Remembering a Radical Southern Femme, Queer Literary Icons, Disability Pride, and More Lesbrary Links

a collage of covers with the text Lesbrary Links: Bi & Lesbian Lit News & Reviews

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

the cover of We Say We Love Each Other by Minnie Bruce Pratt
Greedy cover
the cover of Young Queer America
The Complete Works of Pat Parker cover
the cover of Olivia

Minnie Bruce Pratt, Lesbian Poet, Essayist, and Activist, Has Died at 76

Remembering Minnie Bruce Pratt’s Legacy as a Radical Southern Femme

LGBTQ Bookstore Fights Against Book Bans with The Rainbow Book Bus

Around The World’s Capitals In Queer Bookstores

Lesser Known Queer Literary Icons

We’re Not New: A 20th Century Queer Lit Reading List

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World cover
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo cover
the cover of The Luis Ortega Survival Club
the cover of The Unbroken
the cover of The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet

Library Event Cancelations, Changes, and Support for Pride Month 2023

The Most Requested LGBTQ+ Books in Classroom Libraries — and How to Help on DonorsChoose

Ferndale library adds more LGBTQ+ books after ‘Hide the Pride’ campaign attempt to remove them

QUIZ: Which Iconic Queer Literary Character is Your Soulmate?

Stacked with Pride: Stickers, Pins, and Bookmarks for Celebrating Literary Style

LGBTQ Reads: Happy Disability Pride Month 2023!

OF Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst cover
the cover of A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo
the cover of Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
the cover of Light from Uncommon Stars
the cover of To Shape a Dragon's Breath

10 Queer Books That Defined 2023 (So Far) (This is my new Substack with Book Riot!)

34 Books That Make LGBTQ+ Teens Feel Seen (Seventeen)

A-Z Queer YA Recommendations for Pride

28 of the Best Queer Fantasy Books

Celebrating 40 years of Dykes to Watch Out For

This post has the covers linked to their Bookshop.org pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, subscribe to my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month, plus $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

Messy Sapphics, F/F Friends to Lovers Romances, Book Celebrating Queer Bars, and More Lesbrary Links

a collage of the covers listed with the text Lesbrary Links: Bi and Lesbian Lit News and Reviews

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

Despite Book Bans, LGBTQ+ Fiction Sales Soar

LGBTQ librarians are trying to keep vital books accessible to queer youth, despite bans

L.A. School Board President Gives a Lesson on LGBTQ+ Inclusion

Reading is fundamental: inside Britain’s queer bookshop boom

the cover of Gods of Want
the cover of The Black Period
the wishing flower cover
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey cover
the cover of Basil and Oregano

2023 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced

Celebrating the Books That Queered Us

Quiz: What Sapphic Romance Novel Trope Is Your Destiny?

Mombian Database Hits Milestone of 1300+ LGBTQ Family Books

the cover of Your Driver Is Waiting
the paperback cover of Cool for the Summer
the cover of Cleat Cute
the cover of the dos and donuts of love
the cover of Moby Dyke

The 20 Best LGBTQ+ Books So Far This Year

LGBTQ Books with Paperback Cover Redesigns Out in 2023

Most Anticipated LGBTQ Adult Fiction: July-December 2023

8 of the Best F/F Friends to Lovers Romances

A Toast to Books About Queer Bars

the cover of Pizza Girl
the cover of D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding
the cover of How Far the Light Reaches
the cover of Feels Right
the cover of Ellie Engle Saves Herself

Messy Sapphic Novels for Fans of THE ULTIMATUM: QUEER LOVE

8 Beautiful Books of Queer Science & Nature Writing

Kemi Adeyemi’s Feels Right Explores the Politics of Black Queer Nightlife

Leah Johnson’s Middle Grade Debut Ellie Engle Saves Herself Will Take You Right Back to Seventh Grade

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, subscribe to my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month, plus $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

Lesbrary Links: Defeating Book Bans, Queer-Owned Bookstores, Sapphic Hidden Gems, and More!

