Good Lesbian Books

A guide to books about lesbians, and books by lesbians - from romance to graphic novels.

[biandlesbianliterature]

I have no idea if Mercedes Lackey's books were included on any of those lesbian fantasy book lists as I am on my phone currently... But I would highly recommend her Valdemar series. They've yet to feature a lesbian MC, but her supporting characters and even many MCs are often queer (men, women, and fantastical beasts included)!

[biandlesbianliterature]

maderr said:Yeah, but they’re always secondary and tertiary characters, from what I recall. And the one trilogy about a gay couple ends with one of them dead (whereas all the het couples get to live at the end of their respective stories IIRC).

skiesofpluto said:Absolutely must warn for rape in the last vanyel book. … Okay ONE of the vanyel books has gratuitous rape, I don’t remember which one.

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

The last one (Magic’s Price). I’m not sure if it was gratuitous, as the character did not recover and was clearly majorly affected (well, until he appears generations later as a ghost and seems happy), as Mercedes Lackey tends to try and include difficult social issues (like drugs, exploitation, torture, slavery, rape), and as it helped push the character into taking the dramatic action at the end. But it is very difficult to read if it’s a trigger for you in any way.

(Oh, one of the gay couple dies in Magic’s Promise, the first book, too, but it’s not exactly as straightforward as it seems, and the survivor gets to love again. And I actually found them to be stronger books for not being afraid to kill off characters and have them be less than perfect; some of her more recent books feel a bit fluffy sometimes. And more focussed on the ‘growing’ than the ‘up’, whereas Vanyel’s series spanned most of his life).

There are quite a few gay characters throughout the books, and many are major players, though Vanyel is the only main character. Lesbian-wise, there isn’t much; an off screen couple that Vanyel acted as a sperm donor for (relevant much later in the series), and a fairly central supporting pair in Arrows of the Queen. 

There’s also the asexual-hetereosexual pairing of Tarma and Kethry. Which, incidentally, begins with the murder of an entire tribe. Tarma’s magically induced asexuality has issues, but she’s a fantastic character. Those books are almost straight sword and sorcery, and feature various unpleasantness.

I think it’s important to note that she always writes queer people as people.

So yes, one of Mercedes Lackey’s reasons for ‘Gay writer fame’ is that she was prominently gay friendly and inclusive against a backdrop of nothing much worth talking about. Nowadays, she’s (thankfully) not the highest standard of queer inclusiveness to be judged by. Which is a GOOD thing.

edit: also, the concept of being gay is often quite present, so it feels like there is more gayness than there actually is.

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

I love your blog and lesbian booklist masterpost so much already, but I would kill for a list of books featuring fat/plus size lesbian main characters, so if you made a list like that you'd have my eternal gratitude. Searching online for books with fat heroines in general gets you lists of recs, but looking specifically for fat queer heroines comes up with zilch.

Oooh, that’s a good one. And a tricky one. Especially as “not thin” doesn’t always mean “fat”. And many books don’t get reviewed/listed by character weight (that would be a rather... fascinating scale, actually).

Right now, I can think of (acknowledging that most of these are “vaguely described as plump” rather than actively fat, but I have actually read all of these)

Finders Keepers by Karin Kallmaker (review) - a dating romance with a lot of body image stuff on both sides (ends up with the plus size character being thin).

Heroine Addiction by Jennifer Matarese (review) - a paranormal superhero parody, with a “curvy” main character (i.e., not fat, but not thin-normal either) who owns it.

Patience and Sarah by Isobel Miller (review) - earliest lesbian historical novel, with a plump ladylike Patience 

Strangers In Paradise by Terry Morore (old and brief review) - this is a GOOD one. One of the two (bisexual) main characters spends the entire series worrying over her weight. And it’s a comic series, so you get to see a well drawn, above stereotypical weight woman. Also her weight fluctuates throughout the series.

Skim by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki (review) - another graphic novel, aimed at teens. The main character is a stocky Asian looking girl, not fat, but clearly meant to be ‘ordinary’/real.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett (old, crappy review) is a fantasy parody of the cross dressing to become soldiers trope, and heavily influenced by DADT. There is a subtextual but clearly together couple which includes the ‘big’ Tonker (not much character description! There are also a couple of other plump or actually very fat female characters that aren’t clearly lesbian, and probably aren’t at all, but it’s the sort of book you can assume they are).

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now. Anyone else have suggestions?

[trollprincess]

So because I have had quite a few new followers lately - or at least since the last time I posted a link to this - I figured another post was in order.

This is my book on Amazon! You should go buy it!

