Category: Our Queerest Shelves

Brandon J. Wolf is an LGBTQ+ activist who is also a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub terror attack. In this memoir, he talks about his journey growing up in a racist and homophobic small town in rural Oregon to finding his community in Orlando — and how that safe space was ripped away. This experience inspired him to become the activist he is today, and A Place for Us reminds us that the fight is not over: “With our backs against the wall,” he writes, “we find a way out together.”

The U.S. may have paused most of its releases for the Fourth of July, but the UK didn’t! This UK YA release is about Roman, a nonbinary teen in a small town where they feel isolated, especially in terms of dating. When they start getting anonymous postcards in their locker, they think they know who their secret admirer is — but will they be brave enough to act?

This one is by Book Riot’s own Tirzah Price! Manslaughter Park is the third book in the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries series, and it’s the first one with a queer main character. There’s a love story between Fanny Price and Mary Crawford! It’s Jane Austen, but queer and with murder. What’s not to like?

This is the sequel to The Name-Bearer. The Name-Bearer was raised to receive the name of the next royal from Flowers of Prophecy. When that prophecy doesn’t play out as planned, the Name-Bearer hides with a group of warrior women, preparing to find the Unnamed Prince and embrace her true destiny.

In the Downworld Sequence, AI gods rule. Khuon Mo is one robotic god who turned against creations, striking down a whole city. But before it died, it brought back its favorite child, Sunai. In the 17 years since, Sunai has been running away from his destiny, escaping with drugs and men. But one of the men he sleeps with leads him right back to the dangerous politics of AI gods. This is described as a “sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies”!

In 2017, Emerson was divorcing their dominatrix wife that they called Daddy, and was feeling completely lost. They dive into storm chasing, and along the way, they remember the father figures in their life, trying to put together their own relationship to masculinity as an adult. Emerson explains, “We often look to our gender roles as a sort of map for aging. I wanted to know what the process looked like without that: not man-ness, not-woman-ness.”

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard, narrated by Aoife Hinds (Sapphic Fantasy) (Audiobook Rerelease)

Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire by Erica Hollis (Lesbian F/F YA Fantasy)

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake, narrated by Krystal Hammond (Sapphic YA Contemporary) (Audiobook Rerelease)

Negative Money by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (Nonbinary Poetry)

If you loved the Netflix adaptation of Fear Street, you’re going to need to pick this up. Kalynn Bayron is the author of Cinderella is Dead and the This Poison Heart series, and this is her first horror novel. It follows Charity, who is playing the “final girl” in a slasher-themed summer camp. But when people start turning up dead for real, she’ll have to find a way to get her and her girlfriend out alive.

It’s the summer before senior year, and Claire can’t keep hiding the fact that she’s bisexual and has feelings for her lifelong best friend, Sophia. To pay for repairs on her car, she takes a summer job at a nursing home, and becomes close with Lena, an 88-year-old lesbian. Spending time with her makes Claire more confident in her identity — but then a new girl, Pen, walks into her life, and Claire is torn between a new crush and the feelings for Sophia she’s been repressing for so long.

Ask any bisexual woman, and she probably has her own horror story about being “unicorn hunted.” The Spare Room takes this to another level: Kelly has just been dumped by her fiancé when her friend Sabrina and his husband Nathan offer her the spare bedroom in their remote mansion. During her stay, she finds herself falling for them both — and they open up their marriage for her. But she soon realizes she’s not the first woman they’ve done this to, and the previous one has gone missing…

I can’t resist a sapphic friends to lovers romance. Peaches and Jamie are friends who both have feelings for each other, but is this the right time to see if romance is in the cards? Jamie is planning to move away for college and is not yet sure where she’ll be next year. Peaches is taking care of her whole family after her mother passed away, along with managing her own business, which has her stretched thin. Even if the timing is not ideal, though, they can’t deny the chemistry between them.

Lucky Red is a queer, feminist take on the Western genre. It’s 1877, and Bridget is a 16-year-old orphan struggling to survive. When she joins Buffalo Queen, a women-run brothel, she finds community with the other women there as well as financial stability. When a notorious female gunslinger comes to town, Bridget falls for her, but other new arrivals threaten to upend the fragile peace of Dodge City. She’ll have to defend her found family — or lose everything, again.

