Category Archives: Queer Lit

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua’s College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla. But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism, misogyny & homophobia
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking
  • Blood & gore depiction including emesis, blood-drinking, dead bodies & decapitation
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder
  • Death of a kitten mentioned (brief)

Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake

Once upon a time, Ramona Riley was a student at a prestigious art school, with dreams of landing in Hollywood as a costume designer to the stars. But after her father’s car accident, she had to quit and return to her small New Hampshire town, Clover Lake, to help take care of her younger sister. Twelve years later, Ramona is still working at the town’s café, all but given up on her dream. But when a big-budget romantic comedy comes to Clover Lake to film, she wonders if this could be her chance. There’s only one problem—Dylan Monroe, her first kiss and Hollywood’s favorite wild child—is the star. Dylan Monroe has… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Injury mentioned (parent)
  • Panic attacks

Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

It’s been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, and she’s doing more than okay. Sure, her single mother never checks in, but she has her strings ensemble, the Rosalind Quartet, and her life in New York is a dream come true. As the holidays draw near, her ensemble mate Sloane persuades Charlotte and the rest of the quartet to spend Christmas with her family in Colorado—it is much cozier and quieter than Manhattan, and it would guarantee more practice time for the quartet’s upcoming tour. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that Sloane’s sister Adele also… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia mentioned
  • Parental estrangement & neglect
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Panic attacks
  • Emesis

Get Over It, April Evans by Ashley Herring Blake

April Evans’ life is in shambles. She’s had to close her tattoo shop in Clover Lake and she’s subletting her house just to make rent. And her love life? Nonexistent ever since Elena, her ex-fiancée, left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she is asked to teach a summer art class at the town’s new resort called Cloverwild, April jumps at the opportunity, especially since the job comes with boarding. She’s sure that this is the silver lining she needs . . . until she meets her Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex-fiancée. And even worse, it’s clear Daphne has no idea… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Infidelity by ex-partner mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent mentioned

Shadow’s Seduction by Kresley Cole

Prince Mirceo Daciano and his new friend, Caspion the Tracker, comb the streets of Dacia, drunkenly seeking out pleasures of the flesh. In what should have been a typical night, they coax a bevy of nymphs to bed. To impress their females, the demon and the vampire kiss on a dare. Once they finally break away from their soul-searing kiss, they find themselves alone—and shaken. Had they imagined their explosive chemistry? Obstacles—ranging from a death sentence to exile in a war-torn dimension—threaten to destroy their lives . . . and the vulnerable promise in that one… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Sexism & slut-shaming
  • Murder
  • Childhood poverty & food scarcity leading to starvation

Poisoning Ivy by Carly Claire

The mountain was always my safe place… until it wasn’t. It was my refuge from the cold loneliness of the city, from my parent’s loveless marriage, from their anger and chaos. Even when they left me with my creepy uncle, I looked forward to summers at the cabin, especially after I met them. The reapers. Killian, Monty, and Theo. They were my friends, the secret I kept to make my life tolerable. And then one summer, their friendship turned into something sinister. Their hatred kept me alive, fed a part of me that needed it. I thought it turned into something more, but then… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Sex trafficking mentioned (off-page)
  • Child physical & sexual abuse and neglect (implied)
  • Rape & dubious consent (‘dubcon’), including forced voyeurism and gun play
  • Depression & suicidal ideation
  • Domestic abuse
  • Pregnancy discussed
  • Mutilation
  • Murder
  • Home invasion

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They’re too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle – an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood – not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt’s mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him into the horrors of trenches. Though Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, their friends are dying in front of them, and at any moment they could be next….

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & minor bullying
  • Homophobia & internalised homophobia, including slurs
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (‘shell shock’) & psychological trauma from war, including survivor’s guilt, nightmares, depression, and panic attacks
  • Suicidal ideation & self-sacrifice (in battle)
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Minor drug use (i.e. morphine in a medical context)
  • Starvation
  • Blood, gore, and injury descriptions, including hospitalisation in military facilities, amputations, graphic descriptions of bodies, and general medical treatment and illness from battlefield wounds & injuries
  • Graphic depictions of World War Two, including trench warfare, combat violence, gas attacks (mustard gas), and battle scenes
  • Animal death (horses)

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Dementia discussed
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Animal abuse & death (on-page)

The Names by Florence Knapp

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register the birth of her son. Her husband, Gordon, respected in the community but a controlling presence at home, intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and name the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates. Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of their lives, shaped by Cora’s last-minute choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence & child abuse (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcoholism

Soulstar by C.L. Polk

For years, Robin Thorpe has kept her head down, staying among her people in the Riverside neighborhood and hiding the magic that would have her imprisoned by the state. But when Grace Hensley comes knocking on Clan Thorpe’s door, Robin’s days of hiding are at an end. As freed witches flood the streets of Kingston, scrambling to reintegrate with a kingdom that destroyed their lives, Robin begins to plot a course that will ensure a freer, juster Aeland. At the same time, she has to face her long-bottled feelings for the childhood love that vanished into an asylum twenty years ago. Can Robin find happiness… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Arson & fire