It’s bi visibility month, bi visibility week AND bi visibility day so here’s a bunch of book recs with bi characters for most genres. I’ve read (and loved, which is why I’m recommending them) all of these except After the Siren, which I am just too excited about to not include. It’s released today and I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on it.
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Romance:
- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
- Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall
- After the Siren by Darcy Green
- From LA to London, With Love by Elizabeth Luly
- Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
- Ribbonwood by Ruby Landers
Romance pt 2:
- Love Unleashed by Melanie Saward
- Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley Jones
- Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
- Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur
- Make Room For Love by Darcy Liao
- The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch
Fantasy
- Pantomime by LR Lam
- A Crown of Deceit & Ruin by Jessaca Willis
- Silvercloak by LK Steven
- Heretic Behaviour by EC Glynn
- Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
- Starling House by Alix E Harrow
Sci fi:
- To Be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers
- Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
- Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman
Historical
- Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee
- We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
- The Princess Knight by Cait Jacobs
- Pride and Prejudice and the City by Rachael Lippincott
- Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles
Horror:
- Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
- A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson
- Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth
- The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
The overwhelming reaction from the sapphic internet to Maya Hawke’s sponteneous wedding to a guy has been “Huh, thought she was a lesbian, my bad and congrats!” and the thing is (if I may be allowed to speculate based on the work she’s put out), she probably likes girls, too. Whatever her specific sexual orientation is, she decided to keep it private, and good for her. There was no way it was going to be good PR for her to come out as queer, engage in all this sapphic media, and then marry a cis dude. She knows how people react to that these days. It’s bad. Nobody cares what the literal definition of bisexuality is, they only care to blame the entire existance of homophobia and lesbophobia on the existance of bisexuals, especially bi women, just living their personal lives.
The sad part is, the internet gays are nicer and more accepting towards straight women than they are to bi women, who are seen as fence-sitting traitors to queerness, giving men the idea that lesbians are available to them, and closet tradwives that only perform queerness to queerbait. And the cost of that is this deliberate reduction in bi rep because publicly coming out as bi isn’t worth it. Tell me again how further erasing and marginalising bisexuals wasn’t the intention all along.
Catching yo on the new bridgerton season and its rather bittersweet. On one hand the Benedict and Sophie plotline is really nicely done and Benedicts yearning is everything
……butttt I do feel a little cheated that they promised proper development and exploration of his bisexuality and so far (episode two) theyre yet to even have him DISCUSS it. Theyve put him with two men in very very brief scenes between seasons, and set up that there would be some turmoil for it….has that happened?? Nope!
I am only two episodes into season four though so it could very well happen a bit later, but this had me wondering for an au…
Genderbent Sophie Au… now hear me out. A male sophie who CROSS DRESSED to get into the ball which makes Benedicts hunt for her all the more difficult, and faces both of them with the turmoil pf having fallen in love with someone outside of their class bracket, with Sophie being illegitimate AND also the second born Bridgerton being a rake AND a homosexual. And them ot would also tie into the feelings that Francesca is having and we could see more of the depths of her and Benedicts relationships and differing perspectives on the queer experience in history.
I'm actually really angry at people saying that Kitty being into girls is unecessary because we kinda all agree that Minho will be the endgame and like... No it's not? Kitty is a great bi rep in my opinion. She had important romances with both a girl and a (two kinda) boys.
People say she was shown as "boys crazy" and first of all, no she wasn't? She really loves romance, as we see it in All the Boys I've Loved Before but that's all and she only had one boyfriend, the guy from season 1 (Dae I think but I'm not sure). And you can be bi and have a preference, that doesn't make you less bi. You can be bi without having ever date, or having only date one gender.
It's her sexuality, part of her identity. Even if it wasn't a whole storyline, it wouldn't be unecessary, but there it's like, a huge part of the series. Her feelings for Yuri are important. Her ending up with Minho will never change the fact that she's bi and it's cool to have this kinda rep. She can be in a "straight" relationship while being bi.
We know the huge biphobia bi girls dating men face, even within the community. People either say they're straight and faking it for attention, or that they're lesbians and in denial. Both is harmful. Straight boys sometimes date bi girls while having prejudices (like fetishizing them) and some lesbians refuse to date them because they "will obviously choose a boy over them". Bi people in general are also often seen as huge cheaters.