Mrs. S by K. Patrick (Sapphic Fiction)

Gods of Want: Stories by K-Ming Chang (Queer Short Stories) (Paperback Rerelease)

Through the Groves by Anne Hull (Lesbian Memoir)

The LGBT Cuban Revolution by Wilfred W. Labiosa (LGBT Nonfiction)

Dahlia Adler is a name you need to know in queer YA. First of all, she writes amazing books like this one, Home Field Advantage, Cool for the Summer, and more. But she also happens to run one of the best queer book blogs out there, which I’ve mentioned many times in this newsletter: LGBTQ Reads.

I managed to get an ARC of Going Bicoastal, so I can tell you it’s just as good as the stunning cover would suggest! This is the most bisexually structured book I’ve ever read. Natalya has to make a choice between spending the summer with her estranged mother in L.A. (where she meets and falls for a boy) or with her dad in NYC (where she gets to know the girl she’s been crushing on from afar). In alternating chapters, we see her life in both versions, Sliding Doors-style — because binary choices are bullshit. It feels completely natural to swap between them, and it’s comforting, because, as the cover says, “There’s more than one path to happily ever after.”

The first day of school is always hard, especially for Vivian. She’s had a string of bad luck with first days. But the first day of 8th grade turns out to be the worst one yet — and then she has to do it all over again, stuck in her own Groundhog Day scenario. Along the way, she has to let go of trying to have the “perfect” first day, and instead learn to be true to herself, even when it’s messy.

Kaori convinced shy Shizuku to start fake dating her in order to inspire Shizuku’s writing. Of course, real feelings start to develop between them — but they’re made more complicated when Kaori admits to her past as a school bully, and it comes out that Shizuku is hiding her own secrets.

I know there are so many people looking for something to scratch that Night Circus itch, and this looks like the perfect thing. Ringmaster (or Rin) is a time traveller who runs a circus for misfits with her wife, Odette, a trapeze artist. But soon another, dark circus appears, and the powerful ringmaster wants something from Rin, and will stop at nothing until he gets it.

Going beyond the viral video, Christian Cooper tells his own story of being a gay Black man in America, as well as the life lessons he’s learned through birdwatching and being in nature. He also talks about being at Marvel and helping to introduce gay characters there!

Wild With All Regrets by E.L. Deards (Queer Historical Fiction)

The Gulf by Rachel Cochran (Sapphic Thriller)

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding (Queer Thriller)

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (Bisexual Romance) (Paperback Rerelease)

Prokaryote Season by Leo Fox (Queer Graphic Novel)

Parallel by Matthias Lehmann (Gay Historical Graphic Novel)

Lsbn by by Emma Jayne and Sloane Leong (Lesbian Sci-Fi Graphic Novel)

Cosmoknights, Vol. 2 by Hannah Templer (Sapphic Fantasy Graphic Novel)

Qualia the Purple: The Complete Manga Collection by Hisamitsu Ueo and Sirou Tsunasima (Yuri Manga)

At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender by Shou Arai (Intersex and Agender Manga Memoir)

X-Gender, Vol. 2 by Asuka Miyazaki (Nonbinary Manga Memoir)

Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It by Greg Marshall (Gay Memoir)

Andrea is determined to have the best summer ever. Last year, she spent the season in bed, recovering from a surgery for her cerebral palsy. This summer, she’s going skinny dipping, attending a Lizzo concert, hitting the amusement park, and…falling out of love with her best friend, Hailee, before her feelings ruin everything. Keah Brown is a journalist who has written for Teen Vogue, Elle, The New York Times, and more, and is the creator of #DisabledAndCute! This is her YA debut, and it promises to be a messy teen romance perfect for reading on the beach.

I can’t even stand how adorable this looks. I need it right now. It’s about two teen girls, Basil Eyres and Arabella Oregano, who meet at Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy. They immediately fall for each other and begin working together on their final project. But Arabella has a secret that will change everything when it comes out. ALSO, there is a tomato dog on the cover! Magical cooking and a sapphic love story in graphic novel form — what more could you possibly ask for?

