#Queer YA

[therefugeofbooks]

Hell Followed With Us by Joseph Andrew White mini review

What I liked:

Complex relationships

Fast-paced

It's gory

What I didn’t like

Repetitive inner monologues

Weak side characters

Overall, it was one of the best ya books I read in a while. It’s violent and cruel, and it doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. Recommending for anyone looking for a horror book!

[reedreadsbooks]

Book Review: Dreadnought by April Daniels ✨🏙️⚡️

rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

(5/5)

After Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero, is killed in combat, closeted trans girl Danny Tozer inherits his powers and is transformed to have the body she’s always wanted to have. Now she has to deal with having superpowers and being an out trans woman, all the while hunting down the supervillain who murdered her predecessor.

This book was phenomenal, and I’m kind of at a loss for words to describe how much I liked it.

To start, I love the world of this book. This is such a classic superhero story. Daniels uses the conventions of the genre without making things feel like a parody and subverts tropes just enough to make the story distinct.

I also really love Dreadnought as a trans narrative. This book doesn’t shy away from transphobia. Between Danny’s parents, kids at her school, and other heroes she meets, we get a pretty broad and realistic representation of the types of abuse a young trans woman might face. There’s also so much trans joy in this book. It was really nice to see Danny come into herself, and it was cathartic to watch her realize that no one could take her transition away from her. This is the type of story that will give trans kids hope for the future.

I would recommend this book to literally everyone. In fact, I plan on recommending this book to literally everyone. But because that’s not helpful, I’ll be more specific and say I highly recommend this book to fans of Andrew Joseph White. Obviously, it’s very different from his work, genre-wise, but I think the themes are really similar. If you like Hell Followed with Us and The Spirit Bares It’s Teeth, I can definitely see you liking Dreadnought.

[aroaessidhe]

Demisexual YA Contemporary Books

Main characters

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet - demisexual girl, m/f

Two Can Play That Game - demisexual-coded girl, m/f

Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller - demisexual girl, m/f, novella

Technically You Started It - demisexual girl, m/f

Bad At Love - demisexual boy, m/f

Read With Pride - demisexual girl, f/f (younger-YA)

Side characters

The Summer Love Strategy - love interest is demi-aroace (f/f)

Radio Silence - major side character is demisexual (m/m, the MC has no romantic subplot)

Belly Up - love interest is a demisexual boy (also grey-ace best friend)

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[grizzcore]

Just My butch husband and his familiar being nosy neighbors

We’re working on the final edits and some promo material for my partners debut novel, The Heretic Prince!

If you want to read queer fantasy written by a queer author, please check out @thehereticprinceseries , my beautiful butch has written a captivating high fantasy following the interwoven fates of three queer main characters, with an incredible journey of transmasculine chivalry, a pining sapphic romance, and a gay coming of age against a backdrop of magic, espionage, and a budding conspiracy to undermine the false-prophets of an oppressive theocracy

[b0rtney]

you want homosexuals in every conceivable scenario?

Boy oh boy do i have the substack for u: mine!

NO PLEASE LEMME TELL U THE STORIES BEFORE U LEAVE--

Current is Cinnamon Muffins. TLDR: Six queer boys in a homophobic tiny town in Iowa are trying to survive winter break dodging awful parents, social stigma, and mental health crises.

Next up is How to Get Away with Marriage. TLDR: Guy with awful, religious parents marries guy who is living paycheck to paycheck so they can both get all their younger sisters out of their shitty situations (but they fall in love ofc).

