Amy Reed

About Amy Reed

Amy Reed is an American author of young adult fiction published by Simon & Schuster. Her novels are known for their unflinching approach to difficult subject matter, including addiction, eating disorders, toxic friendships, abusive relationships, and sexual violence. She began her publishing career with Beautiful in 2009, a debut novel about a shy girl from a small town who becomes enmeshed in a dangerous social world when she moves to Seattle. The novel was praised for its authentic voice and frank treatment of adolescent social dynamics. Reed has continued to publish with an emphasis on stories that give teenage readers honest mirrors of their most difficult experiences.

Her bibliography includes Clean (2011), about a teenager in a residential rehabilitation program; Crazy (2012); Over You (2013); Damaged (2014); Invincible (2015); Unforgivable (2016); The Nowhere Girls (2017); Our Stories, Our Voices (2018, as editor); The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World (2019); and Tell Me My Name (2021). She also contributed to the YA anthology Our Stories, Our Voices, which she edited.

Her Most Challenged Work

The Nowhere Girls is a fictionalized account of a group of girls who band together to confront rape culture at their school after learning that a girl was sexually assaulted by members of a local boys' group that had created a point-scoring system for sexual conquests. The novel was praised by Kirkus Reviews as a "highly nuanced and self-reflective narrative that captures rape culture's ubiquitous harm without swerving into didactic, one-size-fits-all solutions." It has been challenged and removed from libraries in Martin County, Florida, and challenged in Escambia County and Flagler County, Florida—with Flagler County's review committee voting to retain it. A teacher in Escambia County cited LGBTQ+ content, race-baiting, and anti-whiteness among her objections when challenging the book alongside three others. The Escambia School Board voted to return it to shelves after a 2023 review by its Materials Review Committee.