Things I’ll Never Say by Cassandra Newbould (Bisexual YA Contemporary)

Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See (Asexual YA Contemporary)

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter (Queer YA Contemporary)

Northranger by Rey Terciero and illustrated by Bre Indigo (Queer YA Contemporary) — I read and really enjoyed this one! You can hear me talk about it on the June 6th episode of All the Books!

A Spark in the Cinders by Jenny Elder Moke (F/F YA Fantasy)

Will on the Inside by Andrew Eliopulos (Questioning Middle Grade Contemporary)

Gender Identity for Kids: A Book About Finding Yourself, Understanding Others, and Respecting Everybody! by Andy Passchier (Gender Identity Children’s Nonfiction)

This is the first book to come out of the new Roxane Gay imprint, which is reason enough for me to want to pick it up! This is about a Nigerian man in his 20s, August, who falls for Segun, an openly gay university student. Their relationship is complicated already, with August still in the closet, but when new anti-gay legislation passes in Nigeria, they have to survive in a violently homophobic environment.

Sammie has been out as trans for a year when they get an invitation from an old friend to be his “best man” and join the bachelor party at El Campo, a hedonistic island retreat. Against their better judgment, they accept — and endure misgendering from the other guests. Sammie also seems to be the only who notices the bloodthirsty cult sacrificing people at their hotel…

There are only about 20 lesbian bars across the U.S., down from 200 in the ’80s. So Krista Burton makes it her mission to visit and write about every one of them. I loved this! Krista Burton’s writing style feels like a friend recounting her adventures, and the discussion of maintaining queer (and specifically lesbian) spaces was fascinating. You can hear my full thoughts on today’s All the Books episode.

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid, narrated by Fajer Al-Kaisi (Queer Fiction) (Audiobook Rerelease)

BeatNikki’s Café by Renee James (Trans Woman Fiction)

Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, translated by Tiffany Tsao (Queer Short Stories)

All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim (M/M Romance)

Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style by Paul Rudnick (Queer Fiction)

The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman (Sapphic Historical Mystery)

Killingly by Katharine Beutner (Queer Historical Suspense Novel)

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian (Gay Historical Romance)

Indigiqueerness: A Conversation about Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou (Indigiqueer Essays)

TransElectric: My Life as a Cosmic Rock Star by Cidny Bullens (Trans Memoir)

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page (Trans Memoir)

Transpoethicalbody: A Book of Black Trans* Erotic Poetry by Tiely Santos (Trans Poetry)

And Don’t F&%k It Up: An Oral History of RuPaul’s Drag Race (The First Ten Years) by Maria Elena Fernandez (Drag Nonfiction)

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins–Mollymauk Tealeaf by Jody Houser, Taliesin Jaffe, Matthew Mercer, Hunter Severn Bonyun, Cathy Le, and Ariana Maher (Queer Fantasy Graphic Novel)

Turning Japanese: Expanded Edition by MariNaomi (Bisexual Graphic Memoir)

Seven years ago, Hayley Kiyoko dropped the Girls Like Girls music video, which was a real defining moment for sapphics. I remember watching it and wishing I could watch the full movie or read a novel-length version of it — and now we can! Hayley Kiyoko has used the music video as inspiration for her first novel.

First there was Tegan and Sara’s memoir High School. Then it was adapted into a TV show. And now, we have a kind of prequel to the story in Junior High, a graphic novel illustrated by Tillie Walden! Walden is the author/illustrator of On a Sunbeam, along with other beloved graphic novels. This book is part memoir, part fictional version of Tegan and Sara’s junior high years, including their journey through music and to finding themselves.

The Girl Next Door by Cecilia Vinesse (Bisexual YA Contemporary)

The Alchemy of Moonlight by David Ferraro (Gay YA Paranormal Romance)

Sweet & Bitter Rivals (Saddlehill Academy #1) by Jessica Burkhart (Sapphic Middle Grade Contemporary)

The Song of Us by Kate Fussner (Queer Middle Grade Contemporary)