All of these books are queer, but they all have back blurbs that don’t saythey’re queer. While this can be a pain if I’m scouting for queer SFF, it can come in handy for people in a situation where they don’t want to be reading queer books openly.
Please do note that I don’t have hard copies of the books on hand so it’s possible that an author quote or something mentions one being queer (I feel like this isn’t super likely, but I don’t want to rule it out). Some might also have author biographies mentioning that the author is queer. Also, some may be shelved as LGBT on Goodreads or categorized as queer on Amazon. So if you’re planning on asking for any of these as holiday gifts, I would suggest going to the Amazon page or where ever your relative is likely to buy it from and double check that it’s something you’d be comfortable with sharing openly.
I wish I had more pansexual books, but the ones I know of tend to mention queerness in the back description.
With the exception of The Spy with the Red Balloon, these are all books I have read or are currently reading. If you want to recommend others, feel free to do so in the replies!
Links to the queer books database (or Goodreads if the book hasn’t been added yet) are available below the cut. You can find information on content warnings there.
I have We Set The Dark on Fire (haven’t finished it yet) and there isa blurb on the back “forbidden love between two powerful young women.” But it could also be described as: “The Handmaid’s Tale, only make it YA and set in a Latinx cultural milieu… seasoned with a healthy dash of revolution.” So you could play it off as just something recommended by your radical activist friend and you totally didn’t know it was f/f.
Thank you for this update! I read We Set the Dark on Fire as an audiobook so didn’t have a copy I could double check.
so the other day my girlfriend and i were at a thrift store looking at the books, and we found a copy of the princess by tennyson from around 1900 for like 2 dollars
nice, right?
here is the inscription on the front
so “unknown yet known” is a misquote of a bible verse (2 corinthians 6:9) which goes like “known yet regarded as unknown” and that whole bit is about like, keeping love in your heart despite hardship, which. ok. (also i’m not saying but i’m just saying do you like know her KNOW her in the biblical sense or does helen WANT TO but they haven’t yet??? ok i’m totally saying that’s what it means.)
now i don’t want to just yell GAY out of nowhere, but like, your unknown yet known friend? ladies? giving each other books with ambiguously gay dedications about love in the face of trials and suffering in the front?
so what’s this princess thing even about? wikipedia says:
The poem tells the story of an heroic princess who forswears the world of men and founds a women’s university where men are forbidden to enter.
dang.
okay, so let’s look at what passages in this book are underlined. (and we can’t tell who did the underlining, helen or emma. the inscription on the front is in pen, but the underlinings are in pencil, so who the fuck knows)
Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, Two in the tangled business of the world, Two in the liberal offices of life, Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss
um
O hard, when love and duty clash!
uM
‘Alone,’ I said, ‘from earlier than I know, Immersed in rich foreshadowings of the world, I loved the woman: he, that doth not, lives A drowning life, besotted in sweet self, Or pines in sad experience worse than death, Or keeps his winged affections clipt with crime: Yet was there one through whom I loved her, one Not learnèd, save in gracious household ways, Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants, No Angel, but a dearer being, all dipt In Angel instincts, breathing Paradise, Interpreter between the Gods and men, Who looked all native to her place, and yet On tiptoe seemed to touch upon a sphere Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce Swayed to her from their orbits as they moved, And girdled her with music. Happy he With such a mother! faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall He shall not blind his soul with clay.’
UM!!
Indeed I love: the new day comes, the light Dearer for night, as dearer thou for faults Lived over: lift thine eyes; my doubts are dead.
UMMMMM!!!!
wow so in conclusion kate and i found a gay ladies book from the past and i’m really overwhelmed with emotions about it????
this is excellent and accepted as canon.
[image description: first image: a photo of a vintage hardcover book without a dustjacket. In gold lettering on the front is “The Princess / Tennyson”. Second image: a photo of an inscription in handwriting. It reads “To Emma, With a Joyful Easter from Your unknown yet known friend / Helen R. Lohsen. Nineteen Hundred & Five.”]
need more queer books in your life? mad at all the book bans? wish you could read books about people actually like you?
theQueer Books Database is a free, online searchable database that lists queer rep in over 2,500 fiction and 500 non-fiction books! you can filter by age, genre, year, and specific identity–including race, disability, mental illness, and neurodivergence
here’s some ideas of what you can search for:
a legal thriller featuring a bisexual transgender woman or a sci-fi with a disabled black gay man
Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Children’s books in both fiction and non-fiction titles
classic queer lit from 1872 to 1956 (Carmilla to Giovanni’s Room)
biographies of famous historical and modern activists, musicians, athletes, immigrants, and writers
supportive spiritual texts and guidance from community leaders (filter by fifteen different religions!)
representation for LGBT identities under the “plus,” characters of color, fat rep, neurodivergence, older characters, questioning and closeted characters, religious identity, disabled characters–and more!
check with your local library to find these titles or ask about Inter-Library Loans to grab one from a library nearby! this really helps support libraries, authors, and me, an autistic transgender librarian :)
Do you like Dracula Daily? Do you wish it had more kissing, smut, and queer characters? Do you want a free original vampire novel sent in real time letters to your inbox?
