This was such a beautiful, powerful, emotional coming of age story. I really loved the way it handled generational trauma, the way none of these characters were perfect, the incredibly difficult, complicated, painful, wonderful dynamics at play.
This book is heavy. There’s a lot of social commentary around the harsh reality of living in certain places as Black and/or queer people.
But there’s light here too. Renny’s, the Perfect Spot, Kisabee Island.
I loved Avery and Simone’s relationship. It wasn’t without its complications but it felt realistic and I loved where it ended up.
Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: July-December 2025
After We Burned by Marieke Nijkamp (July 1st)
A terrible accident. A horrible loss. A regrettable tragedy. That’s all anyone in Fenix can talk about when a fire consumes the local high school, taking the life of a student. The town mourns, except who really knew―let alone cared about―Eden when she was alive? And why was she in the building that night?
Five teens each hold a piece of the truth…
Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 1A
Choose a book:
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
Voting ended onFeb 15, 2025
Book summaries below:
The Deep by Rivers Solomon (with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes)
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Fantasy, Afrofuturism, folklore, novella, adult
We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
Family secrets, a swoon-worthy romance, and a slow-burn mystery collide in We Deserve Monuments, a YA debut from Jas Hammonds that explores how racial violence can ripple down through generations.
What’s more important: Knowing the truth or keeping the peace?
Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.
While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.
As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.
Contemporary, mystery, romance, coming of age, young adult
