In my time in the queer lit blogosphere, I’ve noticed that one of the categories that readers seem to be wanting for the most is sapphic fantasy books. And why not? Who wouldn’t want to read a book about a lesbian hobbit, or a pansexual lady knight, or a bisexual woman and her dragon? Clearly that’s an awesome set-up for a story. But although plenty of queer women fantasy books exist, there seems to be some difficulty connecting them with the readers looking for them.

Although I don’t read a ton of fantasy books, my passion for queer women books has led me to many sapphic fantasy books that I have loved. Here are some of my favourites, though by no means an exhaustive list!

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey is not what I would call a light read. It’s 900 pages and packed with politics, religion, and BDSM sex–it’s tastefully done, I think, but that’s a big part of the novel. Phèdre is Servant of Naamah: a sex worker, a profession that is semi-spiritual and respected in this world. She also uses this to glean political information from her clients, who are both men and women. Although most of her relationships are with men, I would argue the most intense relationship she has is with another woman.

Check out my full review here.

The Unbroken and The Faithless by C.L. Clark

This is a thought-provoking, complex book about two figures that end up on opposite sides of a colonialist occupation. Luca is a Balladarian (white) disabled princess trying to wrest back control of the throne by showing her worth in occupying Qazāl. Touraine is Qazāli (Black), but she was taken out of the empire to be brought up as a Balladarian soldier. Touraine briefly works for Luca before ending up on the other side of the war, but their limited interaction sparks a relationship between them that is as compelling as it is unhealthy.

Luca and Touraine are both deeply flawed, and we see the catastrophic consequences of their actions. This is a brutal, often bleak story that left me feeling wrung out… but I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I ended up enjoying the second book in the trilogy even more than the first. I can’t wait until the last book comes out!

Check out my full review here.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

This dark fairy tale is part fantasy, part horror novel. It follows Devon, a book eater, who is part of one of the aristocratic houses of book eaters (think vampires, but they eat books instead of drinking blood). When we meet her, she’s on the run with a mind eater child. She’ll stop at nothing to keep Cai safe–including finding people for him to feed on, leaving them either dead or robbed of their memories and senses. Her only hope is to find the secretive house creating a drug that stops mind eaters from having to feed on minds to stay alive.

This is an unsettling read that also has a lot to say about gender. There is a minor romantic subplot with another woman, but the focus is really on Devon’s relationship with her son.

Check out my full review here.

Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica

Indigo Springs is set in our world, but one that has been contaminated by magic. We begin the book knowing the devastation this magic will wrought, then skip backwards to see how events unfold.

The main character is bisexual, and somehow this book managed (to me) to pull off a love triangle. I found the environmentalism aspect to this really interesting, and though I didn’t like the sequel as much, I really enjoyed this one.

Check out my full review here.

The Mangoverse series by Shira Glassman

I would be remiss to make a sapphic fantasy list without including the Mangoverse series by Shira Glassman. Beginning with The Second Mango, this is set in a Jewish fantasy world and includes a whole range of diverse representations, including a demiromantic character.

I’ve only read the first book so far, but I’ve heard they only get better from there. This was such a fun read.

Check out my full review here.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Seven years ago, the ship Atargatis went to the Mariana Trench to make a mockumentary about mermaids. Unexpectedly, they seemed to find them! Unfortunately, the “mermaids” were deadly, and no one on the ship survived. Only a bit of footage shows what happened to them, and it’s believed to be faked. Now, another ship is being sent to follow up and find out what really happened.

The book begins with a large cast, including a bisexual main character (and an f/f romance), Deaf characters, and autistic characters.

This does get pretty grisly, so do go in expecting some horror element, but I didn’t find it scary.

Check out my full review here.

Spear by Nicola Griffith

This follows an unnamed (at least, at first) main character raised in isolation, closely connected to nature, who disguises herself as a man and sets off to become a knight of King Artos’s court. This is a lofty goal for a girl in scavenged armor riding a bony horse, but she knows it’s her destiny. While I enjoyed the whole book, I thought the section that takes place at King Artos’s court is the most interesting—it’s probably not a coincidence that this is also the part when the book becomes even more queer, including an enthralling f/f love story. I found Spear a little tricky to get into because of all the Welsh names/terms, but it’s well worth hanging in there. These is a small book that packs a big punch!

Check out my full review here.

The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson’s books are always a trip, and The Salt Roads is no exception. This book bounces between different POV characters and time periods, all bound together by their relationship to the goddess Ezili. This has a focus on racism, colonialism, and slavery while also including several queer characters. The Salt Roads isn’t linear, and you get rocketed from place and to place while also jumping through time, but it’s fascinating and compelling throughout.