This is What Manner of Man (working title), a queer vampire romance novel about a naive young priest sent to a remote island to exorcise the demons that are allegedly tormenting the villagers — but what happens when the priest begins to suspect his host, the mysterious, nocturnal lord of the local manor, may have invited him another reason entirely? And what happens when the supposedly celibate priest finds he cannot resist his host’s powerful charms?
I’ve been so into Dracula Daily I’ve begun work on a serial vampire novel of my own. The first chapter will go out January 2023!
Thinking about the future, I long for a little bookshop in a bustling city- there’s a tiny space for coffee and a corner dedicated to out-of-fashion antiques- with ladders to climb up the ceiling high shelves, filled with stories of wisdom and monsters and hope.
So I recently read the the house in the cerulean sea by T.J. Klune to start in the pride month 2021 and I just love it.
I really enjoyed the characters and their interactions with each other. The kids are freaking adorable and (I want to adopt them all) the love story of Linus and Arthur is so so so cute. It’s really enjoyable to read
All in all this book is amazing and if you want to read a pure and heartwarming story I can highly recommend it to you!!!
Sooo I had to draw Linus and Arthur… just because I love their relationship so much!!! ☺☺☺☺
Pages I Never Wrote is a Queer Coming-of-Age YA Book featuring themes of disability, diversity, creativity, self-discovery and academic achievement. Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Alice Oseman and Adam Silvera.
Available in eBook(Kindle app) and PaperbackonAmazonworldwide
~Summary~
“Why would he want to date me? I can’t even hold a pen.”
Luke has good friends, a passion for books, and dyspraxia, a disorder that, ironically, makes him unable to write. He also has a hatred for anyone who tries to help him. Yet when he fails his first term at university due to his learning difficulties, he’s forced to get support. That’s how Nate, an excitable last-year student, becomes his self-proclaimed personal tutor and starts writing down essays for him, as a distraction from his own quarter-life crisis. But Luke’s writing ambitions are not just academic. He dreams of penning a novel, although that’s never been a real possibility. Until now. Will the two boys manage to write a successful love story together?
~Reviews~
“Incredibly relatable. Such quintessential student experiences… We’ve all been there.” - total.boron, FictionPress
“One sign of good storytelling for me is when I’m right there with the character, like I was with Luke, hyperventilating, only slightly!” - KrissKringle, FictionPress
“It was so freaking good! I’m seriously so inspired to go and write my own story.” - Flowersandlillies, FictionPress
“How obvious Nate is, and how oblivious Luke is, is what adds spice to the story.” - excahuseamwah, Wattpad
“All the thoughts and self-doubt made me rotfl. We’ve all been there when meeting someone new. It’s all so familiar.” - KevinPaterson, Wattpad
Berlynn Wohl brings you a provocative new portrait of the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his dear friend and companion, Doctor Watson. By turns tender and scintillating, the stories in this collection vividly re-imagine one of the great love stories of English literature.
Craving an interpretation of the Great Detective and his faithful Doctor Watson that emphasizes a deep, loving bond that results in hot encounters and lifelong commitment? This is the book for you.
We reached our minimum goal less than 48 hour after launching our indiegogo campaign and we are FREAKING OUT!
We’re so excited, we can barely function.
What we’d like to do now is see if we can raise DOUBLE our budget! Doing so would help us pay our authors more, and possibly commission more art to include in/with this book!
You can help by REBLOGGING THIS POST! And! For every reblog, you get one entry for a chance to win a free copy of the ebook version of this anthology when it is released!
Just reblog this post by October 12, 2019 and you’re entered to win! That’s it!
AND MORE (See the campaign page for a full list of authors!)
The stories range in heat level, genre, length, and tone. All take place in the Victorian era and explore a queer Holmes!
Cover art for this book will be by the wonderfully talented Max Kennedy ( aka @maxkennedy24). We will post art previews here and on the indiegogo campaign page, so check those spaces out in the coming weeks!
Thecampaign is set to run for 45 days. We are already, only 24 hours since we went live on indiegogo, almost halfway to our minimum goal! We’re SO EXCITED and we hope more folks will claim the awesome perks we have available.
They include:
$5 ebook only
$10 paperback only
$18 ebook + paperback combo with a small cover art postcard
$28 ebook + hardcover combo with a large cover art postcard plus your name on the acknowledgments page.
$45 limited edition dust jacket hardcover with a large cover art postcard and a small cover art poster, plus your name on the acknowledgments page.
$70 SUPER supporter tier with everything included in the $45 level, but with a large cover art poster and your name in a Special Thanks section inside the book.
Not able to contribute right now? The book will be made available in ebook and potentially also in paperback format through Amazon in Spring 2020, and you will be able to snag a copy then. However, copies for sale through indiegogo are significantly discounted, so keep that in mind!
