December is a great time to look back at our favorite reads of the year, but it’s also always a challenge. I read about 50 sapphic books this year, so I had a lot of trouble trying to narrow down to my very favorites—I’ve left off some fantastic reads, and that’s after picking six of my top reads of the year instead of just one!
This list is just the Lesbrary reviewers’ favorite 2024 sapphic books; there will be another round up of our favorite sapphic backlist reads. I’ve started with my (Danika’s) picks, followed by the other Lesbrary reviewers’ favorites. Of course, this isn’t a complete list of the best sapphic books of 2024, because it’s limited to what we picked up this year! There are thankfully so many more excellent sapphic books coming out every year than we can keep up with.
Without further ado, here are our favorite 2024 sapphic books, from literary fiction to romance to nonfiction and more.
Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe
This December release came in just under the wire to sneak onto my favorites list for the year! This is a literary fiction book about two sisters have nothing in common: Su is a conservative politician’s wife in Singapore while Emerald scrapes by as a queer sugar baby living in New York City with an artist friend. But they share a secret: the began their lives together as snakes in Tang Dynasty China. It’s a beautiful, thought-provoking story about racism, assimilation, and the complexities of found family.
Content warnings: Rape, transmisogyny (this is a significant plot, not just mentioned in passing), pregnancy trauma, misogyny, homophobia.
(Check out my review for more.)
Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
2024 was the year I really fell for romance novels; I found three of my new favorites of the genre this year, including Triple Sec by T.J. Alexander and The Pairing by Casey McQuiston, but this one felt the most personal. I was only a high school English teacher for the briefest of time, but it left an impression. It also doesn’t hurt that both of these main characters have ADHD, and I am pretty well certain I share that. A lesbian road trip romance + ruminating on death + both characters having ADHD + all the main characters being high school English teachers made this a home run for me, but you don’t have to have my exact configuration of interests to enjoy this friends to almost lovers to enemies to lovers romance. And yes, I cried.
(Check out my review for more.)
Jasmine is Haunted by Mark Oshiro
Unsurprisingly for a book about ghosts and hauntings, this is primarily about grief. Jasmine feels isolated not just because of the haunting, but also because she’s still grieving her father after his death three years ago. She feels like she should have moved on. Slowly, she learns that so many of the people in her life, from teachers to neighbours to friends, are also grieving. It’s nice to be at a point with queer middle grade books that this can be such a taken for granted aspect: Jasmine, Bea, and Jorge are all queer, but that isn’t the focus of the story. There are also multiple queer side characters. I definitely recommend this for middle grade readers, and I hope it makes it onto school library shelves!
(Check out my review for more.)
The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
I was not expecting to finish this almost 500-page graphic novel in one sitting and be left sobbing in the early hours of the morning, but that’s exactly what happened when I picked up The Deep Dark. Ultimately, this is a story about accepting and loving the darkest, angriest parts of yourself—and allowing other people to love you in your entirety. I did not mean to read this in one sitting, but I’m glad I did. I was immersed in this story, and I felt so deeply for Mags. It made the ending cathartic—hence the sobbing. This was obviously written from a personal place, and it’s so effective. This is a new all-time favourite.
(Check out my review for more.)
Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu and Mad Rupert
Ngozi Ukazu is best known for her Check, Please! gay hockey romance graphic novel duology, but this one seems to be flying under the radar, and it deserves more love. It’s about a student at art school whose scholarship falls through. She discovers she can get financial aid by putting together a softball team and winning just one game. As you might expect from a softball team at an art school, they are a ragtag bunch who are mostly queer and mostly have no athletic skills at all. It’s a lot of fun, with some cutting commentary on student loan debt and financial aid.
(Check out Theo’s review for more.)
Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe
From the first essay in this collection, I was hooked. LaPointe weaved together the past and present, drawing on the stories of her family and community as well as the political movements of the moment, like Black Lives Matter. She discusses both traditional stories and pop culture. As the title suggests, music plays a big role in the collection, including her days as one of the only Indigenous people in the punk scene of Seattle. She discusses how Two Spirit people were often sacred in many Indigenous cultures, and how the “shame [she] learned to carry is the work of generations of colonization.” This was so good that I immediately put everything aside to read her previous memoir, Red Paint, which is also excellent.
(Check out my review for more.)
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
I read The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor at the recommendation of a classmate, and I’d like to thank her very much, because I absolutely ate it up. Kit and Rebecca were both excellent characters who complemented each other very nicely. I loved every second I spent with them through the years the book takes place in, and their romance was lovely. I liked the exploration of gender in a time when defying norms was far less accepted by society, as well as the sibling dynamics, which are something I am very familiar with and really enjoyed reading about. I couldn’t put this book down, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. —Caelin
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
There is no contest—my favorite book of 2024 has got to be Casey McQuiston’s newest romance, The Pairing. McQuiston’s lush descriptions of European food and travel paired with the steamy second-chance romance of Theo and Kit had me rereading The Pairing three separate times this year! I am a sucker for books that have the couple pining for one another, lots of quippy dialogue, nuanced discussions of gender and evolution of the self, and of course, the occasional scene that makes me blush and check to make sure no one is reading over my shoulder.” —Theo
Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd
Hurting from a rough divorce and failed acting career, Mattie Belman comes home to take the role of theater teacher at the local all-girls Catholic high school. It’s there that her path collides with Jillian Reed, the no-nonsense, tough as nails school soccer coach. What follows is a pitch perfect enemies-to-lovers romance that contains everything you want and more from the trope. The adversarial banter between Jillian and Maddie drips with tension and makes for an incredibly satisfying moment when the pair eventually give in to their desires. Loser of the Year is also a deeply moving story of overcoming religious trauma to find hope in our inner truth. Altogether, it’s a masterpiece of sapphic literature from one of the best new authors out there. —Jamie Rose
The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall
My favorite sapphic book that I have read this year has definitely been The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall! Dungeons & Dragons, or in the case of this book, Secrets & Sorcery, has been one of my favorite hobbies since I started playing in seventh grade, so I love reading books about people falling in love with the magic of D&D. The only thing that made this reading experience even better was buddy reading this book with my girlfriend, who I recently started playing D&D with! I loved seeing Hollis learn to love herself and embrace her identity as a fat, neurodivergent, queer girl through playing D&D. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a heartwarming coming of age story with an adorable sapphic romance and plenty of nerdy touches! —Alice P.
What were your favorite sapphic books that came out this year? Let’s chat in the comments!
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