a collage of the covers listed with the text Lesbrary Links: Bi and Lesbian Lit News and Reviews

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to keep up with the latest sapphic book news and reviews, and let me tell you, it gets out of control during Pride month. These links are the best of the best, though: no generic Pride book lists here. These are the reviews, lists, articles, interviews, and more about sapphic books that I found interesting in the past few weeks!

the cover of Nevada
the cover of Going Bicoastal
the cover of The Dos and Donuts of Love
the cover of Your Driver Is Waiting
the cover of she is a haunting

GLAAD: Book Bans Cannot Stand: Organizing to Defeat Book Bans in Your Community

How Queer-Owned Bookstores are Celebrating Pride Month 

Ten LGBTQ+ Authors on the Books That Taught Them

Autostraddle: 81 Queer and Feminist Books Coming Your Way Summer 2023

The Most Anticipated LGBTQ YA of Summer 2023

Quiz: Which Queer AAPI Book Should You Read Next?

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If you find posts like this useful, help us keep the lights on by supporting the Lesbrary on Patreon or buy me a lavender latte at Ko-Fi!

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the cover of Even Though I Knew the End
the cover of Scorched Grace
the cover of Dykette
the cover of Can't Let Her Go
the cover of The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz

20 Sapphic Books to Read for Pride Month (and all year round)

Goodreads: New and Upcoming Books to Discover This Pride Month

Goodreads: New and Upcoming 2023 LGBTQ+ Romance Reads for Pride Month (and Beyond!)

Discover Hidden Gems: 10 Lesser-Known Sapphic Romance Books to Read Right Now

What Banned Books Can Teach Us: Building an LGBTQ Picture Book Library for Pride

Recent LGBTQ Parenting Books: Which Ones Are Right for You?

the cover of Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
the cover of DC Book of Pride
the cover of Learned By Heart
the cover of Lesbian Love Story
the cover of Moby Dyke

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Helped Me Stop Being Ashamed Of Being Bisexual

Opening The DC Book of Pride with Jadzia Axelrod

Emma Donoghue’s next book Learned By Heart is a historical novel about a secret romance for the ages — read an excerpt now

Lesbian Love Story by Amelia Possanza was reviewed at NPR and Autostraddle

Moby Dyke Is a Fresh Take on the Old Conversation About Disappearing Lesbian Bars

the cover of Girls Like Girls

In Her Debut Novel, Hayley Kiyoko Writes the Happy Ending She Wanted Growing Up

Taylor Jenkins Reid interviewed Hayley Kiyoko on Turning “Girls Like Girls” into a Swoony YA Novel

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko was reviewed at Autostraddle

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on Facebook, Goodreads, Youtube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, subscribe to my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month, plus $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

Feral Sapphic SFF, Plus-Sized Yuri Leads, High Femme Camp, and More Lesbrary Links

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

This Is How You Lose the Time War cover
the cover of The Unbroken
The Jasmine Throne cover
the cover of A Long Time Dead
the cover of  She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat by Yuzaki Sakaomi

Just 11 People Nationwide Responsible for Majority of LGBTQ Book Challenges

LGBTQ Reads celebrated Pan Visibility Day with this list of pansexual books!

Feral Sapphic Sci-fi and Fantasy

On Reclaiming Vampires as Queer and Jewish

What Queer Parenting Memoirs Teach Us About Motherhood

The joyful affirmation of plus-sized leads in yuri

the cover of Girls Like Girls
the cover of Dykette
the audiobook cover of Dykes to Watch Out For
the cover of Homebodies
the cover of the Tegan and Sara Junior High graphic novel

Roxane Gay, Carrie Brownstein, Roberta Colindrez, Jane Lynch To Star in Audible Adaptation of Dykes To Watch Out For

The Color Purple Trailer Is Here, But Is It Queer?