FAQs:
Is the thumbprint graphic the cover art? Nope! This is just a temporary image we are using for this project.
Are the authors getting paid? Absolutely. All the authors signed a contract which entitles them to payment through royalties up to a certain amount. Authors will receive royalties from books sold via the campaign as well.
Is the artist getting paid? Yes, of course! Everyone working on this book is getting PAID!
Why are you crowdfunding this project? This was a somewhat big project for us and one that is very near and dear to our hearts. We exist as a company because of two things: Sherlock Holmes fandom and fan fiction authors. We wanted to make this project, which combines these two things we care about SO much, a bit special with more options than our current model would allow (things like hardcovers and bonus art!). In order to do that, we realized we needed to think outside the box. That’s how we decided to go this route.
Will you crowdfund all your books now? Nah, we won’t be doing that. We might crowdfunding some larger projects in the future, but definitely no plans to do this for every title!
An unlucky vampire from the wrong side of town. A monster hunter with a golden voice. A man-eater on the loose. A unique, refreshing, and unconventional urban fantasy and paranormal romance about what happens when supernatural opposites attract.
I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review
Dorian and Cash are best friends, roommates, and coworkers. Despite their significant differences - Dorian is a vampire and Cash is a human who hunts monsters - they’ve grown to care about each and they make a good team, hunting down killer monsters at the behest of the Devereux Police Department. However, their easy camaraderie is upset when their friendship veers from platonic to romantic. Add to the mix a serial killer with a taste for human flesh, and Dorian and Cash’s careful balancing act is thrown for a loop as both men struggle to decide if they should make a move and risk their current status quo or remain in the friend zone.
Leather and Lace presents two compelling main characters and fleshes out their relationship through well timed narrative flashbacks. Dorian and Cash are polar opposites, with Dorian coming from a past filled with betrayal and upheaval, and Cash from a nurturing family of female hunters. Dorian has flair and loves to wear makeup and crop tops, masking his deeper issues and severe anxiety. Cash maintains an easy going demeanor but is searching for someone who appreciates all of him, including his deep love of Stevie Nicks and karaoke.
At its heart, Leather and Lace is about the relationship between Cash and Dorian but it also has a gruesome serial killer plot and an intriguing urban fantasy world populated by humans and supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, and shifters of all types. This book will definitely appeal to fans of shows like Supernatural and urban fantasy book series like White Trash Warlock and the Mercy Thompson series.
Random things I loved in the series: Dorian’s emotional support Chihuahua (her name is Dominique and Dorian dresses her in very cute sweaters and sparkly collars), the way supernatural creatures have evolved (vampires eat food and go out in the sun), Cash is Mexican-American, southern setting, werebadgers, all the soft karaoke moments, Dorian looks like a waif but is fulling capable of holding his man down!, the slow dance, the fact that the author openly acknowledges that Dorian and Cash are inspired by Cas and Dean. I’m really looking forward to the next book!
So, my story “She Loved Me Too” got shortlisted for The Wattys and I have yet to fully accept that. I am so thrilled and honored and downright dumbfounded because when I entered the contest I didn’t expect to get anything out of it but here we are!
Since my other post did so well, I thought I would do another post about LGBT books that no one seems to know about. Books like The Song of Achilles, Aristotle and Dante, Simon vs., TRC, TFC, Captive Prince, and Carry On (and more) are all popular (and they deserve it) but there are so many more books that don’t get any love. So here are all the forgotten LGBT books, especially sapphic (because tumblr never seems to latch onto the sapphic or trans books like they do gay boys)
Hey! Looking for a queer comics miniseries made by queer creators?
Maybe with two strong queer female lead characters dealing with roadtrips, adventures, car chases, unexpected love, and not only with the fact that these characters are, well, queer and– nothing more?
Well, A THING CALLED TRUTH might be the book for you!
A THING CALLED TRUTH is an on-the-road story full of Love: love of Cinema, of the wind fondling your body, of new cities waiting to be explored, of the brave fire in the eyes of a woman!
Here’sMagdalene “Mag” Träumer, she’s a workaholic scientist who dedicated her whole life creating medical equipments to improve the life of deprived people in the poorest countries in the world.
And here’s Dorian Wildfang! She’s a very “live-in-the-moment” person. Spent her whole life surviving job after job along with her brother Faust, until a tragedy happens and prompts her to make what she’s doing.
What do people with such opposing ways of life have in common? Well, find that out in the book!
Created by two queer creators, @iolanda-zanfardinoandElisa Romboli(Alice in Leatherland), this book wants to explore the never-ending attempt to find a middle ground between devoting yourself body and soul to a goal and enjoying every moment with no regrets.
“Featuring 9 different stories from 20 creators, Bi Visibility explores bisexuality from various different perspective with stories ranging from romance to high fantasy.”
Please consider checking out and backing this project! I recently did art for one of the stories included in it. I’ve read through the previews for the rest of the book and honestly was just left feeling so warm and fuzzy. I promise it’s such a sweet book with so much goodness <3
