Sponsored by Other Boys by Damian Alexander.
In Other Boys, debut author Damian Alexander delivers a moving middle grade graphic memoir about his struggles with bullying, the death of his mother, and coming out. “It’s hard to describe Damian Alexander’s particular mix of earnest sweetness and searing honesty without experiencing this book for yourself. Other Boys shoots straight for the heart in every single panel, and I’m both grateful and moved.” —Becky Albertalli, bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
I’m back from camping! Sure, it rained some, and yes, one of the dogs threw up all over the tent at 4 in the morning, but we still managed to have a good time! Maybe next time we’ll leave the pups with family, though.
This week, I wanted to highlight the charity Rainbow Railroad, which helps LGBTQI+ people escape state-sanctioned violence and oppression around the world. Right now, they’re trying to respond to many calls for help from LGBTQI+ people in Afghanistan fleeing from Taliban violence. You can find out more about about them on their website, and you can help them continue this work on their donation page.
Queer Books Are Everywhere. Why Are They Still Invisible?
I’ve started to really into queer BookTok, and I’m relieved it’s a thing. For a while there, I thought I would have to start one myself, and I am overwhelmed by the idea. Videos are hard enough: I don’t want to have to relearn new logistics. Luckily, there are lots of queer bookish creators making their mark. I even wrote a post about the LGBTQ books featured most on BookTok!
I’ve also been able to watch publishing change in the decade I’ve been writing about queer books. As you’ll be see in the list below, there are more queer books being published every month than used to be published in a year! And the kinds of representation has expanded by leaps and bounds — there’s more to go, of course, but I’m grateful for the progress that’s been made.
So how is it, when more queer books are being published every year than even the fastest reader could make a dent in, that some people still think they don’t exist at all?
The sentiment “there’s no good lesbian books” has been remarkably persistent despite being unequivocally wrong. After years of seeing it in comments sections on blogs, it still shows up regularly on TikToks (now usually as “sapphic books” instead). It’s so common that Laynie Rose, the foremost sapphic BookToker, made a shirt about it.
The problem is not that queer books (or queer women books or good sapphic books) don’t exist. Of course there are genres that are lacking representation, and of course it’s a small percentage next to the straight cis books that are getting published, but it’s still a staggering amount and breadth of representation. The problem is that people seem to still not be finding them. And… how is that possible?
If you google queer books, sapphic books, good lesbian books — however you want to specify it — you’ll get decent results. You’ll immediately be given relevant titles and resources to find more. There are blogs, YouTube channels, TikTok accounts, newsletters (hello!) devoted to queer lit. So how can anyone claim these books don’t exist?
Perhaps it’s because you do have to look. If you want cis/allo/straight representation, you could go into a library, close your eyes, spin in a circle and grab the first book you touch and you’re almost guaranteed to succeed. (Don’t do that, though. Unless you have a spotter!) Queer books require you to investigate, even just a cursory amount, and I don’t see that changing.
Luckily, more and more queer books are making it onto bestseller lists and displays. And that’s thanks to the authors and readers who did the work to make that possible: who fought to find an audience when they were told there was none, who investigated to find the titles they were told didn’t exist and then read and recommended them.
For now, at least, queer books do require a little more effort to find — usually just a few more keystrokes! — but I promise: they’re worth it.
All the Links Fit to Click
- Remember the Republican candidate who yelled at a teen library worker over her Pride display? Well, good news follow up: the library was flooded with donations of LGBTQ books afterwards!
- Check out these queer bookstores!
- Here’s a directory of lesbian book blogs. (Might I recommend mine, the Lesbrary?)
- Listen to queer love letters as you tour the University of Iowa.
- These 5 new queer ebooks are all under $5 and these 5 books all have queer Vietnamese main characters.
- The upcoming queer graphic novel Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle is being adapted! There was an eight-way bidding war! Bring on the sapphic werewolves!
- The Kingston Cycle by C.L. Polk is also getting adapted!
