Do you have any LGBT+ book recs where the books don’t focus on being LGBT? Preferably sci-fi, horror, or thriller/mystery where the main character is gay but that’s not the plot? Thank you! ❤️
Do I ever! I’ve definitely read more queer fantasy than queer sci-fi lately, so anyone with good sci-fi suggestions please feel free to add!
Also, I have a lot of things on my TBR that fit the bill, so I’m adding them and I’ll italicize to show that I haven’t read them yet
Adaptation by Malinda Lo stars a bi main character and some actually pretty cute romance
Where I End & You Begin by Preston Norton is more “paranormal”, I guess, but it’s about body switching and full of good conversations on gender, as well as having romantically/sexually queer characters
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera is focused on the relationship between the two MCs, but not necessarily that they’re both queer
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar is sapphic forbidden love and time travel
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz is also sapphic time travel, but with murder
The Last 8 by Laura Pohl features an aromantic bisexual MC, and is about what happens if you survive alien invasion
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a retelling of the Trojan War through the eyes of Achille’s lover, Patroclus. Their love is central to the story, but the fact that they’re queer isn’t the point.
Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang is the first in a series of novellas, placed in a world where you’re not gendered until you choose to be. The MC is also queer. The actual plot is about politics and assassinations.
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire is super diverse, and the majority of the characters are queer in some way or another. The second book is my favorite so far, and a features a lesbian. The first two books can also count as horror, I suppose, since they involve gruesome murders.
The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta is a story of two nonbinary characters and mafia politics
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan is a really fun book featuring a bi lead (and, if it matters to you, has an active fandom!)
Starless by Jacqueline Carey features a nonbinary lead whose gender identity questioning is a big part of the story, but whose queer relationship is never highlighted for being queer
Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron is magical realism featuring a lesbian(?) lead
There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool features multiple POVs and one of them is gay (though, it’s hinted that another is queer, and we’ll get to see way more of that in the next book).
As I Descended by Robin Talley is a lesbian, paranormal retelling of Macbeth, in a boarding school
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand has an all female cast, one of which is asexual, and at least one other is a lesbian
Wilder Girls by Rory Power has a wlw couple at its center, and is about a quarantine at an all girl’s boarding school
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Sterling is sci-fi horror full of creepy manipulation. I can’t actually tell who’s queer from the description, which is a good hint that it’s not important to the story
Sodom Road Exit by Amber Brown is a paranormal thriller in a small town, with a sapphic protagonist
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