Queer Books I've Read & Queer Books I Want to Read
From June 2024 to June 2025, I've read a lot of queer books. In honor of this year's Pride Month, I've gathered some of my favorite LGBTQIA+ reads from the past year and some queer books I plan to read by June 2026 🌈 !
Queer Books I Recommend
When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris
When I heard Denne Michele Norris, longtime Editor-in-Chief of Electric Literature, was coming out with her debut novel, I knew to expect literary greatness. And did she deliver! Each sentence, each word of this book is so rich and a testament to Norris's mastery. A gorgeous, heart-wrenching meditation on queer love, memory, grief, gender, and race—also a stunning addition to the canon of "New York novels". Plus...this book is further evidence that only queer people should write sex scenes...sorry not sorry.
If you know me at all, you know I've been championing this book since its early ARC days. The Lilac People follows a trans man and his found queer family as they struggle to survive the fall of Weimar Berlin, the ensuing reign of Nazi terror, and persecution from the Allies in the aftermath of WWII. Milo Todd is such a sincere writer and person. Told with a keen eye for historical detail and humanity, The Lilac People is a heartfelt revival of trans ancestors who have been scrubbed from the archives.
Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyễn
Ok...this book is one hell of a ride—a whip-smart satire for the COVID age and a glorious response to the movement to ban trans people from sports (and, if we're being real, public life in general). Nguyễn tackles digital celebrity, the interplays of social and physical gender transition, intimacy, the dual isolation and intense kinship experienced by the multiply marginalized, and performative activism.
Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke
🚨MASC LESBIAN REP🚨 This debut novel has been frustratingly flying under the radar...carrying her little brother's ashes, a young queer woman returns to Jamaica after many years living abroad to reunite with and grieve alongside her estranged, devoutly Christian older sister. From Kingston to Texas, hospital rooms to strip clubs, Cooke's prose is so deeply rooted in place and her protagonist's complex emotional landscape. A beautifully raw story on family, belonging, and staying true to yourself.
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-Zǐ
A feast for foodies and fans of sapphic longing! Set in 1930s Taiwan under Japanese rule and disguised as a translation of a Japanese author's rediscovered work, this book is a palimpsest of language—urging readers to question not only the narrator, but the layers of translation and, ultimately, the lifetimes of colonial history that delivered this work to our very hands. Loved every moment of this book!
Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez (pubs July 22nd 2025)
Exactly what I want from contemporary Gothic fiction. After years of tense estrangement, Ingrid reunites with her childhood best friend, Mayra, for a long weekend in the Everglades. Cut off from the outside world, Ingrid’s reality begins to unspool and she is forced to choose between saving herself or the fraught friendship that once meant more to her than life itself. Each word is a carefully placed brick in Gonzalez's house of horrors—utterly hypnotic, Mayra perfectly captures the twisted nature of adolescent friendships...those first, all-consuming loves that go on to haunt our very personhood.
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
Yes...Monstrilio 100% deserves the hype! Spanning years and continents, messy queer characters face monstrous grief. M is such a delight—my ideal balance of adorable and unsettling. I encourage even the horror-wary to read this book!
Extinction Capital of the World by Mariah Rigg (pubs August 5th 2025)
Hello, fellow short story lovers, I'm sorry for neglecting you in this list. Please accept this incredible debut collection from Mariah Rigg as an apology. A nuanced love letter to the islands and people of Hawai'i, each story ripples with the butterfly effects of imperialism, environmental collapse, and the choices of the everyday people most impacted by these circumstances.
Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe
A contemporary retelling of the legend of Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing, two snake yaojing who become sworn sisters. Koe writes with a distinctive bite, offering a tale brimming with the supernatural and unexpected twists. I loved following the story of these immortal sisters as they navigated queerness, questions of assimilation and passing, Singaporean politics, and very real family drama. And, of course, bonus points for 🚨MASC LESBIAN REP🚨
As a more masc presenting nonbinary person who has spent many years of my life attending "all-girls" and/or "single sex" institutions, this was an insanely relatable read at times. A butch (maybe masc lesbian? maybe trans?) Australian finds work at an elite, all-girls boarding school in the English countryside. There, they find themself ensnared in a volatile affair with the headmaster's wife. Mrs. S is a mesmerizing, introspective slow-burn with countless scenes I will remember for years to come. And that ending? Chef's kiss.
