Category Archives: Queer Lit

Bellies by Nicola Dinan

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition. From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia & gender dysphoria
  • Infidelity
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Panic attacks
  • Bulimia (secondary character)
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Death of a parent from cancer recounted
  • Fatal car accident (off-page)

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it’s really happening – her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she’s living in New York City, where she’s welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. That means book tours, parties with her favourite authors, and finding a place to live that won’t leave her penniless. It means sleepless nights rewriting her first draft and struggling to find the perfect ending… all while dealing with the intoxicating, terrifying experience of falling in love – with another writer.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder & mentions of the serial murder of children
  • Mass shooting (terrorist attack)

Zodiac Starforce, Vol. 2: Cries of the Fire Prince by Kevin Panetta, Paulina Ganucheau and Sarah Stern

After defeating a former Zodiac Member and her mean-girl minions, the girls thought they’d catch a break! But once a mean magical girl, always a mean magical girl and Libra’s former best friend wants that power back! Determined to bring the goddess Cimmeria into our dimension, her coven opens a portal to the dark dimension Nephos, only they don’t get what they bargained for. A new big-bad has come out to play and demons begin to overrun the town! Zodiac Starforce discovers they aren’t the only Zodiac team in the game and together they form a tenuous alliance to find out who’s behind the demon infestation.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Knife violence
  • Murder (human sacrifice)

Zodiac Starforce, Vol. 1: The Power of Astra by Kevin Panetta

They’re an elite group of teenage girls with magical powers who have sworn to protect our planet against dark creatures . . . as long as they can get out of class! Known as the Zodiac Starforce, these high-school girls aren’t just combating math tests. They’re also battling monsters–not your typical afterschool activity! But when an evil force from another dimension infects team leader Emma, she must work with her team of magically powered friends to save herself–and the world–from the evil Diana and her mean-girl minions!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Injury & blood depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a friend
  • Kidnapping
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

Nate Plus One by Kevin van Whye

Nate Hargraves – stage-shy singer-songwriter – is totally stoked for his cousin’s wedding in South Africa, an all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime. Until he finds out his sleazeball ex-boyfriend is also on the guest list. Jai Patel – hot-as-hell high school rock-god – has troubles too. His band’s lead singer has quit, just weeks before the gig that was meant to be their big break. When Nate saves the day by agreeing to sing with Jai’s band, Jai volunteers to be Nate’s plus-one to the wedding, and the stage is set for a summer of music, self-discovery, and simmering romantic tension. What could possibly go wrong . . . ?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Racism & mentions of apartheid
  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Animal death

Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes

Milo Connolly has managed to survive the first three years of high school without any major disasters, so by his calculations, he’s well past due for some sort of Epic Teenage Catastrophe. Even so, all he wants his senior year is to keep his head down and fly under the radar like the quiet, well-behaved, churchgoing boy that everyone thinks he is. Everything is going exactly as planned until the dreamy and charismatic Marcos Price saunters back into his life after a three-year absence and turns his world upside-down. Suddenly Milo is forced to confront the long-buried feelings that he’s kept hidden not only from himself but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hate crime
  • Racism
  • Internalised religious homophobia & threats of conversion therapy
  • Fire
  • Hurricane
  • Sinkhole
  • Bullying

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easy going guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Fire & related loss of property and business

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted forced arranged marriage
  • Domestic violence

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn’t all that far away… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury recovery (leg)
  • Murder (off-page)
  • Stalking
  • Animal injury & death (sheep)

A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui

The room is watching. But Mira and Layla don’t know this yet. When the two best friends are stranded on their spring break college tour road trip, they find themselves at the Wildwood Motel, located in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Mira can’t shake the feeling that there is something wrong and rotten about their room. Inside, she’s haunted by nightmares of her dead brother. When she wakes up, he’s still there. Layla doesn’t see him. Or notice anything suspicious about Room 9. The place may be a little run down, but it has a certain charm she can’t wait to capture on.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobic parents
  • Suicide by overdose & vehicular suicide
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Fire & death from fire
  • Drowning recounted