I am attempting to find some LGBTQ historical fiction books from any historical time period. I am finding plenty of contemporary LGBTQ books but not any historical fiction ones. Thank you! 🌈
The Heart’s Invisible Furies or the Invisible Star. Very beautiful books placed in America during the Aid’s crisis. Giovani’s Room – not particularly “historical fiction” but a novel about an American man’s issue with his sexuality whilst living in France.
emkaldwin on
Everything by Natasha Pulley.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street & The Lost Future of Pepperharrow – A civil servant becomes involved with a Japanese clockmaker in Victorian London while investigating the source of Irish nationalist bombs.
The Bedlam Stacks – English botanist tries to pull a heist of a tree in 1800s Peru for a malaria vaccine.
The Kingdoms – A slave in an alternate history French-occupied England searches for a clue to his lost memories, and messes with pirates and time.
The Half Life of Valery K – Soviet gulag inmate gets drafted to complete the rest of his sentence as a scientist in the nuclear program, but oops! He’s too smart for his own good.
I also recently enjoyed The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, which isn’t so much an LGBT novel as it is one with LGBT themes, set in Civil War Georgia and examines discrimination and decentness on multiple fronts.
I know a lot of folks enjoy KJ Charles, but I personally haven’t read anything of theirs myself.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn was pretty good dialogue-wise, a coming-of-age for boys going from their idyllic English boarding school to the horrors of the western front in WWI.
Anything by Sarah Waters is a good bet if you’re interested in lesbians. The film The Handmaiden was based on her book The Fingersmith.
Speaking of films, the basis for Carol is The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.
Pulp by Robin Talley is a dual-timeline novel split between two lesbians, one in 50s America during the lavender scare, the other in modern-times looking back on that era and researching.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is also lesbians, also in the 50s, this time in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
A new trend recently is webnovels, which are originally Chinese, kind of like Japanese light novels, and a lot of the ones getting translated into English are both historical and gay. If you’re of the appropriate age, 18+, check out Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi, Qiang Jing Jiu (I don’t know the English name, sorry!) by Tang Jiu Qing, and Stars of Chaos by Priest, most of which deal with war and morality.
There is also an anthology of young adult queer historical fiction: *All Out – The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages*, edited by Saundra Mitchell.
RiskItForTheBriskit on
All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes is historical horror– Though the horror is minimal and very back loaded. It’s about a trans man who sneaks aboard an artic expedition in the WW1 Post war era. There’s a large emphasis on the historical aspects. EXTREMELY large.
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The Heart’s Invisible Furies or the Invisible Star. Very beautiful books placed in America during the Aid’s crisis. Giovani’s Room – not particularly “historical fiction” but a novel about an American man’s issue with his sexuality whilst living in France.
Everything by Natasha Pulley.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street & The Lost Future of Pepperharrow – A civil servant becomes involved with a Japanese clockmaker in Victorian London while investigating the source of Irish nationalist bombs.
The Bedlam Stacks – English botanist tries to pull a heist of a tree in 1800s Peru for a malaria vaccine.
The Kingdoms – A slave in an alternate history French-occupied England searches for a clue to his lost memories, and messes with pirates and time.
The Half Life of Valery K – Soviet gulag inmate gets drafted to complete the rest of his sentence as a scientist in the nuclear program, but oops! He’s too smart for his own good.
I also recently enjoyed The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, which isn’t so much an LGBT novel as it is one with LGBT themes, set in Civil War Georgia and examines discrimination and decentness on multiple fronts.
I know a lot of folks enjoy KJ Charles, but I personally haven’t read anything of theirs myself.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn was pretty good dialogue-wise, a coming-of-age for boys going from their idyllic English boarding school to the horrors of the western front in WWI.
Anything by Sarah Waters is a good bet if you’re interested in lesbians. The film The Handmaiden was based on her book The Fingersmith.
Speaking of films, the basis for Carol is The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.
Pulp by Robin Talley is a dual-timeline novel split between two lesbians, one in 50s America during the lavender scare, the other in modern-times looking back on that era and researching.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is also lesbians, also in the 50s, this time in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
A new trend recently is webnovels, which are originally Chinese, kind of like Japanese light novels, and a lot of the ones getting translated into English are both historical and gay. If you’re of the appropriate age, 18+, check out Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi, Qiang Jing Jiu (I don’t know the English name, sorry!) by Tang Jiu Qing, and Stars of Chaos by Priest, most of which deal with war and morality.
[The Last of the Wine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67696.The_Last_of_the_Wine) is set in ancient Athens.
There is also an anthology of young adult queer historical fiction: *All Out – The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages*, edited by Saundra Mitchell.
All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes is historical horror– Though the horror is minimal and very back loaded. It’s about a trans man who sneaks aboard an artic expedition in the WW1 Post war era. There’s a large emphasis on the historical aspects. EXTREMELY large.