brief mention of sexual assault, homophobia, white supremacy

The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town…and change it forever.

I really loved Kirsten Miller’s other book, so naturally, I was thrilled to get approved for this one. Much like her previous work, this one felt very timely and relevant to what has been occurring in American society for the past few years. Miller’s satire takes on the topic of book bans with her trademark humor and heartwarming cast of characters.

Miller’s writing style is absolutely wonderful. There is an overarching story being told about a feud between Beverly Underwood and Lula Dean, but the majority of the story is told through an interconnected series of vignettes. I might be biased because I just finished watching the series, but I got Palm Royale vibes while reading this book.

Each of the characters is so well-crafted, despite having a large cast of characters. The main story revolves around the conflict between Beverly Underwood and Lula Dean. With Beverly on the school board and Lula Dean making it her mission to remove all the books she sees as “inappropriate” from public libraries, these two women with strong personalities are bound to clash. Lula Dean proceeds to build herself a little library hutch outside her house and stock it with wholesome books to replace the “pornographic” books she wants taken out of the libraries. But none of them know that Beverly’s daughter Lindsay has snuck out overnight and replaced these wholesome books with banned books, hiding them under the wholesome dust covers.

But the real story lies in this vignettes—the books are ironic opposites of the dust covers that they’re hiding under, and when each person takes a book out of Lula Dean’s lending library, we are given a front row seat into how these books change their lives. We first learn about what may have led them to the book they chose, whether this is a recommendation from a friend or just an interest in the subject matter, and then the little ways that reading a book they might not have normally chosen creates big changes in their behaviors and life. 

If you take a peek at the content warnings, this story discusses some heavy topics. Book bans by nature try to censor out the elements our society wants to deny taking accountability for, to avoid having a reckoning with, and to continue to pretend are no longer a problem. So is it any surprise that book bans tend to focus overwhelmingly on books written by and about people of color, indigenous people, people who are immigrants/migrants/refugees, ethnic and/or religious minorities, and the LGBTQI2S+ community? 

Overall, this was another fantastic read from Kirsten Miller, who has just earned a spot on my auto-buy list! The story was fun and felt lighthearted for the most part, yet there is space held for exploration of how the different ideas held affect all the people within the town. These ideas have the power to alter a dynamic within a town, whether for good or ill, and we get to see both sides of this over the course of the book. Ultimately, it wound up being a powerful story, and I love how everything worked out. I will enthusiastically recommend this one to all fans of reading and anyone who is against book bans, especially when they’re initiated by people like Lula Dean, who admits that she hadn’t read a single one of the books she felt were “inappropriate and pornographic.” So don’t be like Lula Dean, and give this book a read!

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