Read and Listen to Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko Book Excerpt

In Dykette, Jenny Fran Davis Makes Her Contribution to the Lesbian Lexicon (Vanity Fair)

Dykette Has Plenty of High Femme Camp Antics

Homebodies Examines “the Risks of Speaking Truth to Power”

Tegan and Sara’s Junior High Brings Their Origin Story to a Graphic Novel

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, subscribe to my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month, plus $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

Lesbian Gladiators, LGBTQ Jewish Books, Essential Queer Comics, and More Lesbrary Links

a collage of the covers listed with the text Lesbrary Links: Bi & Lesbian Lit News and Reviews

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

the cover of Brown Neon
the cover of Going Bicoastal
the cover of Chlorine
the cover of Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American
the cover of Buffalo is the New Buffalo

2023 Publishing Triangle Award Winners Announced

LGBTQ Reads: Happy Jewish American Heritage Month 2023! and Happy AAPI Heritage Month 2023!

20 Essential Queer Comics from the Past Five Years, According to a Queer Comics Creator

Literary Lovers: A Sapphic Reading List for Every Mood

Quiz: Which Queer Short Story Collection Should You Read?

These LGBTQ Reads Prove That Book Bans Are Regressive Trash

the cover of Moby Dyke
well of loneliness cover
the cover of Thirsty Sword Lesbians
the cover of She Drives Me Crazy
the cover of Our Hideous Progeny

Revisiting Radclyffe Hall’s Groundbreaking Lesbian Novel The Well of Loneliness, 95 years on

‘Thirsty Sword Lesbians’ Publisher Is Releasing a New Magical Girl Tabletop RPG!

She Drives Me Crazy Should Get a Shot at a Rom-Com Adaptation

C.E. McGill, author of Our Hideous Progeny, writes about queerness, monstrosity, and Frankenstein

the cover of Homebodies
the cover of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
the cover of Rosewater
the cover of Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer

Tembe Denton-Hurst was interviewed about Homebodies at ELLE.

Marisa Crane’s new novel is a queer dystopia, but they’re dreaming of a queer paradise

Liv Little on her debut queer novel Rosewater and LGBTQ history

Cosmoknights Hannah Templer on Her Space Opera Comic about Lesbian Gladiators Battling Against the Patriarchy

the cover of Stars Collide
the cover of If Tomorrow Doesn't Come
the cover of Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl
the cover of This is the Way the World Ends

Stars Collide Is a Fun, Layered Queer Romance About Pop Stars Falling in Love

In Lesbian YA Debut If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come, Teen Girls Find Love in the Midst of an Asteroid Barreling Toward Earth

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl Is a Swoony Queer Neurodiverse Romance

Autistic Teen Girl Takes On the Rich and Powerful in Queer YA Thriller This Is The Way The World Ends

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, subscribe to my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month, plus $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

SPONSORED POST: Support the Kickstarter for this Lesbian Greek Mythology Comic!

the cover of Meraki against a rainbow gradient background

We’re excited to launch our next issue of MERAKI: a lesbian LGBTQ+ comic book series set in a futuristic world infused with Greek mythology.

I created MERAKI, because I wanted to see more LGBTQ+ characters. Representation matters for our community. The characters in MERAKI are funny, caring, intelligent, flawed, and gay. They are simply Human. Their sexuality is a part of them, but it is only part of their story.

This comic book series follows Psi and her team through this savage world infused with Greek Mythology.

Born into the land of Wrathic Warriors, Psi ascended swiftly through the savage ranks. Her path forged in blood, she now commands the deadliest military team on Balen. This is her story!

We will have early bird specials including limited rewards for the first 48 hours! And for a special bonus, everyone who pledges during the first 48 hours and types “Add Me In!” into the comments will be entered to win a cameo appearance in MERAKI #7! Click here to join our campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mk-palmer/meraki-7-a-futuristic-odyssey-adventure-story

Please consider pledging today to help sure we have the strongest launch possible. Thank you!