It’s called “Heroine Addiction,” as you can see, and it costs only $2.99. It’s your typical urban sci-fi novel — you know, a bisexual biracial plus-sized sized ex-superheroine, the ex-girlfriend and new guy in town as possible love interests, her dad and his former mortal enemy in hiding in a secret romantic relationship, tentacled aliens, giant robots, a Muslima team leader, and a small zombie invasion. You know, the usual.

I’m hoping to start working on the sequel just as soon as this semester ends and I can focus a bit more on outlining precisely what I want to do. Feel free to reblog or share … especially, you know, if you’re friends with any literary agents or publishers. Because I’d like one or both. I’m not picky.

(BTW, this is part of the reason for my username. Ugh, more bisexuals! Always more bisexuals! And some transgender folks. Definitely need to work on that.)

[fandomsandfeminism]

Reminder that I really really enjoyed this book (And ended up buying three hard copies for my friends.)

And I can’t wait for a sequel. :D 

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

We enjoyed it too! (And reviewed it ages ago). It deserves more love.

[veblenesquegorge]

“To return for a moment to that silly caricature — Virginia the gloomy malcontent — let me say once and for all that she was about the gayest human being I have known and one of the most lovable.”

-Clive Bell, pictured with a frolicking Virginia Woolf above.

[biandlesbianliterature]

[image description: a black-and-white photo of two figures dressed in knee-length old-fashioned bathing suits. They are on the beach, and both are grinning.]

[wendyandmarvin-blog]

PUSSY GAME INTERGALACTIC

[bisexual-books]

So I want to take a second to talk about Xavin from Runaways, the character you see in these middle panels.  (FYI: I’ve chosen to use both male and female pronouns for writing about this character because Xavin’s pronouns tended to shift depending on if the character looked male or female.)

Runaways was about teens with super powers escaping their evil parents.   Xavin was the first bisexual character I encountered in comics, and showed up for the first time in Volume 5 of the collected editions (Escape to New York).   His bisexuality was inextricably linked to her ability to shapeshift.   While in the presence of his partner, Karolina Dean who identified as a lesbian, Xavin mostly presented as female (though sometimes switched to male depending on the situation).  

When hanging out with Chase or the other guys, he would often appear male.   Sometimes he played board games with Molly in male form, others in female form, switching effortlessly with no transition between panels.  No matter what gender she appeared to be, she always had dark skin (unless he was in Super Skrull form then it was green).  It was the first time I’d ever seen a character that could be identified as genderqueer (though to my knowledge the word was never used) in mainstream comics.  

It was also one of the few times I’ve seen the issues of a mixed-orientation relationship explored by a mainstream publisher.  Karolina struggled with Xavin at times, wanting to put her into a box of being ‘really’ female and not always understanding Xavin’s need to appear in male form as well as female form.   Meanwhile Xavin struggled with the binary nature of the human gender system, which he found confusing and irritating.   

The series also had an African American boy and an Asian American girl leading the team, and an 11 year old girl who loved pink but could beat the hell out of The Hulk.   Be still my heart.   

Marvel aimed the series right at the heart of teen demographics and even now, 10 years after it was originally published, I see teens at the library falling in love with it all over again.   It’s a series I wholeheartedly recommend to fans of mainstream superhero stories with diverse casts. 

- Sarah 

[anagnori-deactivated20201123]

I’ve finally built up a nice series of essays on writing asexuality and asexual characters in fiction. Here they are, all together in one place. They’re intended to be useful for asexual and non-asexual writers alike. They are also meant to be inclusive of gray-asexual and demisexual characters,…

[sexistentialisms]

I’ve been following these essays for a while and they’re quite good! Although I don’t write fiction anymore other people should definitely check these out.

[booasaur]

Sleeping Warrior AU: Aurora falls in love with Mulan and Ping, not realizing they are the same person.

[chlove-art]

Oh my god, how well is this thing done???? THIS IS ADORABLE.

[biandlesbianliterature]

Masters of Homosex: 9 Vintage Books That Lied About Lesbians

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

Are you the college girl, the office girl, the career gal, the prostitute, the matron, the man-hater, the bohemian, the frigid wife, the dull dyke or the unsuccessful heterosexual?

[qu33rrob]

Here’s a page from the 16-page “Three’s a Crowd” by the great MariNaomi, one of the 33 great cartoonists featured in the massive all-color comics anthology QU33R from Northwest Press, now available for pre-order/crowd-funding on Kickstarter. More previews to come! 

