The Best New Queer SFF for Your TBR

An archivist named Sol suffers for an illness that requires him to get regular blood transfusions and sleep in the basement of the archives by night. The disease? Vampirism. But when Sol meets the widow of a famous TV writer, their instant connection sparks a love story that traverses grief, Internet fandom, transphobia, and vampirism.

The author of Wilder Girls and Burn Our Bodies Down returns with a fantasy novel about the immortal children of a tyrannical king. Rhea and Lexos have spent an eternity using their control over the seasons, tides, and stars to keep the people of their kingdom in line. But with their father losing his grasp and an independence movement growing, the twins must take matters into their own hands to save their people. For the first time in an eternity, though, they find themselves on opposing sides of a battle that could decide the fate of their family and their people forever.

In an alternate 1950s America where women have begun transforming into dragons, a young girl struggles with the new reality. Alex Green has questions, but she’s not allowed to have them, even though her aunt turned into a dragon along with thousands of other women in the Mass Dragoning of 1955, while her mother did not. Why did some women transform while others didn’t? Was it their choice? And what will happen to Alex’s cousin who is far too obsessed with the forbidden subject.

Pre-Code Era Hollywood is a challenging enough space for an aspiring starlet like Luli, but adding magic into the mix brings even more danger…and possibility. The studios that deal in blood pacts and ancient magic would love to control every aspect of Luli’s life, from her looks to the girl she loves. But Luli is willing to do whatever it takes to find the fame she longs for, even if it means becoming a monster herself in the process.

Music is magic in this fantastical version of New Orleans. Perilous Graves may be a failed magician but when nine songs escape from the magical piano that keeps the beat of NOLA going, it’s Perilous and his sister Brendy who are tasked with getting them back. Without these songs, the city will fall. But with the Haint of all Haints awakening, it may not matter whether Perry and Brendy can save the city, because one way or another, NOLA’s time may be coming to an end.

Jamie Vega is one of the sleepless, a group of people who can’t sleep and don’t need to. But Jamie is also a journalist, and when his boss shows up dead on the eve of a controversial corporate takeover, he doesn’t buy the ruling of suicide. But his investigation gets even more complicated when it turns out Jamie was the last one to see his boss alive — only he doesn’t have any memory of it. Memory loss can be a byproduct of the risky biohacking procedure he had to become a Sleepless, but as his investigation draws him deeper into a world of corporate coverups and extremist organizations, he discovers a terrifying secret about Sleeplessness that could endanger every not only him, but the entire world.

In what has to be one of the most interesting takes on vampire-like myth I’ve ever seen, the creatures who refer to themselves as Book Eaters consumer words to survive. Book Eater princesses like Devon are forced into arranged marriages to have children and preserve their dying breed. But Devon has never been one to follow the rules without question, and when she breaks one of the biggest rules of all — leaving her abusive husband dead as she and her young son flee — she’s forced to confront just how far she’s willing to go to stop the evils of her family.