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MY LGBTQ YA NOVELS
Quinton's summer break before high school should be nothing but wall-to-wall fun. Instead, his best friend has stopped talking to him; his fiendish older sister has filled his head with tales of a sadistic high school ritual; and his divorced father has started dating the city's most notorious barfly. Maybe a robot rabbit and a boy from his past can help salvage his vacation.
Amazon | Bookshop
Amazon | Bookshop
Two years ago, Quinton Wyatt had the worst summer vacation of his life... but Summer Break '79 looks like a winner. Quint loves his job at a local movie theater, he adores his new baby brother, and he and T.J. Shapleigh aren't just close — they're downright inseparable. But sometimes fate, like a desert monsoon, can roar in and wash away everything.
Amazon | Bookshop
Amazon | Bookshop
It is June 1981 and Quinton Wyatt has just graduated from high school. In three months’ time, he’ll start a new adventure at an out-of-state university. That doesn’t give him much time to pack, to finalize his roommate situation, and to deal with two loves — one urging him to go, the other begging him to stay. My Summer (and the Song of Cicadas) is the third and final book in the Quinton’s Curious Mind series.
Amazon | Bookshop
Amazon | Bookshop
DC Pride Box Set by Various Authors
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda 10th Anniversary Deluxe Limited Edition by Becky Albertalli
To the Stars and Back (a Graphic Novel), Volume 1 by Peglo
All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown
Carry on by Rainbow Rowell
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
The Raven Boys (the Raven Cycle, Book 1) by Maggie Stiefvater
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Something Like Summer by Jay Bell
Otherworldly by F. T. Lukens
Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier and Val Wise
Blackwater by Jeannette Arroyo and Ren Graham
Fire from the Sky by Moa Backe Åstot
Sins of the Black Flamingo by Andrew Wheeler
Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning and Ricardo Cabral
Icarus by K. Ancrum
The Unbroken by C L Clark
Where Shadows Meet
A Novel by Patrice Caldwell
Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix by Caleb Roehrig
In this swoony and spooky teen summer romance graphic novel set on a Texas ranch, sixteen-year-old Cade Muñoz finds himself falling for the ranch owner's mysterious and handsome son, only to discover that he may be harboring a dangerous secret. Cade has always loved to escape into the world of a good horror movie. After all, horror movies are scary — but to Cade, a closeted queer Latino teen growing up in rural Texas — real life can be way scarier. When Cade is sent to spend the summer working as a ranch hand to help earn extra money for his family, he is horrified. Cade hates everything about the ranch, from the early mornings to the mountains of horse poop he has to clean up. The only silver lining is the company of the two teens who live there — in particular, the ruggedly handsome and enigmatic Henry. But as unexpected sparks begin to fly between Cade and Henry, things get...complicated. Henry is reluctant to share the details of his mother's death, and Cade begins to wonder what else he might be hiding. Inspired by the gothic romance of Jane Austen's Northranger Abbey and perfect for fans of Heartstopper and Bloom comes a modern love story so romantic it's scary. PURCHASE THIS TITLE >>
THE FIRST LGBTQ YA BOOK IS OLDER THAN YOU THINK!
We often think of LGBTQ YA literature as being a very modern phenomenon, but it roots date back over half a century. Published in 1969, I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip by John Donovan is considered the first YA book with a gay protagonist.
Davy Ross is a a lonely thirteen-year-old who moves to Manhattan to live with his estranged mother after the grandmother who raised him dies. Between alcohol-infused lectures about her self-sacrifice and awkward visits with his distant father, Davy's only comforts are his pet dog and a boy from school named Douglas Altschuler. Eventually, Davy and Douglas's relationship becomes sexual, but when his dog's hit by a car, Davy worries that it's a punishment for his homosexual feelings.
Overall, the book received positive critical reviews and even won a Newbery Award. Yet the incorporation of gay characters into YA lit was still slow in coming, with only a handful of books touching the subject over the next decade.
