An Alphabet of Queer Books: LGBTQ Book Recs from A-Z

This gorgeous, queer historical fiction novel follows two young siblings growing up in the harsh climate of the American West. After their Ba dies, leaving them alone, Lucy and Sam set off into the hills of the desert with his body, looking for suitable burial ground. But while Sam revered their father and feels no place is good enough, Lucy still isn’t sure he deserves a proper burial at all. As the story moves backward and forward in time, we see how this once-hopeful family suffered time and again, treated as outsiders by the white settlers who have taken over this land. As they grow older, Lucy and Sam will have to reckon with what it means to belong to a place and to a family, even when they’re altogether inhospitable.

In this surreal memoir, Carmen Maria Machado uses the metaphor of a haunted house to explore an abusive relationship. Couched in exquisite prose, Machado uses literary techniques, narrative tropes, and classic horror themes to express the stages of hope, love, and heartbreak that she experienced in the form of abuse in a same-sex partnership. We are so reluctant to believe that women can be abusers — of any gender. And in her memoir, Machado refuses to let us look away from the painful reality of what it’s like.

In a horror novel that explores the sometimes blurry distinction between fear and desire, a teacher on the verge of a total break from reality and two students practicing increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned god of their own invention come together to disastrous effect. At the end of it all, one of them winds up bound and held hostage by their teacher, no longer speaking to the other. But how did they get here? And what horrors still await?

The life of a gay teen boy band star is never easy — especially when his Label wants him to fit a certain image of what it means to be queer instead of being true to himself. And after a very public breakup, Hunter isn’t sure he knows how to be the perfect gay role model for teens anymore. The Label keeps telling him one thing, but his heart tells him another. A burgeoning relationship with Kaivan, the drummer for the band’s new opening act, could be just what Hunter needs to figure himself out again. But it could also spell disaster for the band.

A young trans runaway with a gift for music, a family of alien refugees running a donut shop, and a renowned violin instructor paying off a deal with the devil come together in unexpected ways in this gorgeous SFF novel about family and belonging. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read and entirely unexpected, but Ryka Aoki brings all these disparate threads together to incredible effect. And she somehow finds the perfect line between dark realities and absurdist humor. You’ll just have to read it to see for yourself.

After fleeing a life of relative privilege in Haiti during the revolution, Sylvie de Rosiers, the daughter of a plantation owner and an enslaved woman, finds herself making a life amidst another burgeoning revolution in France. But she soon finds herself torn between the complicated ideals of Robespierre and the easy friendship of his mistress, Cornélie Duplay, and wonders if the ideals of the movement have gone astray. Can Sylvie survive another revolution? And will Robespierre’s ideals save them? Or condemn them all?

When their son attempts to cross the DMZ into North Korea during his time abroad, the Cho family is rocked to its core. Their delicatessen — once visited by Guy Fieri — struggles to pull in customers, and their son, detained by the South Korean government, may never be allowed to return home. But what the family doesn’t know is that Jacob is possessed by the ghost of his grandfather, determined to return to his family in the north at any cost.

Virginia Woolf’s classic, written as something of a love letter to Woolf’s friend/lover Vita Sackville-West follows a young nobleman in Elizabethan England who one day, many years into his life, wakes up as a woman. Now a wife and mother, Orlando faces the realities of life for a woman in the 18th and 19th centuries. Full of wit and irony, Orlando explores gender and identity as well as the hope of a better future for women.

A painter in an occupied government is blackmailed into joining the government’s top-secret program working to bring a mechanical dragon under control. Unlike their sister, Jebi has never been a fighter or a rebel. But when their sister’s life is threatened, and they’re forced to join the ranks of painters using pigments to bring the occupying government’s war machines to life, suddenly they must face the fact that remaining neutral is no longer an option. And with the help of a master swordswoman and the very machine they’re meant to be fixing, maybe they won’t have to do it on their own.