The cool aunt/godmother of trans literature—I am so grateful to have finally read Nevada. You have to read this book. Messy queers, malaise, early internet trans culture, NYC, a road trip with a stolen car and hard drugs stashed in the glove compartment...I laughed, I cried, I will never be the same.
Can the Monster Speak? by Paul B. Preciado
This is my first foray into Preciado's work. I've heard as much criticism as I have praise of his nonfiction and decided it was finally time to read him myself. As a speech, Can the Monster Speak? is a concise criticism of psychoanalysis as it pertains to "treating" and "diagnosing" trans people. I resonated with much of what Preciado had to say about navigating the medical world and public life while trans, including his call to decolonialize the field of psychology. Was this a perfect speech? Hell no. Is it worth reading for the sake of discussion and generating new work on the subject? I think so.
Queer Books I Want to Read
Small Beauty by jia qing wilson-yang
A grieving trans woman returns to her small hometown where she reconnects with local and familial histories—wrestling with queerness, loss, mixed-race identity, and Canada Geese...this sounds utterly beautiful.
Making Love With The Land by Joshua Whitehead
Though most known for his debut novel, Johnny Appleseed, I am very eager to read Two-Spirit author Joshua Whitehead's nonfiction— a genre-busting exploration of "biostory", land, and "Indigenous beauty and passion".
El Ghourabaa edited by Samia Marshy & Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
I gleefully scooped this up over a year ago at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal (highly recommending visiting if you're able!) but have yet to read it. A cross-genre anthology of Arab and Arabophone queer authors.
Wendy, a young trans woman, investigates the possibility that her deceased Mennonite grandparent might have, in fact, also been trans. Set during an icy Winnipeg winter, Wendy faces the past, intergenerational cultural and religious trauma—hello??? Why haven't I read this yet?
Suture: Trauma and Trans Becoming by KJ Cerankowski
I'm deeply interested in trans folks discussing their own reflections on trauma and the (re)formation of gender identity, yet I've found few books written on the subject specifically. Really looking forward to spending time with this work by KJ Cerankowski.
How the Boogeyman Became a Poet by Tony Keith Jr.
Tony Keith Jr. is a DC local who I've had the pleasure of meeting a few times while working at East City Bookshop! He is so friendly and oh so humble about his award-winning work. Many of my colleagues have read and loved his debut YA memoir-in-verse about growing from a closeted Black boy into a confident gay Black man and poet.
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin
A sapphic classic if there ever was one. I know I need to give myself time to fully digest Qiu Miaojin's work and legacy in the queer literary canon...feeling confident that 2026 is the year to do so!
La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono
Considered the "first book by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English", La Bastarda follows a rebellious queer teen as she hunts for her missing father alongside her gay uncle and a group of "deviant" adolescent girls. Short and punchy, I cannot wait to get my hands on this!
I'm just gonna leave you with one of the official blurbs because, whew..."Plucked from her life on the streets of post-apocalyptic Santo Domingo, young maid Acilde Figueroa finds herself at the heart of a voodoo prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save the ocean—and humanity—from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was—with the help of a sacred anemone."
Set in rural Cyprus in 1925, a newly wed couple contend with eerie Christmastime folk creatures, protecting their unborn child, and unwanted queer desires. Sounds like an utterly creepy delight!
How to be a Good Girl by Jamie Hood
Ok...cheating a little because I technically started reading this one. If you love stream of consciousness, COVID quarantine/isolation reflections, and all the traumas and wonders associated with girlhood, transfemme identity, and self-making...this is the nonfiction "miscellany" for you.
Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
Set at an elite private school in Washington DC, this novel follows Niru, an overachieving son of Nigerian immigrant parents, who must hide his queerness from his family. Coming from the DC-born author of Beasts of No Nation, I have no doubt this will be a haunting, emotional read.