Check out my full review here.

Falling in Love With Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson

I’m cheating and putting in another Nalo Hopkinson book, even though only the novella has f/f content! Falling In Love With Hominids is worth reading for the novella alone, but this collection as a whole is one of my favourite books I’ve ever read. (And there is other queer content, just not f/f.) “Ours Is the Prettiest” is a Borderlands series, which means it shares characters and a setting with other authors. It also has an interesting look at a queer community and the complex, multi-layered relationships between everyone involved.

Check out my full review here.

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The Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley

The Worldbreaker Saga is a brutal, brilliant series. It is emphatically queer: it examines gender and sexuality from multiple angles, polyamorous configurations of genders are the norm for relationships, there are multiple nonbinary point of view characters, and the main character is attracted to women. It boasts a huge cast of point of view characters and an ever-expanding setting made up of distinct, detailed cultures. It is complex and ambitious, and it challenged me at every turn. This is grimdark epic fantasy, so it’s far from a comfortable read—but it’s so very worth it.

Check out my full review here.

Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw

I will admit, I was sold immediately when I heard “bisexual werebear novella.” The book opens with Zelda irritated that her transformation into a bear is continually destroying her wardrobe. She works for a fashion magazine, so she doesn’t take this lightly.

This is such a fun, light read. It’s quippy and snarky and smart. Because this barely (ha) breaks 100 pages, it keeps everything moving at a brisk pace, even if it is mostly romantic entanglements. Speaking of romance, the romance is mostly m/f. Zelda has several male love interests and one female love interest, but like Kushiel’s Dart, I would say that although the f/f pairing gets less “page time,” it has the most significance.

Check out my full review here.

Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks

In the high fantasy vein, I really enjoyed Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks. (Although this is another series I’ve started but not finished, that says more about my flaws than the books’.) This is set in a world without homophobia—so if you ever want to escape into a queernorm world, fantasy is your genre. This is travelling/quest story, which I always enjoy, and although I was overwhelmed by being thrown into the complex world in the beginning, I quickly got my bearing. (Also, I love these new covers.)

Check out my full review here.

A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams by Dax Murray

A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams is a queer Swan Lake retelling, and honestly, it just had to live up to that premise to win me over. Add to that the beautiful cover and the promise of a positive polyamorous relationship (f/f/nb), and I was sold. I was impressed to find that not only did this satisfy those queer fairy tale cravings, it went beyond that to create an engaging and emotionally compelling story in its own right. I loved this queer-positive fairy tale world, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that was only the backdrop for a subtle story about trust, betrayal, and new possibilities.

Check out my full review here.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

Everfair by Nisi Shawl was a book I picked up without knowing it had queer content, so I was pleasantly surprised to found out this steampunk alternate history of the Congo also has several sapphic main characters! 

Everfair is a complex, thought-provoking read covering a lot of different perspectives on topics like war, colonialism, love, betrayal, and race. There is a ton packed into this, so prepare to settle in and really give it your full attention.

Check out my full review here.

The Dawnhounds (Against the Quiet #1) by Sascha Stronach

This is a queer, Maori-inspired, pirate, biopunk fantasy with worldbuilding so intense that I will be honest, I often was not following it. It takes place mid-war, during a tense stalemate, in a city that’s bio-engineered plants to be buildings, weapons, and almost everything else.

Yat was once a street kid, then a cop, but being caught at a gay bar has left her barely hanging onto her job—and then barely clinging onto her life. I will say there’s a queer pirate found family element here, but it doesn’t come in until about halfway through the book.

I highly recommend reading this one and letting it wash over you, not getting too bogged down in the details. I might not have understood it all, but I am absolutely here for where the series goes next.

Check out my full review here.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

This is a queer Vietnamese American The Great Gatsby retelling, which is all I needed to know to pick it up. Jordan is a fascinating main character. She’s adopted from Vietnam and was raised in a wealthy family. She has plenty of love affairs with men and women, and she frequents a gay bar. In this version of the story, Nick and Gatsby have their own romantic relationship, which makes the love triangle (or square or pentagon) between Daisy, Tom, Gatsby (and Nick and Jordan) even more fraught. The fantasy elements are mostly in the background, but they make this world even more enticing. This is a beautiful, absorbing story with an overwhelming atmosphere of magic, indulgence, and tragedy—this time with queer and Asian American angles that add depth to the story.

Check out my full review here.

Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel

This is a collection of Métis futurism stories that rejects the concept that “education is the new buffalo” and instead imagines how Métis worldviews have survived colonialism in the past and present, and how they can influence the future. One of my favourite things about this collection is that the stories include footnotes and are each followed by an essay explaining Vowell’s thought process behind them. Four of the stories have sapphic main characters, including one where a queer Indigenous feminist collective co-parent a kid together. This was such a thoughtful collection, and I’m eagerly anticipating whatever Chelsea Vowel writes next.

Check out my full review here.

Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older

This is an anthology that isn’t all queer women content, but although there are only two f/f stories, the quality of them makes up for it. Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older takes place between 1400-1900, mostly in North America and Europe, and is mostly made up of fantasy stories. It also includes beautiful illustrations. I really liked these, but I wish we had even more–especially in different time periods and geographical areas. Sequel, please!

Check out my full review here.

Young Adult Fantasy:

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

This is a fairy tale about misogyny. About the men who pit women against each other, and force them into limited roles. And the relationships that form between these women regardless. The love that they share even when told they should they should hate each other. The revolutionary power of love and forgiveness to break apart these narratives and allow for a new beginning. Ostensibly, this is a retelling of Snow White, but while it uses touchstones from that story, it isn’t restricted by it.

I loved that Girls Made of Snow and Glass took this fairy tale trope of the “Evil Queen”/”Evil Stepmother” and did a deep dive into imagining what could lead someone to feel like that was their only option. This is primarily about the complex relationship between Mina and her stepmother Lynet, but there is also an f/f romance that complements the narrative.

Check out my full review here.

The Lost Coast by A. R. Capetta

I knew from the time that I heard about a YA novel featuring queer witches among the California redwood forests, I was hooked. To have six queer witches that celebrate their identities is—I hesitate to say—magical to read about. The group includes a grey ace nonbinary character, a Black bisexual character, a main character who identifies as queer, a character with synesthesia, a character with a limp, and a Filipino character. These characters discuss their labels and identities freely and without shame. This book includes a character casually using the phrase “femme as fuck.” Not only that, but Danny is a queer teenage girl who enjoys her sexuality. Kissing is her favourite thing to do, and she usually kisses girls.

Please pick up this story of chosen family and finding your own magic, and spread the word, because I know so many readers have been waiting for a story just like this.

Check out my full review here.

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

Labyrinth Lost is about Alex, a Brooklyn bruja who resents her own powers. She believes that magic has done nothing but harm her and her family, and she longs to be free of it. The magical system is inspired by multiple Latin American and Afro-Cuban cultures and beliefs. Although the book begins in our world, the majority is set in Los Lagos, an in-between world of gods and powerful, unearthly creatures.

Although the word “bisexual” isn’t used in the text, Alex finds herself pulled between two people: the brooding brujo she finds herself allied with, and her bubbly best friend, who is her constant source of light. (This is also an interracial romance between two girls of colour.)

Check out my full review here.

Of Fire and Stars and Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst

This is the queer YA fantasy I’ve always dreamed of. It’s about two princesses who fall in love, but it’s also about court intrigue, betrayal, suppressed magical powers, and horses. It also is set in a world where same-sex relationships are not looked down on: the scandal is that one of the girls is betrothed to the other’s brother.

As much as I loved the first book, the sequel is even better: the story is compelling and the relationships deepen. I unabashedly fell in love with this duology, and I’m so glad that it exists for queer teen girls now.

Check out my full reviews of Of Fire and Stars and Of Ice and Shadows.

Dreadnought and Sovereign by April Daniels

This is a trans lesbian superhero YA—but don’t expect it to be an escapist romp. This is a book that deals directly with intense transphobia (especially transmisogyny) and abuse.

Danny has enough on her plate just trying to survive her abusive household while being a closeted trans teenage girl, when getting caught in a superhero fight means that the hero Dreadnought passes on his powers to her as he dies. Being a superhero doesn’t mean that she escapes the problems she had before, though. Although she relishes being in a body that other people recognize as her gender, being a cape comes with risks—and the superhero community has its own transmisogynistic assholes. This isn’t escapist utopian fun: it’s battling bigotry armed with superpowers.

Check out my review of Dreadnought and the sequel, Sovereign.

Hocus Pocus and The All-New Sequel by A. W. Jantha

I am still shocked that this exists! A Disney book, a sequel to a beloved movie, that has a lesbian main character. The first half of the book is a novelization of the original movie, which you can skip. But all sequel is just what you’d expect from a Hocus Pocus sequel, but with added adorable lesbian crushes. I really don’t know how else to describe this except as a Hocus Pocus sequel with a lesbian main character. If that doesn’t sell you on it, what will? I dearly hope that is made into a movie (though I doubt it will be), because my childhood self would be so happy to see it. I was very disappointed to find out the Hocus Pocus sequel that just came out didn’t follow these plot.

Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley

Tamsin is a 17-year-old witch who was banished from her community of witches when she was 12, for committing the worse of magical crimes. Worse, she was cursed, and now she can’t feel love unless she takes it from others. Without love, she can’t see colors, taste food, or feel warmth. Wren is a source: someone made of magic, but who can’t use it herself. She would be an incredible boon for witches, but she’s kept herself hidden to stay safe. When a magical plague ravages the queendom (including Wren’s father), they team up to try to stop it.

This is a high fantasy story with big, world-ending stakes–but more importantly, it’s a slow burn sapphic romance. Tamsin and Wren have a perfect grumpy/sunshine dynamic. This is also a queernorm world, so there’s no homophobia!

Check out my full review here.

Those are some of my favourites! Looking for more? Check out the Lesbrary’s fantasy tag!

An earlier version of this post ran on Book Riot.

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 on top of the giveaways!

Fiction

Under The Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta for $1.99

Roses in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman for $3.99

The Balance Tips by Joy Huang-Iris for $1.50

Romance

Can’t Let Her Go by Kianna Alexander for $3.99

Can’t Resist Her by Kianna Alexander for $3.99

Out on the Ice by Kelly Farmer for $1.99

Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey for $4.99

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley for $2.99

SFF and Horror

Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall for $1.99

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe for $1.99

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim for $2.50

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield for $3.99

Young Adult

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick for $1.99

Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster by Andrea Mosqueda for $2.99

I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers for $2.99

The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska $1.50

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall for $2.99

Nonfiction

The Family Outing: A Memoir by Jessi Hempel for $2.50

The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan for $2.99

Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples by Rodger Streitmatter for $1.50

From Gay to Z: A Queer Compendium by Justin Elizabeth Sayre for $1.50

The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World by Mason Funk for $2.50

I’m not sure why publishers packed so many exciting queer releases into the third week of June, but here we are! There are so many titles out today on my personal TBR, including queer litfic, a feminist western, a sapphic YA slasher, and so much more. I really enjoyed Courtney Gould’s previous sapphic YA horror book, The Dead and the Dark, so I’ll definitely be picking up Where Echoes Die. Also, nearly every bisexual woman has a horror story about being “unicorn hunted,” so I’m definitely intrigued by The Spare Room, which dials up the “horror” part of that equation. Oh, plus what looks a heartwarming Black F/F friends-to-lovers romance in Can’t Let Her Go! And the second book in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series! And and and! Sorry to your bank account and you’re welcome to your TBR for this list.

Fiction

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson (Bisexual Fiction)

Savannah “Sav” Henry is almost the person she wants to be, or at least she’s getting closer. It’s the second semester of her sophomore year. She’s finally come out as bisexual, is making friends with the other queers in her dorm, and has just about recovered from her disastrous first queer “situationship.” She is cautiously optimistic that her life is about to begin.
 
But when she learns that Izzie, her best friend from childhood, has gotten engaged, Sav faces a crisis of confidence. Things with Izzie haven’t been the same since what happened between Sav and Izzie’s older brother when they were sixteen. Now, with the wedding around the corner, Sav is forced to reckon with trauma she thought she could put behind her.
 
On top of it all, Sav can’t stop thinking about Wes from her Gender Studies class—sweet, funny Wes, with their long eyelashes and green backpack. There’s something different here—with Wes and with her new friends (who delight in teasing her about this face-burning crush); it feels, terrifyingly, like they might truly see her in a way no one has before.
 
With a singularly funny, heartfelt voice, Old Enough explores queer love, community, and what it means to be a sexual assault survivor. Haley Jakobson has written a love letter to friendship and an honest depiction of what finding your people can feel like—for better or worse.

Mrs. S by K. Patrick (Sapphic Fiction)

In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a butch antipodean outsider arrives to take up the antiquated role of “matron.” Within this landscape of immense privilege, where difference is met with hostility, the matron finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body.

That is until she meets Mrs. S, the headmaster’s wife, a woman who is her polar opposite—an assured, authoritative paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless summer, their unspoken yearning blooms into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer fades, a choice must be made.

Seductive, stylish, and disarmingly wry, K Patrick’s bold and revelatory debut smolders with the heat of summer as it explores the queer experience and the force of forbidden love.

Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (Sapphic Western)

It’s the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned when she arrives penniless in Dodge City with only her wits to keep her alive. Thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, she’s recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow “sporting women.”
 
