GLBTQ: What Should I Read?

Queer Book Recommendations

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Ariah by B R Sanders

Ariah’s magical training has been interrupted. Forced to rely on a mentor, Dirva, who is not who he claims to be, and a teacher who is foreign and powerful, Ariah is drawn into a culture wholly different from the elven one that raised him.

As his friendship with Dirva’s brother blossoms into a surprising romance, and he slowly learns how to control the dangerous magic in his blood, life finally appears to be coming together for Ariah—but love and security are cut short by a tyrannical military empire bent on expanding its borders.

War, betrayal, passion, and confusion follow Ariah as his perilous journey leads him beyond the walls of the Empire, and into unfamiliar territory within himself. Along the way, he’ll discover just how much he’s willing to give up to find his place in the world, and he’ll learn what it means to sacrifice himself for freedom—and for love.

[queerbookrecs]

Resistance by B R Sanders

Resistance has many faces, and one of them is Shandolin’s. When she finds her friend brutally murdered, Shandolin decides to fight instead of run–but her only hope of survival is a takeover of the City government. Shandolin draws everyone she loves into the fray with her: her assassin lover, Rivna; her mentor, Moshel; and her best friend, Kel. Apart, they are weak, but together Shandolin and her friends, lovers and fellows may be just strong enough to save their skins and the skins of the other elves in the City.

[queerbookrecs]

Charm School Graphique Vol 1, by Elizabeth Watasin

ON the very edges of the unknown lies the Twilight World, where monsters and magical people wickedly meet:  Little Salem teems with hotrods, malt shops, ghouls, and devil girls. Good, teen witch Bunny has a perfectly bad girlfriend in vampire biker Dean, until a dark, and very insistent lesbian fairy comes along. Can Bunny resist Fairer Than's charms? And when she does, what will Fairer Than (and Dean), do about it?

Meet magical witch girl Bunny, a good teen witch happily attending Haunt High, drinking Ghost Shakes at Shivers, and dancing her supernatural midnights away at cemetery spook fetes. Dean is her perfect greaser, vampire girlfriend, but beyond hotrods and motorcycles lies something more in the Enchanted Forest: fairies. And even among such ancient, paranormal denizens, they've someone to fear, namely the notorious heart breaker and home wrecker, the dark fairy, Fairer Than.

Fairer Than: gorgeous, red-haired, stronger than a fairy ought to be, and smoldering in more ways than one.

Her reputation has Daughters of the Faerie Court flee before her wake lest they fall for her charms. And when Fairer Than comes to Little Salem, she just happens to notice Bunny.

Charm School by Elizabeth Watasin:

an indie b/w comic book emulating the best in old school 50's pin-up art with a touch of girl romance style, or shoujo manga. Digitally retouched and re-lettered by Elizabeth Watasin. Rockabilly monsters meet fairy tale legends as paranormal hearts and heads collide.

[diversityinya]

10 Recent Contemporary LGBTQ YA Books

In honor of Pride month, here are 10 YA books about contemporary LGBT experiences just published this year. If you haven’t had a chance to check them out yet, now’s a great time!

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva (Farrar Straus and Giroux)

Great by Sara Benincasa (HarperTeen)

My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter(Bloomsbury)

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (Candlewick)

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour (Dutton)

Frenemy of the People by Nora Olsen (Bold Strokes Books)

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters (Little, Brown)

Far From You by Tess Sharpe (Disney-Hyperion)

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (Dutton)

The Summer I Wasn’t Me by Jessica Verdi (Sourcebooks Fire)

[queerbookrecs]

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen (2014). Seventeen-year-old Hannah wants to spend her senior year of high school going to football games and Mardi Gras parties. She wants to drive along the oak-lined streets of Louisiana's Garden District and lie on the hot sand of Florida's beaches. She wants to spend every night making memories with her tight-knit group of friends. The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a girl--especially when that girl is her best friend, Baker. In this poignant coming-of-age novel, Hannah must find a compromise between the truth of her heart and the expectations of her community. She must break through her shame and learn to trust in the goodness of her friends. And above all, she and Baker must open their hearts to the saving power of love. Raw, moving, and teeming with unforgettable characters, Her Name in the Sky is a modern love story about the teenage quest for identity and the redeeming power of the human heart.

[perplexingly]

LGBTQ+ Fantasy Book Rec List

Few notes: All books redirect to goodreads page. My focus is on high/heroic/historic/mythological fantasy, any other genres are stated in the brackets.  Please, add books and notes at will but remember to include only these in where either the protagonist or an important side character belongs to LGBTQ+. (I also have a list here, which I’m going to update every time someone adds another book to this list)

GAY/BI MALE CHARACTERS

Rain Wild Chronicles (part of Realm of the Elderlings series), Robin Hobb

The Books of Outremer, Chaz Brenchley

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

The Tale of the Five Omnibus, Diane Duane

The Last Herald Mage series (part of Valdemar series), Mercedes Lackey

Nightrunner series, Lynn Flewelling

The Steel Remains (part of A Land Fit fot Heroes series), Richard K. Morgan

The Wode Series, J. Tullos Hennig

Mordred, Bastard Son, Douglas Clegg

The Knights of Camelot series, Sarah Luddington

The Mortal Instruments, Cassie Clare

Kirith Kirin, Jim Grimsley

The Fire’s Stone, Tanya Huff

Shadowdance, Robin Wayne Bailey (trigger warning for rape)