Longer desc of these plus the stories coming in the next months are below the cut! (Genres include fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, mystery/thriller, coming-of-age)

Cinnamon Muffins centers on Taylor Macready, a homeless senior in high school holed up in a sleeping bag under a bridge after his parents kicked him out. He's fully ready to just accept death when it starts snowing on him while he's stargazing, but social outcast Wes Post is taking his nightly walk in a new direction and stumbles (literally) on his longtime crush, Taylor. Dragging Taylor home, Wes's parents prove themselves the only reasonable parents in this book by setting Taylor up on their pullout couch and nursing him back to health. Then Wes, whose closest school relationships include the kids who bully him for his anxiety-related speech impediment, has to get in touch with Taylor's friends to let them know the situation. Meanwhile, the mean girls of Swisher High School are starting a campaign to get homosexuality banned at school. Administratively, it gets nowhere, but it inspires several small-minded shitwads to take matters into their own hands. While Taylor is used to getting into fights, Wes isn't, but he'll have to sink or swim, because the teachers are not paid enough to care what happens in the hallways during lunchtime.

How to Get Away with Marriage opens with Luke Providence, son of a devoutly Baptist family in Nebraska, proposing to Patrick Demden, son of a recently-deceased alcoholic mechanic. The wealthy Providence parents have a longstanding agreement that once their children get married, they will receive a trust of $100,000 to use on the down-payment of a house and to start a life with their spouse. Patrick's younger sister tutors Luke's younger sister, but Patrick's sister is 16. This age gap doesn't matter much to the Providence parents, but it matters a lot to Luke, so he strikes a deal with Patrick: tell the parents he'll marry the sister, legally marry the brother, everyone gets to move to Colorado and escape abusive religious parents and crushing poverty. He needn't have done something so elaborate, Patrick would have married him for any reason at all. But the secret doesn't stay secret forever, and the Providence parents eventually come knocking, trying to recollect their children and their money.

Future stories I'll keep shorter, but feel free to ask about them either in the replies or my askbox and I'll elaborate!

Assassin x Demon King will be getting books 2 and 3! ADK is about an assassin and the king he was supposed to kill, both of whom have quit their jobs and started trying to save as many people as the assassin killed before he dies of a slow-acting poison in twelve months. Books 2 and 3 will have things getting awfully tragic and somewhat more horny than before! (No smut will make it into the print versions of these, that will remain on my substack alone)

How to Find Your Friends After the End of the World is a fantasy inspired by the isekai anime genre. Five friends in their 20s are on earth as it is wracked by a violent battle between the Heroine of the Gods and her Nemesis, and then, suddenly, they aren't. Earth has been destroyed and they are now on a new planet, in new (non-human) bodies, strewn across continents! On their new wrists, they have tattoos with each others' names, plus one (or two) new ones: their soulmates. Court politics and wastelands of monsters await them as they try desperately to reach each other, and their soulmates try desperately to reach them.

HtFYF will also have a prequel, focusing on the events that led to earth's destruction, and the battle between the Heroine of the Gods, a young woman, and her Nemesis, who seems to know more about the gods than she says. Why do the gods keep choosing such young heroes? What has the Nemesis done to put the world in such peril? Will the Heroine get to graduate on time despite the sleep she's been missing!?

The following do not yet have titles, but are fully fleshed out works ready to be thrown onto Substack:

A trilogy of eleven teens assisting in the fight against an agency that traffics, tortures, and then sells children with preternatural powers and abilities, and an exploration of the trauma those kids emerge with.

A murder mystery where a woman's sister dies, the police rule it suicide, and the woman enlists the help of a rumored contract killer to help her solve the murder-- but why does this rumored murderer-for-hire seem to know so much about her sister's death? And who was truly responsible?

A campy novel about a woman who graduates college, goes back to her hometown, and finds her highschool crush is still there, still single, and has since come out as gay. Of course, the only solution is to co-adopt an at-risk child from a neighbor.

This post will remain pinned on my profile, but for the next few days I'm having a sale on my substack tiers-- 20% off! That makes the cost to you just $8 per month to get a chapter every other day. 15 chapters for $8; that's a steal!

[augustyearroundprod]

A little over a year ago, my friends and I got to start this incredible, amazing, fulfilling audiodrama journey called MOONBURN. It's a celebration of queerness and Chosen Family and growing up and the power of love, friendship and joy.

And now, I feel so endlessly lucky to be working with all of them again to CONTINUE this story, this world, this journey with SEASON TWO!