[bisexual-books]

The page above is by Mari Naomi, who also had a piece about eating mangos in Anything That Loves.   The next anthology from Northwest Press, Qu33r is in the final stretch of it’s fundraising window on kickstarter so if you liked Anything That Loves and would like to see more comics like it, consider becoming a supporter.   They need to raise about $200 more in the next three days to be fully funded.   

[rosalarian]

It’s with extreme sadness that I announce that my webcomic, I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space!!!, will be leaving the web in a week. It’s going to be taken down on November 5th. (Edit: to clarify, just this comic is going away. All my other comics are 100% owned by me and will stay up indefinitely. Just LPFOS is going down.)

This is by my own choice, a very difficult choice. As you may or may not know, the rights to LPFOS were bought by Platinum Studios in 2006. In the years since I first became involved with them, more and more of their shady practices have been revealed, to the point where I can’t be involved with them in any capacity anymore. I tried to get the rights back through many different avenues, but there is nothing I can do.

Right now, Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space is one of the comics Platinum is most proud of. They can show it off to investors as a success that they created, despite not doing a thing with the property except for one small print run 6 years ago. I have not seen a dime from them since 2007. Once the initial 6 issues they commissioned were over in 07, I was “allowed” to keep working on the series, which I did because I enjoyed the characters, but I received no payment. I received no support in any other capacity. I built the comic up by myself and with some gracious help from Hiveworks. Platinum Studios did nothing but hold it back. I had plans for a 4th and 5th arc of the comic, but ended the series this past January when I realized things with Platinum would never get better and as much as I loved these characters, I was being taken advantage of by continuing the series.

So I have to take it off the internet. I won’t let my work be used to boost the reputation of this slimy company even a little bit. I’d rather see it disappear. This decision was reached after more than a year of trying to salvage the pieces of this portion of my career, and several fits of crying until I’m too exhausted to get off the couch. I want to give you guys some time to say goodbye to it, read it one more time before it goes away.

I had great plans for it. I was hoping to print three TPBs so people could have the books in print form, and even redrew most of the first six issues in higher quality so the books would look so nice. The image above is one of the new covers I painted for one of the issues in the books. I had a script for an old-timey radio show a la Thrilling Adventure Hour. Oh, and I had a script for a full length stage musical, with a kickass composer lined up. He wrote two songs before everything imploded. These comprise a good half of my “secret projects” for the past two years that I was just itching to tell you all about, waiting for when the time would be right to reveal it. I guess everything comes out at a funeral. Again, all of these things were done without the help of Platinum. I flew out to California in 2011 for a meeting with them about these projects, which they were all gung-ho for when I was there, but once I was back home, all support was cut before it was anything more than a handshake.

I can’t help but feel so foolish. To have sold the rights in the first place, even if I was just a naive kid. To have let them blow smoke up my ass for years. To have ignored the scandals happening all around them, with so many other creators bringing grievances against them. To have continued the series for so long under such circumstances. To have held out hope I would be different and not get bit by this snake.

Young creators, please know that “getting published” is not the be-all-end-all of doing comics. There are so many people in this industry who will take advantage of your eagerness to be a “real comic artist.” Yes, you DO need a lawyer, I don’t care how must you trust that publisher, how big or small. Every contract, every time. Don’t sell something for what you think is a fair price. Know what the fair price is. Know what your value is. Know what the industry standards are. If you can’t get a good deal, don’t take a bad deal and hope for the best. Don’t take a bad deal and tell yourself it’s better than no deal at all. There are so many other avenues.

Well. That’s about it, folks. Thanks for reading, thanks for all the amazing fanart throughout the years, and the cosplay, and the lively discussions. If there’s one thing keeping me from regretting ever creating Susie and the gang, it’s you guys. I will always keep those good memories.

[rosalarian]

Reminder that this is going offline at the end of tomorrow. Read it while you still can. Zip files can be downloaded here but will also be going away tomorrow.

[biandlesbianliterature]

It should not be easier to find a zombie apocalypse than it is to find a lesbian protagonist in the aisles of your local bookstore. Falling for werewolves and shape shifters should not be more accepted than a transgender love affair; marginalized people really will still exist in the future; more folks should know that, and more so create like they know it. Someone then must step into the gap, or to be more accurate the gaping holes in the collective visions of our possibilities as human beings. In these pages, someone has.

Heiresses of Russ 2013: Lesbian Speculative Fiction (via fuckyeahlesbianliterature)

Or, double down and write about way more lesbian werewolves and bisexual transgender shapeshifters. It’s not like “zombie apocalypse” is mutually exclusive with “QWOC musical love story.” In fact, that would be the best thing in the entire world.