—M.K. Palmer, creator and writer of Meraki

Lesbrary Links: Quozies, the Queer Children’s Books Revolution, Lesbian BookTok, and More

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

I try not to cover too much of the individual queer book bannings here, because it’s overwhelming and painful to sift through the huge amount that come in every week, but you can keep up with them at Book Riot and ALA’s International Freedom Blog. I have pulled out some of the high level overviews, though.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki
OF Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
the cover of Heather Has Two Mommies
Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert
the cover of Last Night at the Telegraph Club

The covers above are all of sapphic books that have been recently challenged or banned.

You’re Not Welcome Here: How book bans alienate Texas students

Florida teen suspended for “Don’t Say Gay” protest won’t back down

From book bans to “Don’t Say Gay” bill, LGBTQ kids feel erased in the classroom

Malinda Lo wrote about the ramping up of books bans across the U.S., including challenges of her own books

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
the cover of D'Vaughn and Kriss Plan a Wedding
the cover of Cantoras
the cover of From Dust, a Flame
the cover of Wild and Wicked Things

Find a Home in These Unsung Classics of Black Queer Literature

13 Queer Black Romances That Will Give You All The Feels

To celebrate International Women’s Day, LGBTQ Reads posted a list of “great books that feature friendship, companionship, sisterhood, and other group dynamics among (primarily) women”

Here are 24 must-read LGBTQ books out this month

Here is Queer Poetry for Every Sign

the cover of Milk Fed
the cover of Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
Ace of Spades cover
the cover of Panpocalypse

The Best LGBTQ Books of 2021, According to American Librarians

It’s Time To Curl Up with a “Quozy” – A Queer Cozy Mystery

Read these 8 Mystery Books With Bi+ Main Characters

These queer dark academia books are worth obsessing over

Don’t miss these queer books from indie presses out this year

Read these powerful LGBTQ memoirs

Thank You, Romance: On Dating in My 30s, Glorious Conversations, and Queer Romance Novels

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
the cover of The Secret Language
the cover of Love and Other Disasters
the cover of A Dowry of Blood
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Here are 7 Fascinating Facts About Rita Mae Brown

Learn about Ursula Nordstrom and the Queer Revolution of the 20th Century Children’s Books

Laynie Rose, a lesbian BookTokker, was interviewed at Bitch Media

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, one of my favourite reads of last year, is coming out in a special edition hardcover!

https://twitter.com/s_t_gibson/status/1496531337569878072

Gillian Anderson and Lily Rabe are Queer Loves Eleanor and Hick in Showtime’s “The First Lady”

Will “The Color Purple” Get Black Queerness Right This Time?

Well of Loneliness cover
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m danforth
The Unspoken Name cover
the cover of The Thousand Eyes
the covers of Girls Can Kiss Now

Radclyffe Hall’s papers have been digitized and are available online at the University of Texas at Austin

I Found My Queer Guidebook in The Well of Loneliness

The Miseducation of Cameron Post made me question everything about being a lesbian

The Thousand Eyes Wraps Up a Queer Epic Duology With God Killing and Monster %@$#ing

Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz was reviewed at Autostraddle


This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, subscribe to my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month, plus $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

Lesbrary Links: An Anti-Censorship Tool Kit, a Spooky Queer Book Quiz, and Must-Read Coming Out Stories

Collage of covers listed at the links with the text Lesbrary Links: Bi & Lesbian Lit News and Reviews

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki
Flung Out of Space cover
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead cover

Librarians face threats of legal charges for carrying sex education books and LGBTQ resources. (Want to fight censorship? Here’s an anti-censorship toolkit.)

The rhetoric used to try to ban LGBTQ books hurts queer and trans students.

The queer comics future is bright.

These 20 coming out stories are must-reads.

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall cover
Payback’s a Witch cover
Nothing But Blackened Teeth cover
A Spindle Splintered cover
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Taylor

QUIZ: Which Queer Spooky Book Should You Read This October?

Malinda Lo wrote about her upcoming novel, A Scatter of Light, and how publishing queer YA has changed since she first pitched it 8 years ago.

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow was reviewed at NPR.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor was reviewed at Autostraddle.