If you haven't already, check out SEASON ONE of MOONBURN wherever you get your podcasts-- catch up, reach out, and help us get ready for a brand new season of love and joy!

[layaart]

Here's the cover I designed/illustrated for Sweethearts, 3rd in the Babylove trilogy!

[the-dust-jacket]

Queer YA for spooky season!

Pictured: A Vile Season, Everything Glittered, Spells to Forget Us, Compound Fracture, A Darker Mischief, Beholder, Better Left Buried

[intersexbookclub]

November read: Just Ash

Our book pick for November 2024 is Jush Ash by intersex author Bogi Takács. This is a YA coming-of-age novel featuring an intersex main character.

It's a fairly short book that I personally found to be a fast read 💜

Content warnings: Please note this is a book that portrays some pretty serious intersexism. Ash, the main character, experiences bullying, multiple sexual assaults, a forced gender transition, parental abuse. IGM is discussed when Ash visits an intersex support group and some IGM survivors tell their stories to Ash.

While there is a fair bit of violence in this book, I (personally) did not find it gratuitous, and Santana doesn't linger on it: it's there to provide an unflinching portrayal of what it is like for too many intersex youths growing up in small towns and rural areas.

If it helps to decide whether it's too much for you: Ash is given plenty of things to do in the book that are not just suffer constantly. I can answer questions about the book on Discord if you're on the fence about picking it up. 💜

As usual, we meet on the last Friday of the month: November 29. We’re meeting at 16:00 Eastern (20:00 UTC) on Microsoft Teams (see discord for the link).

The MS Teams meeting is configured to provide live captions in English. Participants are welcome to contribute non-verbally through the text chat in the meeting. If you have other access needs please let us know 💜.

Discord link: https://discord.gg/V3mrcjakGQ Also see: our code of conduct

How much of the book do you need to read? You don’t need to finish it participate! You are welcome to skim and/or skip chapters as desired.

Current & future book picks We'll be reading some selected chapters from Malatino's Queer Embodiment: Monstrosity, Medical Violence, and Intersex Experience. This is an academic text and the relevant chapters will be shared on the discord for anybody who doesn't have university library access. 💜

[shazleen]

My favourite book covers that I've worked on :)

[whilereadingandwalking]

First, a quick spoiler: this book is groundbreaking because it was a YA novel featuring two queer girls who get a happy ending. I know, I'm sorry to spoil it, but it's vital. In our age of blossoming queer YA contemporary, it's important to see why Annie on My Mind was so important, and so controversial, given a past where the only gay books permitted were those with unhappy endings.

In this book by Nancy Garden, two girls from across New York City meet at the Met and begin to have feelings that they don't, at first, understand. And when they are caught, their academic careers, friendships, and family relationships are all put at stake. This novel is simple, and to those who grew up with all kinds of queer novels around, it might feel outdated. It reads as historical fiction, with the sheer shockwave the adults in the book feel at finding lesbianism in their elite school. But there's nothing wrong with that, and it's a great book about a time when queerness was ok if it was just experimenting, or secret, or hidden, and where two girls are determined not to let go of each other, no matter the cost. A really good, quick read about coming-of-age queer and finding acceptance within yourself.

Content warnings for outing, homophobia, lesbophobia, ableism.

[biandlesbianliterature]

For Nerdy Queer Teens Past and Present

Cass is a fat, nerdy queer teenager who is obsessed with a book series and roleplays as one of the characters in an online community. I was a fat nerdy queer teen who was obsessed with a book series and roleplayed in an online community! She’s a chronic overthinker, I’m a chronic overthinker. Needless to say, I cared a lot about Cass and felt protective of her while reading.

The chapters are interspersed with roleplay scenes, which might not work for everyone, but was very nostalgic for me, and they nicely complemented what was happening in Cass’s AFK world.

It was also nice to read about a main character who is so confident both in being fat and being a lesbian, especially as a teenager. There still aren’t many examples of that in media.

While there are a lot of elements to this story, including family as well as romance, it was the friendships that stood out to me, and how seriously they’re taken. They’re often messy and imperfect, but they’re also so important to Cass, and they can be unexpected and beautiful even when they’re messy.

