Queer Books From 2021 You Probably Missed

This is a novella about a fantasy city protected by a living system called the Gleaming. One day, a stranger arrives in town with “curiosities” from elsewhere, and Anima, a part of the Gleaming, begins to see the world in a whole new way. The book also has several main characters who use neopronouns, including æ/ær.

A bonus to waiting a year after the pub date: this is in paperback as of last month! From the author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor, Ophelia Girls is an unsettling story told in two time periods. In the 1970s, Ruth and her friends try to stage the painting of the drowning of Ophelia over and over — until the river takes one of them for good. Ruth returns to the estate as an adult with a teenage daughter, Maeve, who has recently recovered from cancer. Maeve feels misunderstood — except by Stuart, a childhood friend of Ruth’s. This is a story about a 40-year-old man grooming a 17-year-old, so do be prepared for that going in. (To be clear, the text portrays this as something disturbing; it doesn’t condone it.) Ruth is a lesbian, and there’s a gay side character.