Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of violence, suicide, sexual assault, enslavement, physical and emotional abuse, antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and murder.

Information of all kinds circulates through the little town of Troy. Cable news networks, Facebook posts, library books, rumors, and gossip all constitute sources of information that the community consumes. As the novel indicates, not all these sources are trustworthy, and all are competing for the minds and hearts of the town’s residents to promote a specific agenda. If knowledge is power, those who dispense or withhold information can control the town.

Lula is the most obvious example of someone who exploits disinformation to gain power. She was adept at this tactic long before she began banning books. When Lula wanted the final cheerleading slot on the varsity team in high school, she tried to turn Beverly against Darlene. Darlene was raped while intoxicated at a party in high school, and Lula implied that this was Darlene’s fault. Beverly immediately saw through Lula’s ploy and rejected it. This incident constitutes the beginning of their enmity toward one another. Decades later, Lula will once again try to distort information to sway opinion in Troy. She will play on the fears of the populace that their children are being groomed by LGBTQ+ people and that liberal books are making this transformation possible.