I highly recommend this for nerdy queer teens and those who once were nerdy queer teens—though I’m sure lots of other readers would enjoy it, too.

Out of Character by Jenna Miller was reviewed at the Lesbrary

[derpcakes]

Queer YA Spotlight: The No-Girlfriend Rule

Welcome to The Afictionado’s Queer Book Rec Bonanza! It’s Pride Month, and to celebrate, I’ll be breaking my usual blogging schedule to post one review a week for the entirety of June.

Last week’s entry was a historical fantasy. This time we return to the contemporary world, but don’t worry, magic isn‘t too far away…

Premise: Hollis has always been one of the guys, but the number of things she has in common with her childhood-best-friend-turned-boyfriend are dwindling. She wants to connect with him over his beloved tabletop RPG Secrets & Sorcery, but he and his friends have a strict “no girlfriend rule” for their games. After some disastrous, alienating attempts at finding another group to join, Hollis comes across Gloria’s all-girls, queer-friendly game, and figures she might as well roll the dice. What she doesn’t expect, when she sits down at Gloria’s table and sends her paladin on a quest, is that Hollis is setting out on a personal adventure of her own.

Keep reading...

[hasmoneanbulbasaur]

Today, I finished reading Night Shine by Tessa Gratton. It is hands down one of the best YA fantasies I've read in a long time. A sensual, lusciously-written world filled with demons and heart-eating sorceresses that's very queer. Imagine Earthsea, but written by Tanith Lee instead of Ursula K. Le Guin instead.

My review.

[ilikereadingactually]

Something Kindred

Something Kindred by Ciera Burch

i went into this book not knowing what to expect, just because i requested the galley so long ago and had forgotten what it was about, which made everything a delightful surprise! it's queer, it's spooky, it's honest and frank, and it's so satisfyingly put together. a compelling read!

one of the highlights for me was how real and deep each character felt, even the ones who didn't actually have much time on the page--and at the same time, Jericka's limited POV was so precisely written that i shared her sense of outsider-ness. the tension between her present, moving back to a tiny town she doesn't remember, and her past there that she's just discovering, was perfectly balanced for me. and what a great combo of deeply reality-based interpersonal problems within Jericka's family, and sad and creepy emotionally-based supernatural happenings introduced by her new friend/crush Kat! i was so delighted when both of these elements started to connect, pulling together throughlines of home versus freedom, and processing trauma and grief through art.

also?? it's very hard to write honest and difficult conversations between people who have deeply hurt each other. i often find them too perfect and astute, or too trite and stereotypical. Burch has found the sweet spot, for me anyway, where each difficult conversation feels real and emotionally charged but also doesn't drag on. characters are honest about their complicated feelings, and nothing is solved perfectly, but it gets better.

(also also...i love ghost stories. i love photography in stories. i love these things together SO MUCH!)

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley from NetGalley, i am racing just ahead of all the pub dates, so many books in the spring!! also this was a fast (but satisfying) read, so i zoomed through it in an evening. looking forward to picking up a physical copy of this one!

try this if you: need more gentle queer Black girl romantic storylines (who doesn't), love multigenerational family stuff, dig haunted small towns, or are into books about loss.

some bits i really liked: so much beautiful imagery!

There are hundreds of thousands of stars in the sky, and it looks like a few dozen have fallen to earth. It takes me a moment to realize they haven't. That these are the lightning bugs she was talking about. They move in unison, flitting this way and that, forming circles of light around each other and around me and Kat. It's the most magical thing I've ever seen. Beyond them is real night. Even with the stars and the lightning bugs glowing their brightest, a person could lose themselves in this darkness. We lie down, facing the sky.

---

A picture of Gram on the couch layered over a shot of a close-up of the schoolhouse. A dull yellow flower exposed over the shadows of the woods. Mom covering up her childhood self, somehow midlaugh in both pictures, years and years apart.

pub date: April 2, 2024!

[beeesworld]