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

If you’d like more LGBTQ lit links, follow my Book Riot newsletter: Our Queerest Shelves! I round up the newest LGBTQ book news as well as the most exciting queer new releases out this week, plus each newsletter comes with an exclusive queer books post from me. If that appeals to you, please subscribe!

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month! $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!

52 Bi and Lesbian Books Out This Month!

A collage of the covers of the books listed below with the text Bi and Lesbian Books Out in September!

Would you believe that more than 50 sapphic books come out this month? It’s true! Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find out which books have queer representation, or what kind of representation they have. So here’s a big list of bi and lesbian books out this month, sorted by genre. I’ve highlighted a few of the books I’m most interested in, but click through to see the other titles’ blurbs!

As always, if you can get these through an indie bookstore, that is ideal, but if you can’t, the titles and covers are linked to my Amazon affiliate link. If you click through and buy something, I’ll get a small percentage. On to the books!

Adult

Fiction

Cover of The Spectacular

The Spectacular by Zoe Whittall (Bisexual Fiction)

It’s 1997 and Missy is a cellist in an indie rock band on tour across America. At twentytwo years old, she gets on stage every night and plays the song about her absent mother that made the band famous. As the only girl in the band, she’s determined to party just as hard as everyone else, loving and leaving a guy in every town. But then she meets a tomboy drummer who is hard to forget, and a forgotten flap of cocaine strands her at the border.

Fortysomething Carola is just surfacing from a sex scandal at the yoga center where she has been living when she sees her daughter, Missy, for the first time in ten years—on the cover of a music magazine.

Ruth is eighty-three and planning her return to the Turkish seaside village where she spent her childhood. But when her granddaughter, Missy, winds up crashing at her house, she decides it’s time  that the strong and stubborn women in her family find a way to understand one another again.

In this sharply observed novel, Zoe Whittall captures three very different women who each struggle to build an authentic life. Definitions of family, romance, gender, and love will radically change as they seek out lives that are nothing less than spectacular.

How to Wrestle a Girl
Suture cover
Better to Trust cover

Romance

Suspecting Her cover
A Lot Like Adiós cover
Jordan’s Kiss cover
Dangerous Without You cover
Mechanics of Love cover
Love in the Limelight cover
Beginner's Bet cover
Calculated Risk cover
Love and Lotus Blossoms cover
Two Winters cover
Chain Reaction cover
Witch, Please! cover

Mystery/Thrillers

The Final Child cover

The Final Child by Fran Dorricott (Thriller)

He won’t forget her…
 
Erin and her brother Alex were the last children abducted by ‘the Father’, a serial killer who only ever took pairs of siblings. She escaped, but her brother was never seen again. Traumatised, Erin couldn’t remember anything about her ordeal, and the Father was never caught.
 
Eighteen years later, Erin has done her best to put the past behind her. But then she meets Harriet. Harriet’s young cousins were the Father’s first victims and, haunted by their deaths, she is writing a book about the disappearances and is desperate for an interview with the only survivor. At first, Erin wants nothing to do with her. But then she starts receiving sinister gifts, her house is broken into, and she can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched. After all these years, Erin believed that the Father was gone, but now she begins to wonder if he was only waiting…
 
A tense and emotive thriller, The Final Child is a powerful tale of a survivor being forced to confront her painful past.

What's the Matter with Mary Jane? cover
The Body On the Bed cover

Fantasy

No Gods, No Monsters cover

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (Sapphic and Queer Fantasy)

One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother was shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it.

As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend’s trail of bread crumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organization with secrets of its own. Meanwhile, more people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase, and protests erupt globally, both for and against the monsters.

At the center is a mystery no one thinks to ask: Why now? What has frightened the monsters out of the dark?

The world will soon find out.

Traitors of the Black Crown cover

Traitors of the Black Crown (Black Crown #1) by Cate Pearce (F/F Fantasy)

Three women will betray the black crown. A Knight. A Duchess. A Queen.

Raena Schinen narrowly escaped when the Queen’s guard murdered her entire family. If Raena’s survival is exposed, she’ll be next. For fifteen years Raena has hidden as a male Knight, “Sir Rowan”, consumed by her vengeful desire to assassinate the Queen.

