Happy Pride month!! 🏳️🌈 This will be the first time since 2017 that I’ve done an LGBT+ recommendation post. Why is that? I have no idea! We are doing it now though! Let’s jump straight in!
*Please correct me if I’m wrong about any of the authors sexualities/genders. Some authors openly have it on their profiles so I can check whereas others don’t have I have to rely on a little bit of other people discussing it.*
This post is painful!!! I wrote half this post, saved as draft and came back the next day and it was all gone………ARGH!! So take 2!
Standalones
Firstly we have When We Were Magic! This one follows 6 diverse badass witches. This one has tonnes of diversity including both LGBTQ+ & POC rep. I don’t recall every diversity as its been a while since I read this one but I know that there is Lesbian & Genderfluid rep! This one features awesome diversity, strong friendships & dark humour. Who doesn’t want to read about Queer Witches?? Also Sarah Gailey is a Queer, Non-Binary & disabled author! So I will definitely be looking into more books by them!
Next we have I Hope You’re Listening which fulfilled my needs for more queer books in the mystery/thriller category! *If you have more I’m all ears* This one features bisexual rep and it’s my favourite type of rep too. Where it’s not a plot line, it’s just awesome queer characters living their crazy YA novel life! It has awesome rep but is also just an amazing mystery story! It also features one of my favourite tropes which is secret podcasts (or other things like blogs, webcomics, etc.). I Hope You’re Listening is high stakes, fast paced, mysterious & will keep you on your toes.
Also, I haven’t read anything else by Tom Ryan but he apparently has 8 YA books out that all have LGBT+ MCs. He is also in the community (I believe he is gay) & I love the normalisation of LGBT+ characters & I’m keen to read more by him.
Then we have Dealing in Dreams which is another book with both awesome LGBTQ+ & POC rep. This was a wild ride of a book. I listened to this entire thing in a near 24 hour period. This one features bisexual rep as well as transgender rep which is awesome! It’s also a dystopian and described as The Outsiders meets Mad Max: Fury Road which might mean something to you if unlike me you’ve actually experienced those tow haha. My bad! It has strong themes of found family & is full of adventure and hard choices.
Now I know this one seems to be a hit or miss book but I loved it! So I’m recommending it. Firstly, Even If We Break is written by a Non-Binary, Queer & disabled author. So love that! It’s been a while since I read this one but I believe it has two transgender characters, someone who goes by neutral pronouns, someone who is autistic & someone has a medical condition though I can’t recall what it is and can’t find the info. I was just reading through reviews hoping someone mentions it and I just came across a review that simply says ‘wow the villain of this book is a real piece of shit huh‘ and just cracked up! This book is a YA Thriller that incorporates a LARP game & uncovering some dark truths. It’s thrilling but also very character orientated.
Series
Firstly for series we have the Once Upon A Con trilogy! This one is such a fun time. All three books are geeky contemporary retellings of popular tales (Cinderella, The Prince and the Pauper & Beauty and the Beat). I love the nerdy atmosphere of these. It’s just so wholesome. Book 2 is probably my fave of the 3 but The Magic Pumpkin has a special place in my reading heart haha . Geekerella & The Princess and the Fangirl both feature Bisexual & Lesbian rep while Bookish and the Beast feature Bisexual and Gay rep. There is other rep throughout but those are the major ones I recorded in my reading tracker. They all follow different MCs though they are all woven together. Also Ashley Poston is another queer author! All the queerness in this post yall!
It wouldn’t be an LGBTQ+ list without the Wayward Childrens series would it?! This series features diveristy of days, so I will likely miss something but let me try break it down quickly. Every Heart a Doorway feature Asexual & Transgender rep. Down Among the Sticks and Bones has Lesbian rep as well as OCD rep. Beneath the Sugar Sky also has Trans rep. In an Absent Dream I don’t recall and I didn’t put anything for it in my reading tracker when rereading earlier this year, so maybe no rep? Or at least not prominent rep? I don’t know. Come Tumbling Down also has Trans rep. Then Across the Green Grass Fields and Where the Drowned Girls Go both have Intersex rep. Also Seanan McGuire is also Queer! She is Pansexual & Demisexual I believe.
The Shades of Magic series is a more subtle LGBT+ series but it is there and the author is also openly gay! One of the side characters of this one are bisexual and it also features POC rep and has some strong feminist vibes! One of the stand out things in this series for me is the strong bond between two of the major male characters which I feel like is rare. I also feel like it’s rare for an Adult Fantasy book to have good LGBT+ rep. So many that I’ve read are either so clearly written by men or have a underlying homophobia element that I’m not here for in the slightest. So this is so refreshing and is also just an amazing series too.
Yes I know that these aren’t all in the same series/worlds but I felt like it fit more in this section than the Standalone section. So we are talking about ALL of the Alice Oseman books. There is of course Solitaire, This Winter, Radio Silence, Nick and Charlie & the Hearstopper series that are linked but then also I Was Born for This & Loveless which aren’t linked (I don’t think so anyway…) Everything single one of their books feature amazing diversity! So instead of going through the diversity I’m going to show off our Osemanverse Standard Bookmarks which display the flags of the major characters in each of the books! Shameless self promo.
Firstly we have Heartstopper!
Next is Solitaire!
And lastly Loveless!
Alice Oseman’s books also feature POC rep as well as mental health rep including eating disorders & depression. They are also queer! She uses both They/Them & She/Her Pronous and is AroAce.
Graphic Novel
Firstly for Graphic Novels we have my most recent read. Messy Roots hit different! It was soo freaking good and had some amazing representation. Firstly the MC is Wuhanese American and is also LGBT+! This is a memoir so the author is the same as the MC… Obviously haha. This was really good and I highly recommend checking it out!
So I’ll grow my home from the ground up using the roots I’ve nurtured with the people I love. There’s still so much about myself I’ve yet to explore. But right now, I’m Laura Yuyang Gao. And my wold is tall and mighty, like the skies. Infinite and mysterious, like the cosmos. And peaceful and safe, like the sea. And I’ll bring it all with me, wherever I go next.
Messy Roots by Laura Gao
Next we have The Tea Dragon Society. This series is so precious & wholesome! It’s a Childrens Fantasy Graphic Novel that features Non-Binary & Gay rep. The author is also non-binary and they prefer to go by they/them pronouns just like the Non-Binary character in the book. Not only is this book just amazing anyway but I adore that this is children literature with LGBT+ & POC rep! This is so important and I love it.
Getting close to the end! Next we have The Avant-Guards which is an amazing graphic novel about a girls basketball team. Which funnily enough the next book on this list also is a LGBT+ graphic novel involving sports. We have trans, non-binary, f/f romance, POC & mental health rep all in this short graphic novel series! And it’s amazing! Also this is another one where the rep is a normal part of the world and not focused on.
Lastly we have Check Please! which as a said before involves sports, this time Hockey. This is another fun and wholesome read. We have Gay & POC rep in this one and it’s just amazing. Like Heartstopper this one also started as a Webcomic! So while only Vol 1 & 2 are published you can grab up to Vol 4 on the webcomic!
Finally that is it! This took way longer than it should have because of my not saving issue! We got there in the end. Drop your LGBT+ recs in the comments!
Dusk Angel Reads 
This is such a great and comprehensive list! Thank you for the recommendations 🤩😊
LikeLike
Thanks! 🥰 You’re welcome!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice! I’ll have to check these out
LikeLiked by 1 person