We often think of LGBTQ YA literature as being a very modern phenomenon, but it roots date back over half a century. Published in 1969, I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip by John Donovan is considered the first YA book with a gay protagonist.
Davy Ross is a a lonely thirteen-year-old who moves to Manhattan to live with his estranged mother after the grandmother who raised him dies. Between alcohol-infused lectures about her self-sacrifice and awkward visits with his distant father, Davy's only comforts are his pet dog and a boy from school named Douglas Altschuler. Eventually, Davy and Douglas's relationship becomes sexual, but when his dog's hit by a car, Davy worries that it's a punishment for his homosexual feelings.
Overall, the book received positive critical reviews and even won a Newbery Award. Yet the incorporation of gay characters into YA lit was still slow in coming, with only a handful of books touching the subject over the next decade.
Check, Please! Book 1: # Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu
Fence Vol. 1 by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
Fence Vol. 2 by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
Fence Vol. 3 by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
Fence Vol. 4 - Rivals by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
Fence Vol. 5 - Rise by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
Fence Vol. 6 - Redemption by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan
Fence: Striking Distance by Sarah Rees Brennan
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Running with Lions by Julian Winters
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
FINDING QUEER CHARACTERS BETWEEN THE LINES
Before it was acceptable to have openly gay characters in YA books, sexuality often was inferred by the reader. This may have been the closeted teen anxious to find a role model, but it might have also been a hysterical parent or a conservative school board looking for a reason to ban a certain title.
One book that has long been accused of homosexual subtext is A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles. Set in a prestigious New English boarding school, it features two male protagonists who are in a very enmeshed and unhealthy relationship. Studious Gene both admires and is jealous of the popular and athletic, Phineas. And their loving yet codependent relationship been interpreted as being sexual desire by some critics who likely hadn't even read the novel. Back in the 1980s, one school board called A Separate Peace "a filthy, trashy sex novel.” Yet the book contains no mention of sex or sexual desire of any flavor, and even author John Knowles insisted those themes didn't exist. "If there had been homoeroticism between Phineas and Gene, I would have put it in the book, I assure you," he stated.
Both hope and paranoia can cause a reader to "read between the lines" and A Separate Peace is still one of the most challenged books in America to this day. In fact, despite all the progress over the decades, YA books with gay LGBTQ+ are still some of the most challenged and banned in the United States and this has only become worse in recent years.
Before it was acceptable to have openly gay characters in YA books, sexuality often was inferred by the reader. This may have been the closeted teen anxious to find a role model, but it might have also been a hysterical parent or a conservative school board looking for a reason to ban a certain title.
One book that has long been accused of homosexual subtext is A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles. Set in a prestigious New English boarding school, it features two male protagonists who are in a very enmeshed and unhealthy relationship. Studious Gene both admires and is jealous of the popular and athletic, Phineas. And their loving yet codependent relationship been interpreted as being sexual desire by some critics who likely hadn't even read the novel. Back in the 1980s, one school board called A Separate Peace "a filthy, trashy sex novel.” Yet the book contains no mention of sex or sexual desire of any flavor, and even author John Knowles insisted those themes didn't exist. "If there had been homoeroticism between Phineas and Gene, I would have put it in the book, I assure you," he stated.
Both hope and paranoia can cause a reader to "read between the lines" and A Separate Peace is still one of the most challenged books in America to this day. In fact, despite all the progress over the decades, YA books with gay LGBTQ+ are still some of the most challenged and banned in the United States and this has only become worse in recent years.
QUEER ROYALTY STORIES
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Red Heir by Sarah Honey and Lisa Henry
So This Is Ever After by F. T. Lukens
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich (a Graphic Novel) by Deya Muniz
Tragic Volume 1 by Dana Mele and Valentina Pinti
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
The Alpha's Son by Penny Jessup
Chasing The Alpha's Son by Penny Jessup
Running with the Alpha's Son by Penny Jessup
Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins
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Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall