Author: Kelly Jensen

Described as The Breakfast Club meets Stranger Things, this book is told on more than one time line and travels more than one dimension.

In 1986 at the height of the AIDS crisis which filled the country with homophobia (more blatantly so), Tommy knows he’s falling in love with his best friend Renaldo. He knows he can’t share this. But one night Renaldo is hit by lightning and is no longer the person he once was.

It’s now 2044 and Pris Devree wakes up from a nightmare involving a boy named Tommy and a house in her neighborhood that has earned the reputation of “Murder House.” Pris needs to understand, so she goes to the house and stumbles upon a self-help book.

But it’s not what you might think. It’s a guide to trans dimensional travel, and now Pris and Tommy are working together to save Renaldo from a demon.

Alicia is 16, and she’s subject to nonstop judgment from her classmates. It comes because she has sex, so she’s, of course, seen as easy. A slut. Every other name you can imagine for a girl like her.

Except: Alicia was sexually abused by a teacher. She’s a survivor. And of course, it’s a popular teacher who did that to her.

As Alicia begins to drop out of everything that brings her joy, she finds a series of letters from someone else at school. Someone who claims they’ve been a victim, too. Now, she wants to get to the truth of that story and her own.

This verse novel is one for readers who are itching for a compelling and powerful story of redemption, race, power, and maybe even love.

Bradley is an all-around good guy. He’s a football player, has his OCD pretty well managed, and he excels in school. Well, minus the class he shares with his former best friend Celine.

Celine is conspiracy theory obsessed. She’s a content creator and has built a following over things like aliens and UFOs and more. Problem is, despite how popular she is online, she’s not cool in real life. Even Bradley abandoned her for the cool kids when he could.

So when Celine signs up for a survival course, she’s surprised to see Bradley has, too. They’re forced to work together and as they join forces in order to win a big prize, they might discover they still have a lot in common…and maybe even start to feel some sparks.

This one is for readers looking for more bisexual representation.

This is *easily* one of my favorite YA books this year and is one that captures the experience of never feeling queer enough and feeling as though the gatekeepers to queerness are holding people back from expressing who they truly are.

Imogen is the token straight friend among so many queer people. Or is she? When she spends the weekend with her best friend at her future college, Imogene is exposed to a world of queer joy she’s never experienced before, and this includes meeting a girl she might — possibly, maybe — start to catch feelings for. But she’s always been straight. She can’t possibly NOT be. 

This is a story of the complexities of identity and what happens when gatekeepers decide who can and cannot identify as a part of a particular community. Imogen is a bit naive but is lovable for it, and love interest Tessa is a wonderfully, fully-fleshed character who helps Imogene realize that the ways she’s been taught to think about queerness are, perhaps, quite limiting. Fun, funny, and heartening. 

Baylee has always had a crush on her BFF Freddie, but since she’s not his type, she’s 1. not made a move on him and 2. not bothered wasting energy on making something happen.

She begins to fall for Alex, a funny barista that Baylee meets online and has instant chemistry with. She’s perfect!

So when Freddie DOES start to engage Baylee in a way that’s clearly more than friends, she’s suddenly unsure what to do. That a virus has just shut down the world is not helping the situation.

You’ll have to wait until November for this one to hit shelves, but put it on your TBR and/or preorder now. This collection highlights 30 must-know people who explode the gender binary. It is a groundbreaker in highlighting trans stories, gender nonconforming stories, and intersex stories of real people and real lives.

How bold, bright, and appealing is this one by cover alone? Dive into the world of LGBTQ+ individuals past and present who have shown the world what it is to be who you are.

Among the slate of individuals included are Freddie Mercury, Alexander Wang, Sappho, Audre Lorde, Kristin Stewart, and more.

In addition to highlighting a range of LGBTQ+ trailblazers from past and present, this collection offers essays that focus on the realities of queer life, including mental health challenges, activism, what it is to come out, and more. Again, this one has such an appealing package to it — these collective queer biographies for teens are nothing short of celebratory, even when they take on some tougher stuff.

Take one part Great British Bake Off and one part Magic School, and you get this just-published comic. Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy is all about cooking with magic, and Basil plans to be the top student her senior year. But then in walks Arabella Oregano, daughter of a chef. Immediately, the two begin to grow close. Basil suspects Arabella is keeping a secret though, despite how much they’re working together in order to secure the top rank at school.

So when the secret is spilled, Basil is faced with one of the hardest decisions of her life.

Belle Hawkins is a wallflower and also the person who prefers to be beneath the mascot costume to keep herself at a distance. But it’s senior year and it’s now or never. She decides to remove the head of her costume and proclaim her long-time crush on head cheerleader Regina Moreno.

Problem? Regina has a girlfriend named Chloe Kitagawa.

Chloe is not doing great in English class, though, and Hawkins thinks this is her opportunity: offer to tutor Chloe in order to get closer to Regina. It seems to be going okay, until the moment that Hawkins and Chloe realize they know each other from their youth, when they were both very different people.

There is love here, but…it might be surprising where it happens.

As much as Ari loves making bread, he can’t imagine doing it for the rest of his life. He’s interviewing new potential people to take over is job, and that’s when he meets Hector. Ari begins to train Hector and prepares for his escape from the work, except…he’s starting to fall head over heels for the new guy.

Aiden Navarro is at summer camp before the start of junior high. It’s an intense summer of hanging out with his friends, navigating bullies desperate to make him feel bad about himself as a half Asian boy, and coming to terms with the fact he might be gay.

One night, when Aiden kisses his best friend and campmate, things shift immediately. Has he forever lost the trust of his friend Elias? Did that kiss mean anything romantic? Was it an accident?

This is a moving, heartfelt story and one that will resonate with younger (and older!) teens. It’s about traversing that tricky space between what faith might tell you is right, what it might tell you is a sin, and how you come to accept yourself as you are.

This graphic novel is about a teen witch who helps out at her grandmother’s bookshop, where she often hands out spell books and assists in looking into supernatural occurrences in her small town. During one of those investigations, she stumbles upon her childhood crush and wants to not only rekindle feelings, but also to help him reclaim his power. It’s about family, about the ways history can tie a family and romantic relationship together, and for readers who don’t usually like “horror,” it’s not especially gory. It’s about super-magical powers and spirits.

Xu’s art is perfectly suited to the story, with a wide color palette.

Sixteen-year-old Cade is in the closet because he has to be; he is a Latino living in rural Texas. His escape is horror movies.

This summer, he’s working at a local ranch to help make ends meet at home. He hates it though, save for the two teens who live on that ranch. Especially the very attractive Henry.

The two start to become closer over the summer, but Henry is dodgy about a lot of things, including his mother’s death. Cade worries there might be more that his crush isn’t telling him.

This is inspired by, as you might guess by the title, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It is romantic and gothic and queer as heck.

When Becca moves to a new, small, posh town, she’s immediately taken in by the popular crowd and ditches the lone fat girl at school who she had a quick connection with (that girl wasn’t cool enough). Soon, Becca learns this elite girl gang has a secret: under the full moon, they transform into werewolves who set out to destroy boys who are too eager to take advantage of girls. All seems well at first, as they plan their attacks outside of Piedmont, but when Becca accidentally destroys the boyfriend of one of her fellow girl gang members, their days are numbered.

This is Mean Girls meets Heathers meets Teen Wolf, and it will become clear why Becca acts as she does. Revenge is best served by teen girls.

Flor, a Latine outlaw, and Grace, a trans runaway, are at the center of this story set in the wild west, where they must team up to put an end to a Confederate plot in New Mexico territory.

Stagecoach theft and heists ensue in this rollicking, wildly queer read.

Kermit knows what it is to grieve. He’s 15, and he’s lost his sister to a car accident and nothing can pause those immense feelings of loss.

When he gets a mysterious invitation at school, signed with a “-1,” he decides to take a chance and show up. It turns out to be a group of students of all backgrounds who’ve lost someone close to them. It’s a supportive space, and it’s one where Kermit begins to find himself and allow himself to get close to Matt. Matt is the only openly gay student at school and his gregarious nature is magnetizing to Kermit.

But as Kermit falls harder, Matt’s truth begins to crack open more and more, potentially putting both of them in danger.

This one is pitched as Thelma and Louise meets Godzilla, y’all. I feel like leaving it at that, but I’ll give you more.

Riley’s parents have divorced and she’s forced to move from Portland, Oregon, to small town Little Brook, Maine. Little Brook is home to Titan Technologies, an international tech lab.

The night of the school’s homecoming game, Riley wakes up to a town on fire and she and her dog plop into their truck to flee town. As they’re leaving, they run into the only other person in town who seems to have survived: Aspen, a classmate that Riley’s been observing (/slash crushing on?). When they get to safety, they realize things are even worse than they seem, and every Titan Tech lab across the eastern seaboard has been attacked.

Riley and Aspen do what makes sense: road trip back to Riley’s hometown of Portland in hopes of safe escape.

But Aspen may not be who she seems…

This is Romeo & Juliet but A WHOLE LOT QUEERER.

Transgender prince Cade is doubling for his brother while also vowing to protect Gael, an infamous boy assassin. Prince Gael plans to destroy Patrick, who is not interested in being heir to a kingdom. Add to the mix Valencia, a dama who attends to the future Eliana queen.

Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia, in her battles against Patrick, is actually battling Cade. So when Valencia and Cade are blaming each other for what’s happening with their families, they’re unaware just what is at stake for themselves and the kingdom itself.

Enemy kingdoms + curse breaking + being forced to work together? It sounds like a queerly good/devastating time.

What happens when someone you look up to lets you down by declaring people like you are less than human? That’s a big part of this story, which follows a queer teen named Bobby who wants nothing more than to graduate high school safely.

Bobby’s school is notoriously violent, and he knows that being openly queer would make him the perfect target. This is made more true by the fact is Filipino community does not easily accept people like him. But when he’s outed without permission, Bobby realizes being quiet and unprepared is no longer an option. He turns to take up boxing in order to prepare himself were he to be in a fight.

Bobby looks up to champion Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao is his inspiration in all ways: he helps Bobby keep going when things get too hard. But then Pacquiao publicly declares that he does not support queer people, leaving Bobby wounded beyond words.

So where does he turn now?

Noah Mitchell is 17 and a gamer (gaymer!). He doesn’t have a whole lot of friends offline, but he’s got a very close one in his gaming community with someone who goes by the identity MagePants69. Noah wants to meet them in person so bad, knowing they’d be true soulmates. Although Noah doesn’t know everything about MagePants69, he’s convinced that MagePants69 is performing at a local community theater. So Noah does what anyone who is smitten would do: sign up to be part of the community theater, even though it is so outside of his comfort zone.

But Noah’s plan to make MagePants69 fall in love? It’s going to be much harder than he thought.

Shireen Malik might be mourning the breakup she’s had with Chris, but it’s not prolonged once she learns that she’s been accepted as a contestant on a new teen baking competition television show. Not only is Shireen stoked for the potential prize money but it’ll also bring attention to her family’s donut shop.

But you know this isn’t going to be easy.

See, Chris is also a contestant on the show.

And Shireen is starting to become close with the good-looking Niamh, first as friends and then as maybe something more.

Can she keep her eyes on the prize and avoid sabotage to win the competition? Or will love take all?