I’m looking for books that fall into either (or both!) of these categories:
1. The main character is queer BUT the book isn’t a romance and isn’t focused just on their queerness. I’d love to read a book that isn’t about a person exploring this part of themselves, coming out, facing discrimination because of this part of their identity, etc. One example I have is True Biz by Sara Novic.
2. The author identifies as LGBTQ+.
Thanks so much!
by pem9
8 Comments
Pretty much anything by Sarah Waters. Personally I’d particularly recommend Fingersmith, Tipping the velvet and Night Watch
I read a lot of middle grade lgbtq novels, but here are some recs for adults and one YA book:
Night of the Living Queers (YA horror anthology)
The First Bright Thing by JR Dawson (magic circus fantasy)
Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (feminist western)
Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky (cosmic horror satire graphic novel, trans MC)
The House in the Cerulean Sea and In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune (fantasy)
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (horror)
Here are some of my favourites that fit your criteria, Mostly sci fi:
* We Are Satellites (novel) or [And Then There Were N-1](https://escapepod.org/2018/11/01/escape-pod-652-and-then-there-were-n-one-part-1/) (novella) by Sarah Pinsker. The author is a lesbian.
* A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy. The author is a trans woman.
* Leech by Hiron Ennes. The author is transmasculine they/them.
* Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin. The author is a trans woman. Be warned, this book contains some pretty heavy depictions of transphobia, as well as graphic sex, violence, and scenes of rape. This is a story about survival in a post apocalyptic setting, but it’s also about facing discrimination.
* Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller. The author is a gay man.
* Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. The author is a lesbian. It isn’t obvious until the second and third books, but most of the characters are queer. These are *very* much love-it-or-hate-it types of books in terms of writing style and sense of humor.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is both, but it’s far future sci-fi and queerness is SO matter of fact that you don’t even really notice the MC is queer for much of the book tbh
Dryland by Sarah Jaffe is an interesting read. On the surface, it looks like it‘s all about her sexuality, but really? Discovering her sexuality is an overlay for the exploration of the history at the time and her family situation underneath. I like it, because while her being gay is a big part of the book, it isn’t really the main point. This book is not a romance. It will leave you feeling very bittersweet by the end. Good book for a deep thinker, though.
Edit: Jaffe is a lgtbq author, btw.
The Sign for Home by Blair Fell might do you. It also has great deafblind rep (glad you mentioned True Biz—an excellent book)
* Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada
* Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead
* Greta and Valdin
* Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas
* The Life and Death of Sophie Stark
* Monarch by Candice Wuehle
* We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman
Anything by Becky Chambers – all her books are set in a non-heteronormative universe.
*The Empress of Salt and Fortune* by Nghi Vo
*The Bruising of Qilwa* by Naseem Jamnia (one character experiences gender dysphoria but the main topic is an unrelated medical mystery)
*Light from Uncommon Stars* by Ryka Aoki (several queer characters; one of them faces transphobia and it does inform her character but she knows who she is and the main focus of the story is elsewhere)
*Pet* (and *Bitter*) by Akwaeke Emezi – it is YA but in my opinion, it is worth reading for any age group, as its concept is so original. Queer characters everywhere, which is significant but not the focus of the story.
(All of these are speculative fiction.)