The best queer Jewish books to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month - HERE
Across genres, generations, and geographies, LGBTQ+ Jewish authors and characters are claiming space in literature: telling messy love stories, reimagining tradition, surviving and thriving in the face of loss, and simply kissing girls on Shabbat.
This Pride Month, this is a spotlight on books that celebrate the beautiful intersection of queerness and Jewish identity. Some are quiet and tender, others loud and defiant. Some are steeped in mysticism, others grounded in realism or speculative futures. All of them remind us that there’s no one way to be Jewish, or queer — and that both are richer when they’re in conversation.
Young Adult
Harley Quinn: Redemption by Rachael Allen
This is the final book in the Harley Quinn trilogy
Harley Quinn and Ivy can’t wait to cross off the final items on their summer bucket list. They still need to:
Go to Pride
Get mani/pedis
Figure out how they can kiss without Ivy’s toxic lips killing Harley. (Every relationship has its challenges!)
But their to-do list gets more dangerous…
Happy Pub day to a book as delightful as its cover suggests! 🪴✨🩷
Finally Fitz follows Ava "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a teen fashion influencer following her dreams - and her girlfriend, Dani - to New York City for a competitive summer fashion program.
But shortly after arrives, her picture-perfect summer falls apart when Dani breaks up with her, taking Fitz's confidence and inspiration along with her.
After a chance run-in with her long-long childhood best friend Levi, also going through his own breakup, Fitz concocts the perfect solution: fake dating to make both of their exes jealous enough to want them back. What could possibly go wrong?
Admittedly it took me a while to really get into this one, but after sticking with it, I ended up really enjoying it!!
Fitz is messy and complicated and real. She is someone simply trying to figure out her place in the world, in a way that I think we can all relate to. (Anyone who can't handle second-hand embarrassment from books? Consider yourself warned.)
I absolutely fell in love with Levi and all of his plant-rescuing, tour guiding dorkiness. If anything, I felt like we didn't get enough of Levi. Understandably so; Fitz deals with lots of challenges during her time in New York, challenges that are equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking. Still, I would ve loved to see even more depth to Levi outside of his relationship with Fitz.
This was the first YA novel I've read that has made me feel old - apparently Paramore is considered "retro" now? - but I also felt it went a little too heavy on the pop culture references for my taste. (Even as someone living through the social media age, SIX references to TikTok felt like overkill.)
Other than that, I greatly enjoyed Marisa Kanter's writing style. The dialogue (especially the banter!!) was delightful and natural. And boy, does she know how to set a scene! Even as someone who has never been the biggest NYC fan, I left this book feeling a little bit in love with the place.
Highly recommend to anyone looking for a YA romcom with some deeper themes.
Endless thanks to Netgalley and SimonTeen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review <3
Book Blurb: A bisexual teen girl tries to make her ex jealous by faking an Instagram romance that leads to surprisingly real feelings in this hijinks-filled rom-com perfect for fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and She Gets the Girl.
Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald has worked hard to create the picture-perfect life she’s always wanted. She spent her junior year transforming her passion for sustainable fashion and upcycling into a viral online platform, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and spending every free second with her soon-to-graduate girlfriend, Danica. And this summer she plans to take it all to the next level by attending a prestigious summer fashion program in New York City and convincing Dani that they can survive a year of long distance.
But when Dani dumps her before classes even start, accusing Fitz of being more invested in growing her online persona than deepening their relationship, she’s left not only heartbroken, but also creatively blocked.
Fitz will do anything to win Dani back, even if that means taking a break from the platform that she’s worked so hard to build. But just as she decides to go all-in on a hiatus, a chance encounter reunites her with Levi Berkowitz, her childhood best friend that she hasn’t seen since elementary school. Levi is struggling with heartbreak of his own, and this cosmic coincidence sparks a new use for her social media savvy. Fitz offers to help Levi craft a fake relationship online to make his person jealous…if in return he can pretend to be her boyfriend in front of Dani to make her jealous. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the summer they’ll both be reunited with their perfect partners and get to rekindle their friendship in the process.
Sometimes even the most carefully designed plans can come apart at the seams, though. And when real history leads to not-so-fake feelings, Fitz will have to decide if she’s finally willing to let go of what she thought was picture-perfect and choose what might actually be right for her.
Review:
A bisexual teen fashion influencer finds herself trying to win back her ex girlfriend by fake dating her old best friend... only she's beginning to fall for him too. Ava "Fitz" Fitzgerald is picture perfect on her Instagram, she's a bit of an influencer and wants to use her platform to further her career in fashion. Ava spends every second of her free time with with her girlfriend Danica, and assumed they were ready to say "I love you" to each other... only they end up in a fight and Danica dumps her. Fitz is desperate to win back Dani and on her first day of attending her prestigious summer fashion program in New York she runs into Levi Berkowitz. Levi was her best friend and someone she lost contact with after he ghosted her with no explanation. Levi is struggling with a heartbreak of his own, his girlfriend Sophie and him are on a break. Fitz and Levi decide to fake date to make their perspective ex significant others jealous and win them back, yet the more time they spend "fake dating" and actually hanging out and being together, the more the lines between real and fake blur and some very real feelings begin to grow. Can Fitz figure out what she wants before it all slips past her fingers, or will she crash and burn under the pressure of trying to not only find herself and her brand, but in trying to understand her own mental health. This was definitely an interesting messy romance drama, it features two characters who are both bisexual and they do live up to the bi disaster haha. Fitz is trying to win back her ex yet she's not finding herself and trying to sort out what her future means to her. I did enjoy seeing her grow by the end and this book did something not many books do, having the character focus on their own mental health and growth before getting into a new relationship. Levi was a sweet romantic interest and I did love the "plantscapades " they went on. Overall it's a cute young adult book with messy romance drama and I think that fans of To All the Bows I've Loved Before and She Gets the Girl will really enjoy it.
*Thanks Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
Most Anticipated Queer Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia (January 2nd)
Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy.
That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the…
Adult Fiction
Neurodiverse and intersex author Phoenix Blackwood’s New Adult THE LOVE THAT BINDS US, a sequel to THE SECRETS THAT KILL, in which the protagonist is thrown out of her home when her mother discovers her relationship with her nonbinary transmasculine partner; when she moves in with him, she discovers that she is intersex and works to overcome past medical trauma, to Kisstopher Musick…
“Finally Fitz” by Marisa Kanter (2024)
Genre: YA, Romance, Fiction, LGBT
Page Length: 400 pages (hardcover edition)
Synopsis:
Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald has worked hard to create the picture-perfect life she’s always wanted. She spent her junior year transforming her passion for sustainable fashion and upcycling into a viral online platform, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and spending every free second…