Category Archives: Queer Lit

Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

Raised in a small village near the spirit-wood, Liska Radost knows that Magic is monstrous, and its practitioners, monsters. After Liska unleashes her own powers with devastating consequences, she is caught by the demon warden of the wood – the Leszy – who offers her a bargain: one year of servitude in exchange for a wish.Whisked away to his crumbling manor, Liska soon discovers the sinister roots of their bargain. And if she wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts of his past. Those who enter the wood do not always return…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship (17-year old and an ancient being)
  • Domestic violence & child abuse mentioned
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction and body horror
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Fire

All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters

The students in Corbin College’s elite academic society, Magni Viri, have it all—free tuition, inspirational professors, and dream jobs once they graduate. When first-gen college student Tara is offered a chance to enroll, she doesn’t hesitate.?  Except once she’s settled into the gorgeous Victorian dormitory, something strange starts to happen. She’s finally writing, but her stories are dark and twisted. Her dreams feel as if they could bury her alive. An unseen presence seems to stalk her through the halls.  And a chilling secret awaits Tara at the heart of Magni Viri—one that just… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Transphobia & accidental misgendering
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Attempted abortion mentioned
  • Hospitalisation
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

The Restless Dark by Erica Waters

The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones. Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets. But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including violent intrusive thoughts
  • Abusive relationship
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood and gore depiction, emesis & body horror
  • Murder & attempted murder (theme)
  • Strangulation
  • Knife violence
  • Mugging recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted
  • Arson (off-page)

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

In the late 90s, five queer kids, whose parents want them “fixed,” find themselves thrown together at a secretive “tough love” camp deep in the scorching Utah desert. Tormented and worked to the point of collapse by hardline religious zealots intent on straightening them out, they slowly become aware that something in the mountains north of the camp is speaking to them in their dreams, and that the children who return home to their families have… changed.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism
  • Child abuse
  • Sexual assault
  • Deadnaming
  • Suicide & self-harm mentioned

Stranger Skies by Pascale Lacelle

Opening locked doors has a price—even for those who hold a key. After going through the door that called to them both in dreams, Emory and Romie find themselves in the the same verdant world written of in Song of the Drowned Gods, albeit a twisted, rotting version of it. A sinister force has awoken with their arrival, intent on destruction as it spills across realms, and now Emory and Romie must stop it before it reaches their own shores. Meanwhile, Baz and Kai are desperate to follow their friends through the door to other worlds, but a mishap pulls them back in time instead—where they come face to face with Cornus Clover… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Knife, sword & weapon violence including decapitation (monsters)
  • Blood, injury and minor body horror (necromancy, a secondary character being reborn after being buried alive, etc.)
  • Mentions of death from choking, strangulation, drowning, stabbing & explosions
  • Loss of autonomy (demonic possession)
  • Physical beating of a child recounted

Thrall by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish

Happy couple Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra have begun to garner national attention for their quirky New Orleans true-crime podcast, Shadowcast. When Lucy’s brother Harker disappears while researching the popular new dating app Thrall, they’re thrown into a real-life mystery. Aided by their social media expert, Arthur, and Harker’s professor, Van Helsing, they follow the trail, hoping to find Harker before it’s too late. When their investigation crosses the path of a possible serial killer, the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur. And as they race against the app’s countdown clock, so does the line between friendship… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Animal death mentioned

The Rivals of Casper Road by Roan Parrish

He’s in it to win it until he falls under his neighbor’s spell. Bram Larkspur’s rugged, sexy looks belie his fear of all things horrifying. But as Casper Road’s newest resident, he’s excited to join the annual Halloween decorating contest. The competition is keen, especially from six-time champion, architect Zachary Glass. But when enigmatic Zachary sparks a prank war, it’s game on – until one sizzling kiss turns these rivals into allies. Now only one thing scares Bram: how quickly he’s losing his heart to Zachary.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Nightmares & mentions of stress-induced weight loss
  • Emesis
  • Disappearance of a sibling
  • Bullying recounted

* Context : The protagonist’s ex-partner cheated on him with his best friend. The other protagonist’s sister went missing when she was 17-years-old and has never been found.

Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen

Private Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has been drawn back to the Lavender House estate for a missing person case. Pat, the family butler, has been volunteering for a book service, one that specializes in mailing queer books to a carefully guarded list of subscribers. With bookseller Howard Salzberger gone suspiciously missing along with his address book, everyone on that list, including some of Andy’s closest friends, is now in danger. A search of Howard’s bookstore reveals that someone wanted to stop him and his co-owner, Dorothea Lamb, from sending out their next book. The evidence points not just to the Feds, but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical homophobia & racism discussed
  • Murder

Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland

Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Araşti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world―and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea. To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must ask for help from his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār. They are far from happy to see him, but together, they hatch a plan: take the information to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls, fence it, profit. The only things in their way? A calculating new Araşti ambassador to the Isles of Lost… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment & sex work
  • Animal death

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other’s lives once and for all. Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page)