Category Archives: Queer Lit

Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler

East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who happens to have the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS. So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she’ll see him again. There’s no way Mark wouldn’t give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment – and increasingly, her concern – Mark doesn’t appear. Renata has other problems, too. There’s something strange happening in her advertisements for paranormal ‘exte… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a best friend from AIDS (theme)

For the Bride by Becca Grischow

On the surface, Alice has her life together. She’s got a job in music she loves; she’s firmly sober; and she’s grateful to be back in the good graces of her ex-girlfriend-once-best-friend-now-literal-only-friend Gin. Just in time, too, because Gin’s getting married this summer! And Alice gets to be a bridesmaid. If only the maid-of-honor wasn’t Renee Type-A, the opposite of her in every way, and a long-time Alice-hater who’s clung to her animosity like a leech. Every second Alice spends around Renee makes her feel like who she used to be, rather than the person she’s spent… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol abuse discussed & recounted
  • Death of a father from alcoholism

A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio

Mikey Hartford IV has coasted through his twenties in a distracted blur of yachts and sex and partying. But when his father discovers his latest million-dollar impulse buy and changes the terms of his trust, the party’s finally over. Now, unless Mikey can make a positive contribution to the world before his thirtieth birthday—one that doesn’t involve throwing cash at his problems—he’ll never see another yacht again. (Or even so much as a canoe.) Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York where Mikey has to work as the oldest, least-qualified staffer to prove… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Toxic friendship
  • Alcohol abuse mentioned
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by Lev A.C. Rosen

Meet Jack Rothman. He’s seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys – sometimes all at the same time. His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, ‘it could be worse’. He doesn’t actually expect that to come true. But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he’s been getting take a turn for the creepy. Jack’s secret admirer knows everything: where he’s hanging out, who he’s sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming (theme) & victim-blaming
  • Homophobia & coming out themes
  • Hate crimes mentioned
  • Dubious consent scenarios discussed
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Bombings mentioned
  • Stalking & blackmail
  • Bullying

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen

Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew—a group of loveable and messy queer twenty—somethings—and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed—or is it? When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story. But he gets more… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Stalking by an ex-partner
  • Homophobic cyberbullying

Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey

Celia is so tired of being alone. All she wants is to have a family―to belong to someone. That’s why she’s going to Kindred Cove for the annual Salt Festival held by the secluded community that lives there. They promise that healing is possible. They promise that transformation is inevitable. There is no grief at Kindred Cove, because there is no suffering. Nothing is ever lost. Celia knows that, at that mysterious island surrounded by that impossible, ever-growing reef — she will find herself. She’s ready to be healed. She’s ready to be transformed. She’s ready to believe.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infertility & miscarriage (protagonist)
  • Cults

Puck by Samantha Allen

Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind “Homewreckers”, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell—with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex’s best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon (who lovesick Lena has always pined after), Mia’s news leaves her friend group reeling—and Puck’s mind whirling. When they arrive for a week… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

The Maidenheads by Benny B. Peterson

Jamie is bad at endings, which is why she’s stuck at a dead-end Baltimore newspaper job, continuing to have break-up sex with her first-ever hetero partner, and haunted by the what-ifs of her ex-girlfriend Mari—a charismatic and brilliant musician—and their former band together, the Maidenheads. Since they (and their band) broke up a decade ago, Jamie hasn’t been able to sing. Then an unexpected opportunity to perform in DC with Mari’s successful new band arises, and Jamie jumps at it. What begins as a return to music becomes a reckoning—with the weight of unfinished… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Pregnancy
  • Murder
  • Stalking & blackmail

This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi

Rinn Olivera is finally going to tell her longtime crush AJ that she’s in love with him. Daniella Korres writes poetry for her own account, but nobody knows it’s her. Imogen Azar is just trying to make it through the day. When Rinn, Daniella, and Imogen clock into work at Wild Nights Bookstore on the first day of summer, they’re expecting the hours to drift by the way they always do. Instead, they have to deal with the news that the bookstore is closing. Before the day is out, there’ll be shaved heads, a diva author, and a very large shipment of Air Jordans to contend with. And it will… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Suicidal ideation

Crash Test by Amy James

Twenty-four-year-old Formula 1 driver Travis Keeping is halfway through an incredible racing season, with the championship well within his sights. But when a massive crash in Formula 2 leaves driver Jacob Nichols in critical condition, Travis’s world is flipped upside down. No one knows, but he and Jacob have been dating for almost a year. Now the only man he’s ever loved is clinging to life, his F1 team can’t understand why his performance is faltering, and he’s locked in a cold war with Jacob’s parents, who want him as far away from their son as humanly possible. Travis is sure every… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & biphobia
  • Car accident