Bi rep is great and important. Especially bi girls rep and for teenagers. XO Kitty did a great job at making the relationship with Yuri really as great as with other characters, I didn't feel like it was thrown in to "bait" people: they have chemistry, screentime, a great storyline, development and super cute scenes.
(However, I think there is cheating involved in season 2 which suck but I haven't watch it yet so... Anyway not my point and as long as Kitty isn't the one who cheated we're out of bi stereotypes)
( Also, more personally, as a mixed and bi person, I do like seeing a mixed character who happend to be bi. Stuck in the "not quite this, not quite that" who's even more strong when you're white-passing/in a straight relationship. It's not because I grew up away from my mother's country that I'm less mixed, it's not because I'm dating someone from the opposite gender that I'm less bi. No one gets to tell me about stuff I happen to be born like and that are parts of my identity. It shaped me into who I am today for many different reasons.)
My (award-winning!!! oh my gosh!) queer YA contemporary fantasy Child of the Dragon is officially out in the world!! It's about a ragtag team of shapeshifting dragons in high school taking fate into their own hands to break a curse, take down an evil dragon government, and still pass calculus.
It's kind of like Percy Jackson but with dragons instead of demigods!
Check it out if you like:
🐉shape-shifting dragons
✨Ancient Curse. Modern Setting.
🐉forehead kisses
✨More sass than self preservation
🐉angst, sarcasm, and high school
✨sword swinging disability rep
🐉queer rep (demiromantic/ace, questioning ace, gay, & bi in the main cast alone!)
You can get it online wherever books are sold! But if you're in the US and want some quick links including directly from my small press or from some of my local, queer-owned indies, you can find those links + Goodreads & Storygraph links here!
And @queerliblib has it in their Libby catalogue!
and if you've already read, I will love you forever if you leave a review on the review platforms of your choice!
Cover art by @jv.arts.2020
(image descriptions in alt and under the cut!)
There are six images! each will be described separately and labeled image 1-6!
[image 1: A smoky blue and red background with fire and ice coming out the sides of the cover for Child of the Dragon (A cover with fire on the left edges and ice on the right edges centering around a girl in shorts and a tank top, raising a sword high and summoning lightning in front of a massive purple-y european dragon inside some sort of arena. The title: Child of the Dragon is written across the center in a curly, silver font, and the author name is in a smaller version of the same and says Ashley N.Y. Sheesley) blue torn paper across the bottom reads "Child of the Dragon as Memes" //end ID]
[Image 2: A smoky blue and red background with the meme of a car skidding onto the exit lane with the sign above the car showing straight ahead is "grieving, putting energy into school and friend, literally anything normal" and to the exit is "becoming a dragon idk" the car is labeled "Kat" //end ID]
[image 3: A smoky blue and red background with text that reads "it's always ily it's never siywaawiayptbwwygtkak" with a picture from a book with the text highlighted in pink that reads "so, if you were an assassin--which I'm assuming you're planning to become--where would you go to kill a king?" //end ID]
[Image 4: The wolverine comic meme of him in costume in bed looking at a photo frame. The second image is a panel of what's in the frame. Across the top is a speech bubble that says "I want a memory of a warm moment with your friend--Jason, right?" Wolverine is labeled as "coleman" The picture frame reads "[a memory of unimaginable horror and violence but it's kinda gay]" //end ID]
[Image 5: A smoky blue and red background with the meme of a guy turning away looking disgusted next to text that reads "fake dating the hot, mysterious new guy" below is the same guy but he looks happy. There's a transparent demiromantic flag over his picture. the text next to him reads "holding out for your best friend bc why in the world would you date a stranger" //end ID]
[Image 6: A smoky blue and red background with the meme of a guy bringing pizzas into a chaotic room on fire. Across the first image it reads "Aaron just wanting to help his best friend and secret crush." on the second image, a guy swings a flaming object around that reads "she's a dragon" on the fire on the ground it reads "a literal dragon war" and next to that is someone lying on the ground with a tag that says "multiple assassination attempts" //end ID]