Doctrine of Labyrinths series, Sarah Monette

Swordspoint & The Privilege of the Sword & The Fall of the Kings (part of Riverside world), Ellen Kushner

Iskryne World Series, Sarah Monette

Torsere Series, Annabelle Jacobs

Captive Prince Series, C.S. Pacat

Micah Grey series, Laura Lam (a bisexual intersex afab male protagonist)

Gay Knights And Horny Heroes: Tales from the Court of King Arthur, Michael Gouda (very nsfw in a very ridiculous setting. Also spoiler: everyone is gay and horny)

[steampunk] Havemercy series, Jaida Jones, Danielle Bennett

[steampunk] A Book of Tongues (Hexslinger series), Gemma Files

[steampunk] The God Eaters, Jesse Hajicek

[steampunk] Lord of the White Hell, Ginn Hale

[urban fantasy] Rifter Series, Ginn Hale

[urban fantasy] Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson

[urban fantasy] The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice

[sf] Bas-Lag Trilogy, China Miéville

[sf] Warchild series, Karin Lowachee

[dystopian sf] Mind Fuck, Manna Francis

LESBIAN/BI FEMALE CHARACTERS

Good Lesbian Books - it’s worth checking this site; it’s a guide to lesbian books, with books neatly organized into genres and themes

Circle of Magic, Tamora Pierce

Huntress & Ash, Malinda Lo

The Steel Remains, Richard K. Morgan

Chronicles of Tornor, Elizabeth A. Lynn

When Women Were Warriors series, Catherine M. Wilson

The Saga of the Renunciates & Thendara House (from Darkover series), Marion Zimmer Bradley

Lythande, Marion Zimmer Bradley

Elemental Logic series, Laurie J. Marks

Banshee’s Honor, Shaylynn Rose

Kushiel’s Legacy series, Jacqueline Carey

Wolfcry (part of The Kiesha’ra series), Amelia Atwater-Rhode

The Dark Wife, Sarah Diemer

The Witch Sea, Sarah Diemer (for free! The link leads to the download page)

Sappho’s Fables: Lesbian Fairy Tales series, Elora Bishop and Jennifer Diemer

Queen’s Champion: The Legend of Lancelot Retold, Cris Newport

Celaeno series, Jane Fletcher

Green Universe, Jay Lake

Sing the Four Quarters (part of Quarter series), Tanya Huff

Fires of the Faithful (part of Eliana’s Song), Naomi Kritzer

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire (part of Dragon Age series), Patrick Weekes

Nantuket Trilogy, S.M. Stirling

By the Sword, Mercedes Lackey

Sword of the Guardian, Merry Shannon

[urban fantasy] The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan

[urban fantasy] Gossamer Axe, Mass Market

[urban fantasy] The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan

[urban fantasy] The Cirlce, Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren

[urban fantasy] Modern Faerie Tales, Holly Black

[sf] Ascension, Jacqueline Koyanagi

[sf] Jacob’s Ladder series, Elizabeth Bear

[sf] Santa Olivia series, Jacqueline Carey

[sf] Ammonite & Slow River, Nicola Griffith

[sf] The Telling, Ursula Le Guin

[sf] Dreamships, Melissa Scott

[sf] The Stone Gods, Jeanette Winterson

[sf] Adaptation series, Malinda Lo

[dystopian] The Holdfast Chronicles, Suzy McKee Charnas

OTHER SEXUALITY

Vows and Honor series (part of Valdemar series), Mercedes Lackey (asexual female protagonist. Trigger warning for rape as a background story!)

The Fire’s Stone, Tanya Huff (one of protagonists is an asexual mage princess)

Banner of the Damned, Sherwood Smith (asexual female protagonist)

The Deed of Paksenarrion (part of Paksenarrion series), Elizabeth Moon (protagonist may be read as asexual, she certainly isn’t interested in anyone)

[sf] Jacob’s Ladder series, Elizabeth Bear (asexual lesbian protagonist)

[sf] short stories: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea) , Mountain Ways, Unchosen Love (both from The Birthday of the World and Other Stories) , Ursula Le Guin (polyamorous marriages - between two men and two women)

GENDER NON-BINARY & TRANSGENDER CHARACTERS

Farseer Trilogy & Tawny Man Trilogy & Fitz and The Fool Trilogy (part of Realm of the Elderlings series), Robin Hobb (gender non-binary major character)

Eon series, Alison Goodman (one of side characters is trans woman)

Bloodhound (part of YA series Beka Cooper), Tamora Pierce (features a trans woman)

The Bone Palace (part of The Necromancer Chronicles), Amanda Downum (major trans female character)

A Story of the First History series, Mary Gentle (gender non-binary protagonsit)