- Julian Winters, author of The Summer of Everything, and Ryan Douglass, author of The Taking of Jake Livingston, interviewed each other at LGBTQ Reads. Also, here’s a good reminder to go look at the cover of Julian Winters’s 2022 release, Right Where I Left You. It’s perfect.
- Casey Plett, author of A Dream of a Woman, was interviewed at Xtra.
- If monsters were real, this book (No God, No Monsters) knows what you’d really do — nothing.
LGBTQ Book Riot Posts
- Queer Love Is Sacred: in which I get overemotional about pop songs, teen shows, and queer literature.
- 13 LGBT Books That Will Make You Cry (but in a good way)
- Is DC Really Making Superman Gay?
- Quiz: Design Your Perfect Dinner Party and Get an Under-the-Radar Queer Book Rec
Come work with Book Riot! We’re hiring an Ad Operations Associate. Apply by September 30th!
New Releases This Week
This is one of the biggest publishing days of the year, so buckle up for a long list!
No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (Queer Fantasy)
In the first volume of a new series, Laina finds out that her brother has been shot by Boston cops — except that somehow that isn’t the biggest news of her day. It turns out that her brother was a werewolf, and suddenly all kinds of monsters are coming out of the woodwork, running from something. This is a book with a ton of different point of view characters, including asexual and sapphic representation.
A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee (YA Historical Fiction)
This is a YA “remix” of Treasure Island, featuring a slowburn F/F romance. It’s based on the real history of piracy in the China seas. When Xiang finds out her late father was a pirate, it’s because a girl named Anh stole her necklace and then asked for help deciphering the treasure map inside.There’s found family elements and queer pirates: who can resist?
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros (M/M YA Historical Fiction)
Despite this having just come out, I swear it already has a devoted fanbase. It’s a queer Jewish historical thriller that takes place in at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Alter is being possessed by his murdered best friend’s dybbuk, and he doesn’t have long to solve the murder and stop the killer. He finds himself having to rely on the help of a dangerous boy from his past.
The Family Way by Christopher DiRaddo (Gay Fiction)
The Magician by Colm Tóibín (Gay Fiction)
How to Wrestle a Girl by Venita Blackburn (Sapphic Short Stories)
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (M/M Romance)
The Final Child by Fran Dorricott (Thriller)
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The Actual Stars by Monica Byrne (Non-binary Worldbuilding Science Fiction)
The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw (Sapphic, Non-Binary Side Characters Science Fiction)
Act Cool by Tobly McSmith (Trans Guy YA Contemporary)
The Night When No One Had Sex by Kalena Miller (YA Contemporary)
Major Detours: A Choices Novel by Zachary Sergi (M/M YA Contemporary)
The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh (Bisexual YA Horror)
Mary, Will I Die? by Shawn Sarles (Lesbian YA Horror)
We Are Not Broken by George M Johnson (Queer, they/them pronouns YA Nonfiction)
Obie is Man Enough by Schuyler Bailar (Trans Boy Middle Grade Contemporary)
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A Touch of Ruckus by Ash Van Otterloo (Sapphic, Non-Binary LI Middle Grade Fantasy)
One Life: Young Readers Edition by Megan Rapinoe (Middle Grade Memoir)
Other Boys by Damian Alexander (Gay Middle Grade Graphic Memoir)
Small Knight and the Anxiety Monster by Manka Kasha (Non-binary/Gender-neutral, they/them pronouns Picture Book)
Eighty Days by A. C. Esguerra (M/M Graphic Novel)
Tenderness by Derrick Austin (Queer Poetry)
The Breaks: An Essay by Julietta Singh (Queer Nonfiction)
That’s it for me this week! Until next time, you can find me at the Lesbrary as well as on Twitter @danikaellis. You can also hear me on All the Books on the first Tuesday of the month, and I post weekly New Releases videos on the Book Riot Youtube channel. You can bet I sneak in as many queer titles as I can.
Happy reading!
Danika