(via lgbtqblogs)

Did somebody just ask for lesbian zombie books? Or werewolves? Or bisexual genderqueer shapeshifters? (But yes. MORE PLEASE).

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

A reading from Noble Falling, a mediaeval adventure novel by the author Sara Gaines (mediaeval adventure meaning "fantasy world without the fantasy" much like Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon. Lady Knight by L-J Baker and Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. All have very minor magic, but it's mostly irrelevant).

Noble Falling on Amazon

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

Following up to the 'not many asexual titles' post...

One of the minor characters from the Secret Six series is now a main character in The Movement series. She’s called Tremor, and she is officially asexual.

It’s written by Gail Simone, who is actively inclusive and a good writer.. The team itself features a range of other identities including bisexual, and lesbian/gay. The main character is a bisexual black woman. 

Movement Vol. 1 #1 on Amazon

[gailsimone]

Thank you, but Virtue is not bi, she is lesbian. Thanks, though!

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Ah, thank you for correcting us there Gail…I actually thought that you had said Virtue was bi for some reason so I’d gotten that wrong as well :)

Speaking of queer ladies, we have Virtue and Rainmaker who are both lesbian heroes in the cast so far…is there any chance of Katharsis or Vengeance Moth being bi/lesbian as well, or of seeing any more awesome queer ladies in the cast as guest stars/recurring characters? :)

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

Ah, darn, my apologies! I remembered this or a similar post and found an article naming her as bisexual and assumed it was correct. It was late and I was just trying to post something about the series quickly.

"...there’s a gay male, an asexual female, a lesbian, and a bisexual woman, for starters. That’s not counting Rainmaker, a gay woman, who isn’t officially part of the team at this point. "

Still worth reading! I just got my character's identities mixed up (and I think some haven't been officially shown yet...?)

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

Following up to the 'not many asexual titles' post...

One of the minor characters from the Secret Six series is now a main character in The Movement series. She's called Tremor, and she is officially asexual.

It's written by Gail Simone, who is actively inclusive and a good writer.. The team itself features a range of other identities including bisexual, and lesbian/gay. The main character is a bisexual lesbian black woman (there is also a bisexual woman, three of the team are POC and one is in a wheelchair).

Movement Vol. 1 #1 on Amazon

[malindalo]

10 YA-friendly books by and about transgender people

For this month’s YA Pride, I set out to find books written by transgender writers about transgender characters. I knew that it would be difficult to find trans books by trans writers published specifically for the YA market, so I broadened my search to include books published for the general adult market. I found a number that were about young trans people and which might be of interest to young trans readers. Some are from small presses; some are anthologies; some are nonfiction. Many are probably difficult to find in bookstores, so I recommend checking your library system.

To find out more about these books, go to YA-friendly books by and about transgender people (source: malindalo.com).

[bisexual-books]

Revolutionary Voices is awesome btw.

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

Is it possible to create a section on the lesbian book list for lbgtqiaaspo characters or authors who are of color/non-white?

Definitely on the to-do list. We hadn’t really tackled this yet because a) it’s a big topic and b), unlike many other topics (such as disabilities!), there are actually sites, articles and blogs that look at black lesbian books (which is probably the biggest non-generic-white ethnicity). The best one is probably http://sistahsontheshelf.com

We do have Hispanic and Arabic book lists in progress. And one of the YA book lists is organised by location (90% whitebread USA, of course)

[goodlesbianbooks-blog]

hi there ;)

you have probably heard this suggestion a million times over but Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges are Not the Only Fruit" (http://www.amazon.com/Oranges-Are-Not-Only-Fruit/dp/0802135161) was a wonderfully informative novel  that touches on very important issues and struggles faced in the controversy of what the world (and this case particularily the catholic church) deems "un-natural passions"

however as neither a woman or homosexual, I doubt my opinion has much authority here. but I very much support what you are doing, and I think it is important for young men and women alike to explore their sexualities by exposing themselves to literature that doesn't necessarily conform to today's horrific standards set by modern mainstream media.

Thank you! And psh, everyone's allowed opinions. You don't have as great a direct stake, obviously, but sexuality and gender and media norms affect everyone, one way or another. And I strongly support making all our books ordinary and mainstream and not just part of an obscure subculture.

On your actual suggestion: we're aware of the book, but we haven't read it. We tend to go "oh, we can read that later" about the most well known titles, and ...well, they need the promotion less. But they're still very worth reviewing, and having someone express interest in a book gets it bumped right up the list (for example, I reviewed Fingersmith recently, because a reader asked what I'd thought of it, and I had to admit that I hadn't read it yet. SO I FIXED THAT).