8 Spectacular Books by Nonbinary Authors

Listen, this book had me staying up all night. This is Emezi’s young adult work, and it feels so different from everything else they’ve written. This National Book Award finalist puts readers in a utopian world (or so we think). In Jam’s near-future society, there are no monsters anymore. Society has healed from its wounds, and equality and justice flourish. Why then, does a creature named Pet tell Jam that there is a monster lurking in her friend Redemption’s house? This is a truly brilliant fable about what happens when people refuse to admit that monsters can be all around us. In addition, how often do we get to see utopias in literature, rather than dystopian horror? Emezi’s groundbreaking novel will have you envisioning a new world after you speed through its pages.

Sarah Gailey has been churning out consistently intriguing and unique speculative stories for years now, but my favorite of theirs is Magic for Liars. While reading, Gailey kept surprising me with how they turn tropes on their heads. Ivy Gamble is a non-magical private investigator. Ivy’s sister, Tabitha, however, is a professor at a magical academy, and something has gone terribly wrong. Tabitha enlists Ivy’s deductive skills to solve the murder of a fellow professor, and Ivy must confront her feelings of inadequacy in the face of magic all around her.

I don’t throw around comparisons to the queen, Toni Morrison, lightly. But Rivers Solomon’s latest novel has Morrison-level characters and plot from start to finish. Fae does an amazing job of constructing the protagonist, Vern, and making her and her struggle impossible to look away from. Vern is seven months pregnant when she leaves a religious cult, fleeing to the woods to give birth to her twins. But Vern is still hunted by those on the compound that don’t want to let her go — thankfully, strange physical changes to her body aid her in combating those who wish her and her family harm. Solomon’s ability to craft a story shines on every page in faer brilliant, weird novel.

While we all eagerly await Neon Yang’s novel debut, feel free to dive into their series of four novellas, starting with The Black Tides of Heaven. It follows Mokoya and Akeha, twins in Yang’s fascinating world of Ea. The Protectorate rules the Full Lands, and Mokoya and Akeha are the children of the Protector herself. While Mokoya develops a talent for prophecy, Akeha cultivates a way to see what causes the actions of those around them. As rebellion stirs against the Protectorate, the twins must decide where their allegiances lie. And those allegiances might not be in the same place after all.

Noah Mishner must find shelter when a hurricane devastates his city, but he worries his trans and Jewish identities might cause the more bigoted citizens of Texas to harm him. Suddenly, his great grandfather, who survived Nazi Germany by fleeing as a child, appears to him in a vision. As Noah’s situations grows more dire, his grandfather’s ghost grows more and more powerful, and questions of survival and identity are on the line. Sim Kern writes this spellbinding story skillfully, bringing nuance and empathy to Noah’s story and plight.

This novella by Jeremy C. Shipp will scratch that gothic fantasy itch! Follow Ms. Valdez, a tutor hired to teach the young Isabella in a definitely creepy mansion hidden in a maze of terrifying statues, as she discovers that maybe she shouldn’t have taken this job. You see, Isabella is dead, and has been for some time. Alas, her parents don’t want her to miss out on all the joys that education can offer. So, enter Ms. Valdez, tasked with the impossible and learning very quickly that not everything is as it seems. I read this a few years ago, yet still vividly remember Shipp’s nearly tangible descriptions of the humanoid statues that populate the house’s looming maze. I’ll just advise: read this one with the lights on.