The moment Raena is close enough to exact her revenge, she is unexpectedly exiled to a foreign land. There she serves the common-born Duchess Aven Colby, whose suspicious kinship with the Queen further threatens Raena’s delicate secrets.

Just as they become united in a common goal to curb a looming invasion, unexpected heat and romance blossoms between “Sir Rowan” and Aven. The peril demands they set out on a journey to form clandestine political alliances, risking the Queen’s wrath, and drawing Raena and Aven closer together.

But no one in the kingdom could have imagined the sinister foe rising from below the surface. In order to save themselves and those they love, Raena, Aven, and the Queen must recognize who are the oppressors and who will unite against the Black Crown.

Among Thieves

Science Fiction

Light from Uncommon Stars cover

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (Trans Sapphic Science Fiction)

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California’s San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka’s ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She’s found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn’t have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan’s kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul’s worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

The All-Consuming World cover

The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw (Science Fiction)

Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies through the years of a long, dangerous career with the infamous Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy, at least before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her diverse team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir. 

The highly evolved AI of the galaxy have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from ever regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs’ vast conspiracy, this band of violent women—half-clone and half-machine—must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all. 

Welcome to The All-Consuming World, the debut novel of acclaimed writer Cassandra Khaw. With this explosive and introspective exploration of humans and machines, life and death, Khaw takes their rightful place next to such science fiction luminaries as Ann Leckie, Ursula Le Guin, and Kameron Hurley.

First Light cover
The Actual Star cover
In the Deep cover

Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga

Monstress, Vol. 6 The Vow cover

Young Adult

YA Contemporary & Historical Fiction

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A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee (YA Pirates/Historical Fiction)

Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island.

1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Head of the Dragon, is now only a story, like the ones Xiang has grown up with all her life. She desperately wants to prove her worth, especially to her mother, a shrewd businesswoman who never seems to have enough time for Xiang. Her father is also only a story, dead at sea before Xiang was born. Her single memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry.

But the pendant’s true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. The revelation that Xiang’s father sailed with the Dragon Fleet and tucked away this secret changes everything. Rumor has it that the legendary Head of the Dragon had one last treasure―the plunder of a thousand ports―that for decades has only been a myth, a fool’s journey.

Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea―and especially those who sail it―are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe.

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The Night When No One Had Sex cover
Before We Were Blue cover

YA Mystery/Thrillers

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To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames (Lesbian YA Thriller)

Debut voice Alison Ames delivers with a chilling, feminist thriller, perfect for fans of Wilder Girls and Sawkill Girls.

Moon Basin has been haunted for as long as anyone can remember. It started when an explosion in the mine killed sixteen people. The disaster made it impossible to live in town, with underground fires spewing ash into the sky. But life in New Basin is just as fraught. The ex-mining town relies on its haunted reputation to bring in tourists, but there’s more truth to the rumors than most are willing to admit, and the mine still has a hold on everyone who lives there.

Clem and Nina form a perfect loop―best friends forever, and perhaps something more. Their circle opens up for a strange girl named Lisey with a knack for training crows, and Piper, whose father is fascinated with the mine in a way that’s anything but ordinary. The people of New Basin start experiencing strange phenomena―sleepwalking, night terrors, voices that only they can hear. And no matter how many vans of ghost hunters roll through, nobody can get to the bottom of what’s really going on. Which is why the girls decide to enter the mine themselves.

The Convincing Hour cover

YA Horror

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The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh (Bisexual)

The Conjuring meets Sadie in this queer ghost story, when seventeen-year-old podcaster Dare finds herself in a life-or-death struggle against an evil spirit.

Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as the host of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, she knows to keep her doubts to herself if she wants to win over listeners.

Her first season’s subject is the Arrington Estate—a sprawling manor rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Atheleen Bell, who drowned in its lake almost thirty years ago. Dare’s more interested in investigating the suspicious circumstances of Atheleen’s death, which she thinks point to a decades-old murder, not something supernatural.

