Category Archives: Queer Lit

Ellie Engle Saves Herself by Leah Johnson

Ellie Engle doesn’t stand out. Not at home, where she’s alone with her pet fish since her dad moved away and her mom has to work around the clock. Not at the bakery, where she helps out old Mr. Walker on the weekends. And definitely not at school, where her best friend, Abby—the coolest, boldest, most talented girl in the world—drags Ellie along on her never-ending quest to “make her mark.” To someone else, a life in the shadows might seem boring, or lonely. But not to Ellie. As long as she has Abby by her side and a comic book in her hand, she’s quite content. Too bad life… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Anxiety (protagonist)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandparent recounted
  • Earthquake
  • Animal death
  • Bullying

Love at First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi

Rosemary is a successful horror author with a secret: she can see ghosts. So when the set of her hit novel’s film adaptation turns out to be a haunted countryside manor, she’s unfazed. What she’s less prepared for is the maddeningly handsome, completely miscast actor playing her leading man. Ellis is a Hollywood heartthrob tired of his action-hero persona. Instead, he dreams of being a serious actor, and having free time to spend gardening with his dog. Landing the lead in a historical horror movie is his chance to start fresh… until he discovers the author tried to have him… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Internalised homophobia & biphobia
  • Anxiety
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of smoking
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted
  • Death of a pet dog recounted (off-page)
  • Blackmail

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson

In 2267, Earth has just begun to recover from worldwide ecological disasters. Minh is part of the generation that first moved back up to the surface of the Earth from the underground hells, to reclaim humanity’s ancestral habitat. She’s spent her entire life restoring river ecosystems, but lately the kind of long-term restoration projects Minh works on have been stalled due to the invention of time travel. When she gets the opportunity take a team to 2000 BC to survey the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance to uncover the secrets of the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Body horror

High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson

Lana Baker is Aldgate’s finest scribe, with a sharp pen and an even sharper wit. Gregarious, charming, and ever so eager to please, she agrees to deliver a message for another lovely scribe in exchange for kisses and ends up getting sent to Low Parliament by a temperamental fairy as a result. As Lana transcribes the endless circular arguments of Parliament, the debates grow tenser and more desperate. Due to long-standing tradition, a hung vote will cause Parliament to flood and a return to endless war. Lana must rely on an unlikely pair of comrades—Bugbite, the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drug use & abuse (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Gun & knife violence

Dead Happy by Josh Silver

Friends. Welcome to Elmhallow. Seb, along with a select group of participants, finds himself washed up on an isolated island called Elmhallow, under the guardianship of a mysterious couple. As the experiment steps up another level, Seb is forced to team up with Eleanor once more. But where is Finn? And what does HappyHead have in store for them next?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Eugenics
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug use recounted
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Murder & torture
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death & cruelty

HappyHead by Josh Silver

We are in an epidemic. An epidemic of unhappiness. Friends, here is the good news: HappyHead has the answer. When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & outing mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use mentioned
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Animal death

Boys, Beasts and Men by Sam J. Miller

Despite his ability to control the ambient digital cloud, a foster teen falls for a clever con-man. Luring bullies to a quarry, a boy takes clearly enumerated revenge through unnatural powers of suggestion. In the aftermath of a shapeshifting alien invasion, a survivor fears that he brought something out of the Arctic to infect the rest of the world. A rebellious group of queer artists create a new identity that transcends even the anonymity of death.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism, including slurs
  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug abuse
  • AIDS
  • Murder
  • Physical assault (mugging)
  • Animal deaths

Gutter Mind by K.A. Merikan

Mike. Macho Biker. Scarred. Will never love again. Arden. Femme boy. Jaded. Will never succumb to lust again. Mike is always on the lookout for a fresh fling, and there are more than enough chicks for a stud like him at the Smoke Valley MC clubhouse. But the pretty little thing he spots at the gas station turns out to be a boy, and that triggers all sorts of confusion.
Mike loves a challenge, so when he’s given the cold shoulder, his predator senses are set aflame! Straight or not, Mike makes a bet with his cousin and won’t settle for anything other than a total seducti… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Adult-minor relationship recounted
  • Murder
  • Tear gas attack
  • Kidnapping

Feel My Pain by K.A. Merikan

wo years ago, the Rabid Hyenas MC ripped Zane apart like a pack of starving wolves. But he’s not only a survivor, he took revenge that same night. Turns out, one of the bikers is still alive, and as long as that’s the case, Zane will not know peace. Especially since Roach is the dirtbag who caused all the mayhem in the first place. When an act of revenge meant to close that chapter of Zane’s life takes a shocking turn, all hell breaks loose. Roach’s pain is his. When Roach bleeds, he does. When Zane suffers, Roach screams. So until Zane can figure out how to lift the curse and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Forced outing
  • Rape, statutory rape & sexual assault
  • Sex work mentioned
  • Attempted suicide & self-harm
  • Overdose
  • Arson
  • Torture mentioned

Blood and Marriage by K.A. Merikan

As the daughter of a mafia boss, I knew that keeping my head down meant staying alive. So when my father arranged my marriage to a Sicilian mafioso, I smiled and nodded, hoping for a kind man. But then my future husband’s cousin, Santo Villani, appears to pick me up for the wedding, and my life turns upside down, shattered by a kiss that shouldn’t have happened. Arrogant, cocky, and yet irresistibly charming, he’s exactly the kind of man I shouldn’t be reaching out for. A dangerous mafioso . I am torn between duty and passion, but my wedding is set in stone, so no matter which one of them wins, I will fall on their battlefield.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & biphobia
  • Sexual assault & child sexual assault recounted