📚 Banned Book Spotlight: Oryx and Crake

About the Author

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet, and critic, famous for her sharp, speculative works that explore themes like science, ethics, power, and environment. Her writing often pushes boundaries, asking what happens when science outpaces morality.

Story in Brief

Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel set in a future shaped by genetic engineering, biotech corporations, environmental collapse, and social stratification. The story follows Jimmy (later “Snowman”), whose childhood friend Crake becomes involved in radical experiments. Crake creates a new species of beings, the Crakers, intending them to replace humanity. As civilization falls apart, Jimmy struggles with memory, survival, and what it means to be human in a world remade by science gone too far.

Why It’s Banned in 2024-2025

Under Utah’s House Bill 29, Oryx and Crake was one of 13 books banned statewide from public schools, starting in 2024, because it was judged to contain “objective sensitive material.”

The reasons cited include depictions of explicit sexual content, violence, and morally challenging themes (such as exploitation, human trafficking, and biotech ethics).

It also appears in other district-level bans (for example, in Texas school districts like Katy ISD) for similar content objections.

Why It Still Matters

Because Oryx and Crake is more than a story about calamity—it’s a warning. It predicts what can happen when ethics are sidelined in the name of progress, when corporations prioritize profit over people, and when past trauma pulses through personal choices. Banning it doesn’t erase those risks; it only keeps them in the dark.