But as winter approaches, Bridget learns just how fleeting stability can be. With the arrival of out-of-towners—some ominous and downright menacing, others more alluring but potentially dangerous in their own ways, including a legendary female gunfighter who steals Bridget’s heart—tensions in Dodge City run high. When the Buffalo Queen’s peace and stability are threatened, Bridget must decide what she owes to the people she loves and what it looks like to claim her own destiny.

Mysteries and Thrillers

The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz (Bisexual Thriller)

Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.

When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts—until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her.

At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous . . . and if she might be next.

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Romance

Can’t Let Her Go by Kianna Alexander (F/F Romance)

Peaches Monroe and Jamie Hunt are core members of their Texas friend squad and have so much in common. They’re successful at their careers in personal care. They take Austin’s “Keep It Weird” vibe to heart, each leaning into their own unique talents and sense of style. And they’re both ready to go on to even bigger things. Is pushing past the boundaries of friendship into something deeper one of them? The red-hot fantasy is there…but so is real life.

Jamie’s college dreams will take her far from her hometown. She’s already road-tripping to possibilities from San Antonio to Houston. And Peaches has obligations of her own. Not only is she planning to expand her business, but she’s taking care of her family after her mother’s passing, leaving her overwhelmed and under pressure.

No matter how perfect Jamie and Peaches are for each other, is this the right time for romance? Finding their true selves comes first. Only then can they hope to pursue a future of lasting love—together.

Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Shadow Cabinet (HMRC #2) by Juno Dawson (Sapphic Fantasy)

In the second installment of Juno Dawson’s “irresistible” fantasy trilogy (Lana Harper), a group of childhood friends and witches must choose between what is right and what is easy if they have any hope of keeping their coven–and their world–from tearing apart forever.

Niamh Kelly is dead. Her troubled twin, Ciara, now masquerades as the benevolent witch as Her Majesty’s Royal Coven prepares to crown her High Preistess.

Suffering from amnesia, Ciara can’t remember what she’s done–but if she wants to survive, she must fool Niamh’s adopted family and friends; the coven; and the murky Shadow Cabinet–a secret group of mundane civil servants who are already suspicious of witches. While she tries to rebuild her past, she realizes none of her past has forgotten her, including her former lover, renegade warlock Dabney Hale.

On the other end of the continent, Leonie Jackman is in search of Hale, rumored to be seeking a dark object of ultimate power somehow connected to the upper echelons of the British government. If the witches can’t figure out Hale’s machinations, and fast, all of witchkind will be in grave danger–along with the fate of all (wo)mankind.

Sharp, funny, provocative, and joyous, Juno Dawson’s sequel reimagines everything you think you knew about her coven and her witches in a story that spans continents and dives deep into the roots of England and its witchcraft. Ciara, Leonie, Elle, and Theo are fierce, angry, sexy, warm–and absolutely unapologetic as they fight for what they believe in, all in the name of sisterhood.

The Infinite Miles by Hannah Fergesen (Bisexual Sci-Fi)

To save the future, she must return to the beginning.

Three years after her best friend Peggy went missing, Harper Starling is lost. Lost in her dead-end job, lost in her grief. All she has are regrets and reruns of her favorite science fiction show, Infinite Odyssey.

Then Peggy returns and demands to be taken to the Argonaut, the fictional main character of Infinite Odyssey. But the Argonaut is just that … fictional. Until the TV hero himself appears and spirits Harper away from her former best friend. Traveling through time, he explains that Peggy used to travel with him but is now under the thrall of an alien enemy known as the Incarnate–one that has destroyed countless solar systems.

Then he leaves Harper in 1971.

Stranded in the past, Harper must find a way to end the Incarnate’s thrall … without the help of the Argonaut. But the cosmos are nothing like the technicolor stars of the TV show she loves, and if Harper can’t find it in herself to believe–in the Argonaut, in Peggy, and most of all, in herself–she’ll be the Incarnate’s next casualty, along with the rest of the universe.

Young Adult

Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow (Bisexual F/F YA Contemporary)

By the critically praised author of A Million Quiet Revolutions, this YA contemporary sapphic romance told in verse is about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.

It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.

Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.

As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron (Sapphic YA Horror)

Charity has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. As they unravel the bloody history of the real Mirror Lake, Charity discovers that there may be more to the story than she ever suspected . . .

Where Echoes Die by Courtney Gould (Queer YA Horror)

Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She can’t stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, longing for a time when things were more normal. So when a mysterious letter in her mother’s handwriting arrives in the mail that reads Come and find me, pointing to the small town at the center of her last investigation, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers.

But when Beck and her sister Riley arrive in Backravel, Arizona, it’s clear that something’s off. There are no cars, no cemeteries, no churches. The town is a mix of dilapidated military structures and new, shiny buildings, all overseen by a gleaming treatment center high on a plateau. No one seems to remember when they got there, and when Beck digs deeper into the town’s enigmatic leader and his daughter, Avery, she begins to suspect that they know more than they’re letting on.