But Arrington is full of surprises. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the estate, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

YA Fantasy

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A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Hollowell (Bisexual)

When her siblings start to go missing, a girl must confront the dark thing that lives in the forest—and the growing darkness in herself—in this debut YA contemporary fantasy for fans of Wilder Girls.

Derry and her eight siblings live in an isolated house by the lake, separated from the rest of the world by an eerie and menacing forest. Frank, the man who raised them after their families abandoned them, says it’s for their own good. After all, the world isn’t safe for people with magic. And Derry feels safe—most of the time.

Until the night her eldest sister disappears. Jane and Derry swore to each other that they’d never go into the forest, not after their last trip ended in blood, but Derry is sure she saw Jane walk into the trees. When another sibling goes missing and Frank’s true colors start to show, feeling safe is no longer an option. Derry will risk anything to protect the family she has left. Even if that means returning to the forest that has started calling to Derry in her missing siblings’ voices.

As Derry spends more time amidst the trees, her magic grows more powerful . . . and so does the darkness inside her, the viciousness she wants to pretend doesn’t exist. But saving her siblings from the forest and from Frank might mean embracing the darkness. And that just might be the most dangerous thing of all.

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Some Faraway Place (A Bright Sessions Novel) by Lauren Shippen (F/F)

Rose Atkinson’s mother can see the future. Her father can move things he doesn’t touch. Her brother Aaron can read minds. And Rose, well, she makes a mean spaghetti bolognese.

Everyone else in her family is Atypical, which means they manifested an ability that defies the limits of the human experience. At nineteen, well past the average age of manifestation, Rose is stuck defending her decision not to go to college and instead working in the kitchen of a local restaurant, hoping to gain the experience she needs to become a chef.

When a rollerblading accident sends her to the hospital, she meets a girl she can’t forget and she starts to feel like maybe her life isn’t quite so small. But when she starts falling asleep mid-conversation, she thinks, then again maybe I’m doomed to never have good things.

Rose should be happy to learn that she’s Atypical after all―that diving into dreams makes her a part of her family in the way she always wanted. But the more time she spends in the dreamworld, the more complicated her ability becomes. Trying to balance her work, her power, and a girlfriend who doesn’t know about Atypicals, Rose seeks help. But she soon discovers that being Atypical comes with dangers she never could have imagined. Even her carefully constructed dreamworld isn’t safe.

This is the story of Atypical Rose, who discovers that your dreams coming true isn’t always a good thing.

The Lost Girls cover

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl (Sapphic YA Paranormal)

Getting over Your Vampire Ex is as Easy as Killing Him and Stealing His Girlfriend

Holly Liddell has been stuck with crimped hair since 1987 when she agreed to let her boyfriend, Elton, turn her into a vampire. But when he ditches her at a gas station a few decades into their eternity together, she realizes that being young forever actually means working graveyard shifts at Taco Bell, sleeping in seedy motels, and being supernaturally compelled to follow your ex from town to town–at least until Holly meets Elton’s other exes.

It seems that Holly isn’t the only girl Elton seduced into this wretched existence. He turned Ida in 1921, then Rose in 1954, and he abandoned them both before Holly was even born. Now Rose and Ida want to kill him before he can trick another girl into eternal adolescence, and they’ll need Holly’s help to do it. And once Holly starts falling for Elton’s vulnerable new conquest, Parker, she’ll do anything to save her.

To kill Elton for good, Holly and her friends will have to dig up their pasts, rob a bank, and reconcile with the people they’ve hurt in their search for eternal love. And to win the girl, Holly will have to convince Parker that she’s more than just Elton’s crazy ex–even though she is trying to kill him.

The Scratch Daughters cover
Sisters of Shadow
Witch Rising cover
The Hollow Heart cover
The Other Merlin cover

YA Sci Fi

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Iron Widow ​by Xiran Jay Zhao (Bisexual)

Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.