Children of the Triad series, Laurie J. Marks (one of the species, Aeyrie, is genderless, referred to with gender-neutral pronouns Id, Ids and Idre)

Micah Grey series, Laura Lam (a bisexual intersex afab male protagonist)

Tamír Triad, Lynn Flewelling (Princess Tamir is born female, but to protect them they are magically transformed into male and raised as a boy. Later in the books they are transformed into female again)

[urban fantasy] The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (main character is in a relationship with her transgender girlfriend)

[dystopia] The Butterfly and the Flame, Dana De Young (trans female protagonist)

[dystopia] Bone Dance, Emma Bull (agender protagonist)

[sf] The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard (an anthology of transgender narratives)

[sf] Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold (major intersex character, trigger warning? for referring to them with “it” pronouns)

[sf] The Left Hand of Darkness (part of Hainish Cycle), Ursula Le Guin (intersex society)

[sf] 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (very broad range of gender and sexual identity)

[sf] Imajica, Clive Barker (one of characters is an interdimensional traveler whose body can shift between sexes)

[post-apocalyptic] Wraeththu series, Storm Constantine (intersex society)

[queerbookrecs]

Confusion of Feelings (1927) by Stefan Zweig, tells the story of a privy councillor who, in the autumn of his days, contemplates his past, looking back at the key moments in his life. He remembers sharing a lodging with a professor and his wife and a close friendship is formed. The professor, however harbours a dark secret which changes both men forever.

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I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror (1995) by Pierre Seel, is the memoir of a frenchman living during WWII, who is imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp at age 17 due to his homosexuality. He is released, only to e conscripted into the German army to fight on the Russian front.

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Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing (1993) by May Sarton, tells the story of an elderly writer who is being interviewed on her life. She reflects upon what she has learned about making art, romance and gender, and age. 

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Rainbow Boys (2001) tells the story of three high school students. One, Nelson, is openly gay to his school and family, making him a target for bullying. His best friend, Kyle, is gay, but has only told Nelson. He has had a crush on a popular jock, Jason, all through high school. Jason is popular and has a pretty and kind girlfriend, but is troubled by his home life as well as his growing awareness of his own sexuality and his attraction to Kyle.

Rainbow Boys and it’s sequels, Rainbow High and Rainbow Road follow the boys through their senior year of high school, exploring the issues of bullying, homophobia from families and school as well as learning your own identity in the unforgiving setting of high school.

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Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh, tells the story of Charles Ryder, a British army captain in WWII, looks back on his relationship with a wealthy Catholic family (living in Protestant England) that he knew as a young man in the 1920’s. He first meets the son, Sebastian Flyte, and is charmed by his flamboyance and eccentricity. Through the family Charles learns about love and religion.

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Lythande (1986) by Marion Zimmer Bradley, follows the adventures of a Blue Star Adept, a mage, Lythande, in the land of Thieves World. All Adepts of the Blue star must keep a secret that if revealed, their magic is forfeit. Lythande’s must keep the fact that she is a woman secret, so she travels as a man, lonely, lest anyone discover her secret.

Lythande is a series of short stories where Lythande explores Theives World, her desire for love and company fighting with her need to keep her identity a secret.

[queerbookrecs]

The Nightrunner Series (1996-present) by Lynn Flewelling, follows the adventures of Seregil, a Nightrunner, a spy for the country of Skala and it’s queen. He meet’s young Alec, a 16 year old boy who has just lost his father, discovers he is a quick study in the art of Nightrunning, and takes him on as an apprentice. As they continue their work for Skala, Seregil and Alec’s relationship grows.

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Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (1925) by Gertrude Stein, is a poem that tells “the Tale of Two Young Ladies Who Where Gay Together and of How One Left The Other Behind.”

Miss Furr and Miss Skeene was the first published use of the word “gay” to mean homosexual, (the word had a double meaning in the poem), and was hugely influential in the adoption of the term.

The text of the poem can be found here. (It’s recommended that it be read aloud to get the full effect).

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Strangers in Paradise (1996-2007) by Terry Moore, is a series of graphic novels that focus on the relationship between two women, Katchoo and Francine.

Katchoo is a woman with a dark past, after leaving her former job as a prostitute for a female crime boss, she now lives with her best friend who she is in love with, Francine.

Francine is a kind and traditional girl who dreams of being a wife and mother, and is confused about what she wants with Katchoo.

They meet a young artist, David, who also has a mysterious past that connects with Katchoo’s. Through the story they must free themselves of their past to be able to have the future they want.

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Sacred Country (1992) by Sinclair Stevenson, tells the story of a child, Mary Ward, who at a young age realizes that they are a boy. Mary seeks to lessen his discomfort with his body, his rural English home and the expectations of his farmer parents that he be a good famers daughter.

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Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) by Rita Mae Brown, is a coming of age novel which tells the story of a young girl, Molly, from a poor family and a small town, yet has romantic and sexual relationships with other girls from a young age. As she grows she moves to bigger towns with bigger horizons. Throughout her story, Molly learns about how her sexual orientation effects her personal identity, as well as the importance of geographical location.