This sweet romcom from Book Riot’s very own Susie Dumond follows a somewhat closeted baker who’s turned her skills with cake into a gig as a professional bridesmaid and an engineer who might just help her find her happily ever after. But the same people pleasing tendencies that have so often gotten Amy into trouble haven’t completely dissipated, and if she can’t learn to be true to herself, she might just drive away all the people she loves most in life.

This coming-of-age story is split between the 1950s and the turn of the 21st century, following a family of Jamaican immigrants hoping to find a better future for themselves and a teenager struggling with his racial and sexual identities amidst his upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness. Both find that it will take more than just hope or determination to survive against the discrimination they face.

In a version of 20th century Los Angeles where dark magic and deals with eldritch creatures are very much the norm, a young Chinese American actress carves out a place for herself in pre-Code Hollywood. She quickly realizes she’ll never be the ingénue, so she opts for becoming the villain instead. It’s better than being cast in some offensive role, at least. But in this world, fame comes at a high price. And Luli may have to become the very monster she plays on screen if she ever hopes to survive.

The headmistress of River Valley School for the Deaf is desperately trying to keep the school open for another year, despite increasing pressure — and legislation — that could force them to close. The students just want to live life to the fullest without their hearing families, doctors, and politicians telling them what that should look like. But when two students go missing, one from a well regarded Deaf family and one who has only recently been given the chance to learn sign language, the choices that they all make could affect the fate of the school forever.

A recently deceased lawyer discovers it’s never too late to start over — even in the afterlife. After dying suddenly from a heart attack, Wallace is taken to his funeral and collected by an inexperienced young reaper. What at first appears to be some sick joke soon becomes all too real when he’s taken to a tea shop that serves as a waystation for the dead. Here, Hugo helps the souls under his care come to terms with their death and cross over. But Wallace has no intention of going into that good night gently. Instead, he’s an absolute menace. Hugo and his friends don’t hate Wallace for it, though, and soon, he finds himself wanting to stay here for entirely different reasons.

Charlie Jane Anders turns the chosen one trope on its head in this YA sci-fi series about a cloned intergalactic hero who has lost all memories of her previous life. Without any knowledge of how to save the universe, Tina has to figure out where she fits into a war her higher-ups now think she has no place in. It’s a story full of action and heart that reads very much like Star Trek and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet had a beautiful YA baby.

In a small shtetl in 20th century Europe, a Jewish angel and trickster demon discover a young girl from their community has gone missing. To find out what happened to her, they’ll have to travel all the way to America. But along the way, they’ll meet another Jewish girl caught up in a scheme taking advantage of desperate immigrants and discover just how important they are to one another. If you’ve ever wished Good Omens was more queer and more Jewish, this is the book for you.

Rebekah Weatherspoon is a master of steamy queer romance, and in this novella, a late R&B singer uses her will to play matchmaker one last time with her niece and her protégé. Now, in order to claim the estate her aunt has left her, Xeni must marry. And she certainly never expected her aunt to already have the groom in mind, but then a handsome hunk of a Scotsman playing the bagpipes shows up at her aunt’s funeral. Now, she and Mason are trapped in an increasingly complicated marriage scheme that they’ll have to make the best of. But maybe that won’t be such a bad thing, if it means the chance to spend more time together and even fall in love.

In this gender-bent reimagining of Taxi Driver, Damani, a ride-share driver living paycheck to paycheck, gives a ride to a seemingly perfect prospective girlfriend: Jolene. Jolene may be rich and white, but she’s also an ally who’s done the reading and goes to protests. Damani decides to let her guard down and give their romance a chance, but just as she does, Jolene does something unforgivable. And now Damani has to deal with the consequences.

Zara Hossain has always tried to lay low in her Corpus Christi, Texas, community in spite of the rampant Islamophobia. Her family has been waiting nine years to change their dependent visa status into green cards, after all. Zara would never do anything to jeopardize that. But when the star football player goes too far, threatening Zara, and is suspended, he and his friends retaliate further by covering the Hossain house in racist graffiti that sparks a violent crime. Now, she’ll have to decide whether to fight for the place she calls home even if it’s never welcomed her or lose everyone and everything she loves.