In honor of Pride month in June, it’s only right to pick up books with LGBTQIA+ characters and/or books written by LGBTQIA+ authors. I’ve got you with a list of some of the best queer books to pick up this month. Let’s celebrate diversity in literature by supporting diverse books by diverse authors.
What better way to start off this list than by highlighting one of the most prominent voices in LGBTQIA+ activism.
This post was originally published on GetLiterary.com.
Binge is a collection of personal essays written by Youtuber, television host, and activist Tyler Oakley. Since the start of his YouTube channel, Tyler has been open about his sexuality and has since become dedicated to LGBTQ youth and their rights. Read Binge if you want to know more about the life of Tyler and get a personal look into his experience!
Binge is a collection of personal essays written by Youtuber, television host, and activist Tyler Oakley. Since the start of his YouTube channel, Tyler has been open about his sexuality and has since become dedicated to LGBTQ youth and their rights. Read Binge if you want to know more about the life of Tyler and get a personal look into his experience!
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A YA novel by one of my favorite duos. Romance writers Christina Lauren (the pen name of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings) venture boldly into YA territory with an epic and moving love story. They explore bisexuality in this novel through Tanner and the struggles he faces after moving to a religious town in Utah. Of course, being that this is a Christina Lauren love story, as always, they knock it out of the park with the feels. The love interest in this one is named Sebastian, a Mormon prodigy, who wrote his own seminar novel, and now mentors the class that Tanner enrolled in. I mean, if that doesn’t make you interested in picking this one up…
Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community.Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah. But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity. It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.
I read this one in 2013 when it first came out, and it crushed me. This novel features YA characters, in which, at 14 years old, Ryan Dean goes to a boarding school. But the highlight for me in the book was the story of Ryan’s gay best friend. At first this comically written novel turns too real and we get to see the darker side and dangers that boys face every day in society, especially in an environment of predominantly straight males.
A teen at boarding school grapples with life, love, and rugby in this unforgettable novel that is “alternately hilarious and painful, awkward and enlightening” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy. Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications with the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart. Filled with hand-drawn infographics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.
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This book makes me so happy. Talk about having diversity in a novel. Both of the main characters are Mexican-American, so not only do they have to figure out what that means in this society, but also what it means to be openly gay and how it will affect them. Dante and Aristotle are just amazing, and I love that this story begins with a strong friendship and a bond that later grows into romance. Also, if you love or prefer audiobooks, please pick up the audiobook because Lin-Manuel Miranda narrates it!
Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison and Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common, but as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime.
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Is it possible to include just about everything that Adam Silvera has written? I won’t go into detail about every single book, but More Happy Than Not, History Is All You Left Me, and They Both Die at the End are must reads! Plus, Adam is from the Bronx, New York, which is my hometown, so that gives him even more cool points! If you haven’t already read one of his books, don’t even finish this list before you go pick one up!
Is it possible to include just about everything that Adam Silvera has written? I won’t go into detail about every single book, but More Happy Than Not, History Is All You Left Me, and They Both Die at the End are must reads! Plus, Adam is from the Bronx, New York, which is my hometown, so that gives him even more cool points! If you haven’t already read one of his books, don’t even finish this list before you go pick one up!
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And just because there’s a lot of YA on this list, it’s time to switch it up. I really wanted to mention a book that I read recently and haven’t been able to stop thinking about. Though The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is not a predominately LGBTQ novel, it features a gay main character. Set in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic, his story was one that has stuck with me. Pick this one up to read his story, but also just because this novel is amazing and one of my favorites.
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