YA Graphic Novels

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Stars in Their Eyes by Jessica Walton & Aśka

Maisie has always dreamed of meeting her hero, Kara Bufano, an amputee actor who plays a kick-arse amputee character in her favourite show.

Fancon is big and exciting and exhausting.

Then she meets Ollie, a cute volunteer who she has a lot in common with.

Could this be the start of something, or will her mum, who doesn’t seem to know what boundaries are, embarrass her before she and Ollie have a chance?

Children

Middle Grade

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A Touch of Ruckus by Ash Van Otterloo (Sapphic Main Character, Non-Binary Love Interest Middle Grade Fantasy)

A laugh-out-loud, ghostly Southern mystery that’s perfect for fans of Cassie Beasley and Natalie Lloyd.

Tennessee Lancaster has a hidden gift. She can pry into folks’ memories with just a touch of their belongings. It’s something she’s always kept hidden — especially from her big, chaotic family. Their lives are already chock-full of worries about Daddy’s job and Mama’s blues without Tennie rocking the boat.

But when the Lancasters move to the mountains for a fresh start, Tennie’s gift does something new. Instead of just memories, her touch releases a ghost with a terrifying message: Trouble is coming. Tennie wants to ignore it. Except her new friend Fox — scratch that, her only friend, Fox — is desperate to go ghost hunting deep in the forest. And when Tennie frees even more of the spirits, trouble is exactly what she gets… and it hits close to home. The ghosts will be heard, and now Tennie must choose between keeping secrets or naming an ugly truth that could tear her family apart.

Magic and mayhem abound in this spooky story about family legacies, first friendships, and how facing the ghosts inside can sometimes mean stirring up a little bit of ruckus.

One Life Young Readers Edition cover

Nonfiction

Poetry

Passion cover
Gumbo Ya Ya cover

General Nonfiction

The Audacity of a Kiss cover
On Freedom cover

Check out more LGBTQ new releases by signing up for Our Queerest Shelves, my LGBTQ book newsletter at Book Riot!

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Lesbrary Links: LGBTQ Bookstores, Neurodiverse Queer Lit, and F/F Superhero Couples

Cover collage with the text Lesbrary Links: Bi & Lesbian Lit News & Reviews

I follow hundreds of queer book blogs to scout out the best sapphic book news and reviews! Many of them get posted on Tumblr and Twitter as I discover them, but my favourites get saved for these link compilations. Here are some of the posts I’ve found interesting in the last few weeks.

We Can Do Better Than This cover
Queer as All Get Out
Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie
That Full Moon Feeling cover
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

Here are 56 LGBTQ-Owned Bookstores You Can Be Proud to Support.

Speaking of queer bookstores, Gay’s the Word bookstore has seen a lot of support from its community during the pandemic! Also, they have secret celebrity customers.

Autostraddle crowd-sourced a bookshelf of A+ queer book recommendations! (I contributed a few.)

Read some bisexual books.

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell cover
Dress Codes for Small Towns cover
Six Goodbyes We Never Said cover
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron cover
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi cover

These books help tweens figure out sexual orientation and gender identity.

Reads Rainbow continues with its “in the intersection” series with Latine LGBT Lit, Indigenous LGBT Lit, LGBT Lit and Faith, and Neurodiversity and Disability in LGBT Lit.

Here are some Book Rioters’ favourite new LGBTQ books.

It’s not Pride month anymore, but you should still read these Canadian LGBTQ2S+ books.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Goldie Vance Volume 1
Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis
Burning Roses by S.L Huang
The Grimrose Girls cover

Read these queer YA comics and these middle grade LGBTQ graphic novels!

Speaking of comics, here are the best F/F superhero couples (and the only F/F superhero movie relationship).

Book Riot continues strong with the Pride posts in this post recommending queer historical fiction.

If you’re a fan of retellings, you’ll want to read these 30+ queer fairy tale retellings.

This is a beautiful reflection on Virginia Woolf’s life.

This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on FacebookGoodreadsYoutube and Tumblr.

Support the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month! $10 and up patrons get guaranteed books throughout the year!