As Beck and her sister search for answers about their mother, she and Avery are increasingly drawn together, and their unexpected connection brings up emotions Beck has fought to keep buried. Beck is desperate to hold onto the way things used to be, but when she starts losing herself in Backravel―and its connection to her mother― she risks losing her way back out.

Nonfiction

Through the Groves by Anne Hull (Lesbian Memoir)

A richly evocative coming-of-age memoir set in the Florida orange groves of the 1960s by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist

Anne Hull grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father’s family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. “Look now,” her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. “It will all be gone.” But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her idealistic but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dreamed of becoming a traveling salesman who ate in motel coffee shops, accompanied by her baton-twirling babysitter. As her sexual identity took shape, Hull knew the place she loved would never love her back and began plotting her escape.

Here, Hull captures it all―the smells and sounds of a disappearing way of life, the secret rituals and rhythms of a doomed family, the casual racism of the rural South in the 1960s, and the suffocating expectations placed on girls and women.

Vividly atmospheric and haunting, Through the Groves will speak to anyone who’s ever left home to cut a path of their own.

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The last year or two has brought such an abundance of sapphic books, especially in terms of traditionally published titles. Sapphic books have finally caught up to M/M books in traditional publishing, though there are still many queer identities as well as intersectionalities (trans sapphic books, sapphic books by authors of color, disabled sapphic books, etc) that have a long way to go. Still, it’s worth celebrating the wins we do have!

Here are a dozen of the sapphic books out in the first half of 2023 that Lesbrary reviewers have read and loved. This is nowhere near an exhaustive list of the fantastic bi and lesbian books out this year, of course! As much as we’d love to review every single sapphic book released, it’s just not possible. Let us know your favourites from this year!

Tell the Rest by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Fiction)

This is a book about the aftermath of conversion therapy camp, following a gay and lesbian character in their lives as adults and then flashing back to their time at “Celebration Camp.”

Unsurprisingly, this isn’t a light read. It feels like an open wound: Delia especially is still hurting so much and hasn’t gotten closure. Eventually, though, we do see her begin to work through it, accompanied by the glimpses of the lives of the teenage girls she’s coaching.

If you like to read character studies and quiet stories about working through trauma—and trying to lead a high school girls’ basketball team to glory, because that really is a big focus—I highly recommend this one. It’s a thoughtful, sometimes painful, but effective narrative, and it’s one that’s interesting to read after books like The Miseducation of Cameron Post, because this looks at not just the immediate horror, but the aftermath of being taught to hate yourself as a young person.

Read Danika’s full review for more.

Wild Things by Laura Kay (Fiction)

Laura Kay could teach a masterclass on the low-key, wholesome, slightly messy queer rom com. Wild Things is a friends-to-lovers romance, but also a heartwarming exploration of found family. Kay breathes life into the book’s characters, all of whom are flawed and lovable and distinctly themselves. Ray, the effortlessly cool lesbian love interest, is spunky and enters every DIY farmhouse project with infectious enthusiasm. Will is the group’s token straight man, a sensitive soul leaning hard on his friends following a breakup with the woman who was supposed to have escaped to the countryside with him. Jamie is a Thai, biracial gay man who drags his friends to karaoke nights and forges a bond with the commune’s four chickens. It is impossible not to feel the love between this motley crew of friends, who simultaneously lift each other up and call each other out on their bullshit. Even minor characters feel fully realized and essential to the plot, driving home the notion that family extends far beyond blood relations, that everyone has a place to belong. 

Recommended for fans of droll British humor, readers of In at the Deep End and Queenie, and watchers of Fleabag and Feel Good.

Read Susannah’s full review for more.

The Disenchantment by Celia Bell (Historical Fiction)

Celia Bell’s debut novel is a stunning example of queer historical fiction at its finest. 

Set in seventeenth-century Paris, The Disenchantment follows Baroness Marie Catherine, who lives in a world of luxury, entertainment, and intrigue. However, there is also an undercurrent of darkness racing through Parisian nobility: rumours of witchcraft, deliberate poisoning, and fraud abound, and the voracity of the rumour mill means no one is completely safe. Marie Catherine hides her own secrets. 

At the heart of Marie Catherine’s liberated existence beyond her husband is Victoire Rose de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti. Androgynous, bold, and seemingly fearless, Victoire and Marie Catherine are lovers, and Victoire quickly proves to be a source of joy in Marie Catherine’s life. She admires Victoire’s confidence and freedom, and as the situation becomes more and more volatile in her home, Marie Catherine knows she must escape. When a violent murder occurs involving those close to Marie Catherine, she is faced with a choice, and the one she makes leads her down a path she could never have predicted, and toward people who are committed to protecting their own interests. 

This novel felt like a mix of genres in the best way—part literary fiction, historical fiction, crime fiction, mystery, and Gothic. It kept me guessing until the very end and felt like a thoroughly original, gorgeous historical portrait. 

Read Rachel’s full review for more.

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Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni (Romance)

Taleen Voskuni’s promising sapphic debut packs more than your average meet-cute romance. Sorry, Bro follows an Armenian American woman’s quest to balance familial duty, identity, career aspirations, and, of course, love.

As Nareh grows closer to Erebuni, she is forced to confront both her ambivalence about her ancestry as well as her bisexuality, which she fears will alienate her from the Armenian family she is just starting to better understand.

Voskuni does a beautiful job developing Nareh’s and Erebuni’s slow-simmering romance, which feels simultaneously familiar and refreshing. I rooted not only for their love, but for Nareh’s growth through the book as she carves a path that both empowers her and brings her closer to her family and greater community. I fell in love with Erebuni’s motley crew of Armenian American friends, who welcome Nareh into their fold and give her a newfound sense of belonging.

Read Susannah’s full review for more.

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt (Horror)

The pull quote on the front cover of Tell Me I’m Worthless advertises it as “ambitious, brutal, and brilliant,” and I think that’s a good starting point, because it’s not a nice or neat horror book. There is a house, and it is haunted, but not by any singular ghosts. Rather, the house deals in corruption, trauma, and the little terrible voice in the back of your head, and it can’t be exorcised or rebuilt. Rumfitt shoves her characters to scrabble in the metaphorical blood and muck of their mutual trauma and asks them to deal with their own memories and the creeping rise of fascism in their lives.

Tell Me I’m Worthless stars two women, Alice and Ila, who are both dealing with the trauma of a shared event. In their past, they were a unit—best friends turned lovers, even if they didn’t really talk about their relationship. Before leaving university, they and their friend Hannah had all decided to spend the night in a haunted house. Alice and Ila walked out with conflicting memories of what happened; Hannah never walked out at all. Now, Alice has turned to drugs and alcohol to escape the ghosts she can see, and Ila has joined the TERFs in an attempt to process her memories. But the House hasn’t loosened its grip on their lives, and it’s calling them back once again.

I love the editors lately who are greenlighting queer horror that delve deeper into queer experiences and states of mind in unique ways. There’s some great work going on out there, and Tell Me I’m Worthless is going onto my rec list.

Read Maggie’s full review for more.

The Faithless (Magic of the Lost #2) by C. L. Clark (Fantasy)

I finished The Unbroken unsure if I would continue in the series: it’s a brilliant, fascinating military fantasy book that grapples with colonialism, and it absolutely wrung me out as I read it. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about the world and characters, so by the time The Faithless came out, I was eagerly anticipating it.

I ended up loving this even more than the first volume. To avoid spoilers, I’ll say that while the first book takes place on the front lines of a bloody revolution, The Faithless is more about court intrigue and political machinations—still dramatic and exciting, but a little lighter than The Unbroken.

Then, of course, there’s the will-they-won’t-they tension between Touraine and Luca. The mutual pining! I enjoyed their dynamic more in this volume, because they’re closer to a level playing field.

Also, have you seen this cover?? What sapphic could resist?

Full review to come.

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Science Fiction)

In The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older creates a cozy murder mystery in humanity’s distant future on Jupiter. This novella was a delightful, satisfying read. The action clicked along nicely, the world-building was intriguing, and Mossa and Pleiti were great characters.

Mossa, an Investigator, is summoned to the furthest reaches of the network of floating platforms humanity has created to settle Jupiter in order to investigate a disappearance. The victim is a university man, and Mossa’s initial cursory investigation can find no supporting evidence of a supposed suicide, nor why the man would come to such a distant platform in the first place.  Seeking more insight into his politics and motivations, Mossa enlists the help of Pleiti, her ex-girlfriend. Pleiti is part of a team of Classical scholars who study ecosystems and environments as part of a larger movement to eventually rehabilitate and return to Earth. Together they explore university politics, Jupiter’s largest tourist attraction, and their re-kindling romantic tension with each other.

Read Maggie’s full review for more.

Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler (Young Adult Contemporary)

This is the most bisexually structured book I’ve ever read. Natalya has to choose where to spend her summer: with her dad in NYC or with her estranged mother in LA. Oh no, forcing a bisexual to make a binary choice! But, Sliding Doors-style, we get to see the results of both: Going Bicoastal alternates chapters between NYC, where she gets to know the girl she’s been crushing on from a distance for ages, and LA, where she meets and falls for a guy at her internship.

Somehow, it felt completely natural to flip back and forth between the two, and (spoiler?) neither of them are the right choice or the wrong choice. This was surprisingly soothing to my anxious overthinker brain: whichever Natalya had picked, things would turn out okay for her. This is two YA romances in one, each with their own distinct dynamic. This is my favourite Dahlia Adler book yet, but definitely check out her others, too! And side note, you need to be following LGBTQ Reads, which is run by Dahlia Adler, because that’s how amazing she is.

This one and Imogen, Obviously both have Jewish main characters, which I’m happy to see is becoming more common in queer YA!

Full review to come.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli (Young Adult Contemporary)

This book is the epitome of the enthusiastic ally to bisexual pipeline, and Imogen as a character broke my heart.

Imogen is straight ally surrounded by queer friends and family. So when her best friend, Lilli, admits she lied to her college friends and said they used to date, it’s no big deal to go along with it. But she worries about appropriating queerness, especially when she starts to get confusing feelings for Lilli’s friend, Tessa.

Imogen is a people-pleasing overthinker who analyzes herself to death, twisting herself into knots until she loses sight of the very obvious. In a social media graphic for the book, the author describes Imogen as having queer discourse brainworms, which is a good way to put it. She tries to educate herself about queer issues, but just ends up more confused.

I loved reading this, even if being inside Imogen’s head could be a little too relatable at times. This is actually my first Becky Albertalli read, but I can now confirm the hype is justified. I highly recommend it to any queer person who once also thought they were hopelessly straight.

Read Danika’s full review for more.

Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick (Young Adult Contemporary)

This is an amnesia romance, but while that can sound like a soap opera premise—girl meets girl, girls fall in love, girl gets amnesia and forgets girl, girl tries to win her back—there’s an undercurrent of sadness here that keeps it feeling more grounded than that suggests.

There is a heartwarming romance at the heart of Forget Me Not, including that Stevie feels drawn to Nora even without her memories, and it’s adorable to watch her fall for Nora all over again. But the amnesia trope and almost-too-perfect relationship is tempered by the more serious context of the story, including Stevie’s internalized homophobia.

I meant to just read the first few chapters of this and found myself instead reading it in one day. Even though we know the answers, it was compelling to watch Stevie try to piece together what happened in the time she lost and consider whether she really needs to recover it or whether she should embrace the opportunity to start fresh.

Read Danika’s full review for more.

Out of Character by Jenna Miller (Young Adult Contemporary)

Cass is a fat, nerdy queer teenager who is obsessed with a book series and roleplays as one of the characters in an online community in order to escape from her stressful home life. It was nice to read about a main character who is so confident both in being fat and being a lesbian, especially as a teenager. There still aren’t many examples of that in media.

Even the side characters feel three dimensional, and the conflict here all comes from people having different perspectives, which are each valid. While there are a lot of elements to this story, including family as well as romance, it was the friendships that stood out to me, and how seriously they’re taken. They’re often messy and imperfect, but they’re also so important to Cass, and they can be unexpected and beautiful even when they’re messy.

I highly recommend this for nerdy queer teens and those who once were nerdy queer teens—though I’m sure lots of other readers would enjoy it, too.

Read Danika’s full review for more.

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton (Nonfiction)

This book really just had to live up to the title for me to love it, and it did.

Krista Burton used to run a blog called Effing Dykes that I followed and enjoyed, so I knew I was already a fan of her writing. In Moby Dyke, she weaves together a travelogue of lesbian bars, personal writing about her own life, and discussions about why lesbian bars keep closing.

This book has a charming, personal voice—it feels like a friend telling you a story. There are brief detours into the rest of Krista’s exploration of a city, and some glimpses into her personal life. It makes for a very readable book that somehow didn’t feel repetitive, even though each chapter is essentially the same thing: describing a new bar and recounting how patrons/owners answered her questions.

It’s interesting to get a broad look at how lesbian bars operate and how they describe themselves. Krista quickly found out that while these bars were usually owned by lesbians and were in some way lesbian bars, each of them said they “welcome everyone.” She discusses this push and pull between wanting to be inclusive and wanting to have a space just for queer people. 

I wasn’t sure if this would end up being a eulogy for lesbian bars, a document to preserve them before they all disappear forever, or whether it would be a celebration. Thankfully, it’s much more of the latter—spoiler alert: the number of lesbian bars has grown since she started writing the book!

Full review to come.

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