Want to find out if a book is clean, or find appropriate books without having to read them all yourself? Book X-ray is the place to find out about the content of books beyond the critical review. We let you know if a book you want to read (or your kids need to read for school, or your book club is considering) contains profanity, sexual content, violence, controversy and more...then you decide what to read.

This is a reader-driven site, so we need your help! Here's how to post a review.

Tall Grass by Sandra Dallas

Contains mild profanity, mild sexual content (rape, but not graphic), and moderate violence.

Thanks, Tansy!

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Contains moderate profanity, heavy violence and gore, heavy sexual content, and several graphic episodes of suicide.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Contains mild profanity, moderate violence, mild sexual content.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Does not contain any profanity, violence or sexual content.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Contains mild profanity, mild violence, and heacy sexual content.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Contains mild profanity and mild violence.

Howard's End by E.M. Forster

Contains mild violence and mild sexual content.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Contains moderate profanity and heavy violence and gore.

The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

Contains mild violence.

Thanks, Cheryl-Lynn!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Contains mild sexual content and moderate violence and gore.

Thanks, Cheryl-Lynn!

A Bride in the Bargain by Deeanne Gist

Contains mild violence.

Thanks, Cheryl-Lynn!

Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood

Contains mild profanity, moderate sexual content, and mild violence.

Thanks, Patsy!

Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende

Contains mild profanity, heavy violence, and heavy sexual content.

Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson

Contains mild nudity and sexual content, moderate violence, and mild and brief depiction of child abuse.

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Contains heavy profanity and mild sexual content.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

Contains moderate profanity and heavy sexual content.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Contains mild profanity, mild sexual content, moderate violence, and a moderate scene dealing with suicide.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Contains very mild language, mild violence, briefly alludes to sexuality.

Thanks, Elissa!

The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson

Contains moderate profanity, and mild sexual content.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Contains mild sexual content (implied about the mother)and mild violence (handled appropriately for young readers).

Thanks, Patsy!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Contains mild profanity, moderate sexual content and nudity, and moderate violence.

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

Contains mild profanity, mild sexual content and moderate violence.

Thanks, Elissa!

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Contains moderate profanity, moderate/heavy sexual content, and mild violence.

Thanks, Elissa and Cheryl-Lynn!

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Contains mild profanity, mild sexual content, and moderate violence.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Contaings moderate profanity, moderate sexual content, and mild violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Contains mild sexual content (implied but very, very discreet 19th century sort of way), and moderate violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

Contains mild profanity.

Thanks, Melanie!

The Power and the Glory by Graham Green

Contains mild profanity, mild sexual content, and mild violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Contains mild sexual content and moderate violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Contains mild profanity and moderate violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Contains mild nudity and moderate violence related to WWII concentration camps.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Heavy profanity (mostly German swearwords and Diety) and mild violence (mentions beatings and many deaths, but nothing graphic).

Thanks, Mary W!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Contains moderate profanity, moderate nudity, and moderate violence.

Thanks, Mary W!

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale

Contains mild profanity and mild sexual content.

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner

Contains mild violence.

Thanks, Cheryl-Lynn!

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Contains moderate profanity, moderate nudity, and moderate violence.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Contains mild profanity, heavy sexual content, and moderate violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Contains moderate/heavy profanity (stronger in content than in frequency), heavy sexual content, and mild violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

The Professor's House by Willa Cather

Contains mild profanity.

Thanks, Melanie!

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

Contains mild profanity.

Thanks, Melanie!

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Contains mild profanity, mild sexual content, and mild violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Contains moderate profanity, mild sexual content and mild violence. If I remember correctly, there wasn't a lot of explicit sexual detail, but there were frequent references to sex. Definitely a book for adults in subject matter.

Thanks, Melanie!

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Contains moderate profanity, moderate sexual content, and moderate violence.

Thanks, Melanie!

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Does not contain profanity, sexual content, or violence.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Contains mild profanity, moderate sexual content, and moderate violence.

Thanks, Sarah!

Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman

Does not contain profanity, sexual content, or violence.

The Blonde Lady by Maurice LeBlanc

Contains mild violence.

Thanks, Maryanne!

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Does not contain profanity, sexual content, or violence.

Thanks, Maryanne!

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde

Does not contain profanity, sexual content, or violence.

Thanks, Maryanne!

Horns by Joe Hill

Contains heavy violence, moderate profanity.

The Humbling by Phillip Roth

Contains graphic sexual content.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Contains moderate violence, racist (but historically accurate) language.

Thanks, Maryanne!

The Wild Things by David Eggers

Contains mild violence.

Thanks, Maryanne!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Contains moderate profanity, heavy sexual content, heavy violence.

Ilorich by Steven Brust

Contains moderate violence.

Thanks, Maryanne!

The House of Lost Souls by F.G. Cottam

Contains heavy sexual content and moderate violence. Also contains mild descriptions of child abuse.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Does not contain any profanity, sexual content, or violence.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Does not contain any profanity, sexual content, or violence.