Author: Danika Ellis

A gay couple who host a home renovation reality show and solve crimes together? Yes, thank you. If you’re someone who loves to zone out in front of HGTV, this is the cozy mystery for you. Plus, it’s the beginning of a series, so there should be more soon!

Daisy has a mobile bakery called Pies Before Guys. What could be more cozy than baking pies? And if those pies happen to also act as a magical method of revenge against men who’ve done terrible things, that’s just a happy bonus. When Daisy starts getting blackmailed, though, she’ll have to find out who is holding this secret over her — with enough time to win the state pie baking competition.

What if, instead The Great Gatsby having intense queer subtext as well as subtext that Gatsby was Black, it simply had a queer woman of color as the main character — and some magic thrown in, just for fun? Enter, The Chosen and the Beautiful, starring Jordan, a bisexual Vietnamese adoptee. This is a gorgeous story that swept me away, and it doesn’t hurt that it has a complicated and very queer love triangle… quadrangle… pentagram? (With the deals with demons happening, that would make sense.)

Louise had enough adventure for a lifetime when she kidnapped as a teen. She has no intentions of getting herself involved investigating the string of murders of Black women outside of the café she works at. But then she’s blackmailed by the police into helping find the killer — though she might be putting herself and her girlfriend in danger while doing so.

Dalia’s dad is getting remarried, and he insists that she needs to bond with her new stepsister, Alexa. Luckily, Alexa was already planning an amusement park trip, and Dalia has been desperate to ride a roller coaster for the first time. She invites along a new friend, Rani, and she soon discovers Alexa has brought a secret guest of her own: her girlfriend. As they explore the park together, Dalia realizes that she might also be interested in girls — specifically, Rani.

Audre has just been kicked out of her home in Trinidad after being caught with her girlfriend. Now, she’s being sent to live with her estranged father in the U.S. When she gets there, she becomes friends with Mabel, who keeps getting sicker. This only has one scene set at an amusement park, but I promise you that includes a rollercoaster ride you won’t forget.

I am still think about this book many months after finishing it. It’s about a violinist who sells her soul to the devil for success, but will get it back if she convinces seven other violinists to do the same. She just needs one more. Meanwhile, an alien refugee opens a donut shop after escaping from a hostile planet, but she fears violence will follow them here. And a trans teenager seems to find safety with a violinist intent on developing her talent. I find it so interesting that each of these main characters seems to be living in a different genre: fantasy, sci fi, and realism. This is also one of the most brutal books I’ve read — strong content warnings for transmisogyny, and I recommend looking up the full list of content warnings — while simultaneously being one of the most hopeful books I’ve read. Somehow, it pulls off this ambitious premise.

Nishat is a second generation Bangladeshi immigrant living in Ireland who has the perfect plan for her business class’s final project: she’ll start a henna business! She’s been learning from her grandmother for years, and this will be a great opportunity to hone her craft. There’s just one problem: someone else in the class has the same idea. When Nishat confronts Flávia about this being appropriative, Flávia, who is Black and Brazilian, brushes her off. Now they’re in competition, and Flávia has an advantage by being more popular and better at advertising. And then there’s an added complication…neither of them can deny the spark they share. I do want to give content warnings for homophobia: Nishat has a really rough experience. It still manages to be hopeful, though, and I really appreciate this novel’s discussion of cultural appropriation.

Harrison has big plans for him and his best friend, Linus, in the summer before junior year. But then he learns that Linus is moving out of state within a week. Inspired by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Harrison decides to cram all of that summer fun into one ambitious day, including a mini road trip to attend their first Pride. This is a celebration of queer Black boy friendship, but it also discusses the racism and danger they face as young Black men.

From a plot inspired by Ferris Bueller to one inspired by Grease! This is told in two timelines. One is the intense and confusing summer Lara spent falling for Jasmine, which seems to exist in a vacuum, and then Lara’s life at school, where she finally looks to have a chance with her long-time crush, Chase. But just when things with Chase seem to be moving from daydream to reality, Jasmine walks through the doors as a new student at their school.

Sure, I may be a little bit biased because my name is in the acknowledgements of this book (!! That’s never happened before!!), but I would already have recommended it before I fell out of my chair reading that.

Have I recommended this book before in Our Queerest Shelves? Yes, because I will take any excuse to talk about it. It’s set in 1904 Norway and follows a queer teen found family group: Aster, who is asexual, has Waardenburg Syndrome, and is deaf in one ear; Gunnar, who is an amputee, is non-ambulatory, and experiences chronic pain; and Erland, who has anxiety. Gunnar and Erland are in a romantic relationship, and the three of them are rejected from their community for not following norms, forcing them to find a way to survive together. Plus, there’s a horse race to save the family farm. This is a beautiful and immersive story I need more people to read ASAP.

Simone is a teenager who’s been HIV positive since birth. It’s managed well with medication, but she faced so much stigma in her last school that she had to change schools and hide her diagnosis. Now, just as everything seems to be going well and the boy she’s crushing on might be crushing on her too, she starts getting blackmail notes threatening to out her as HIV positive.

Simone is bisexual, and she spends part of the book coming to terms with this: she has two queer best friends, and she feels like she can’t “claim” the label of bisexual because she’s more often attracted to guys. This is something I haven’t seen a lot in books, and it’s handled so well. She also has two dads, so there’s plenty of queer rep!

First published in 1999, Exile and Pride is a groundbreaking work at the intersection of queer and disability studies. This blends memoir and essays as Clare discusses his experiences as a genderqueer writer and activist with cerebral palsy, focusing on the body as a site of power, resistance, and oppression.

Dirty River follows Piepzna-Samarasinha as a young brown, queer, disabled femme as they ran from the U.S. to Canada. It’s a vulnerable and resilient story about survival, and you can see Piepzna-Samarasinha’s poetry background in the sharp and precise wording. I also highly recommend her books Bodymap (poetry) and Care Work (nonfiction).