May is AAPI Heritage Month, but it’s always a great time to diversify your reading. Here are 10 novels ranging across young adult, fantasy, and contemporary romance with sapphic representation. From Bengali Muslim families to Chinese American characters in historical fiction, these are just a few examples of rich and vibrant stories across the Asian American diaspora.
The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
This contemporary young adult novel follows 17-year-old Rukhsana Ali as she navigates finding her identity between her parents’ conservative Muslim upbringing and who she is at school. When her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, it brings Rukhsana’s world crumbling. In her Bengali community, queerness is a social death sentence. Rukhsana gets rushed off to Bangladesh for an arranged marriage and thrown into her family’s traditions. She must find the courage to fight for her life and her love, without losing everything.
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Shizuka Satomi makes a deal with the devil, and to escape her damnation, she must convince seven violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. Her final target, a young, transgender runaway named Katrina Nguyen, catches her ear with her incredible playing. But when Shizuka meets Lan Tran, a retired starship captain and mother of four, at a donut shop in the San Gabriel Valley, a chance at love changes everything. The lives of these three women become entangled, creating a story of magic, curses, hope, and finding a family that’s worth the risk.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
As she comes of age in pre-Code Hollywood, the beautiful and talented Luli Wei understands how dangerous and limiting the movie industry is for Chinese American girls like her. But she’s determined to see her dreams come true and escape her small town, no matter what it takes. It comes at a cost, though, as the studios want to own her name, her face, and even the women she loves. To survive the bargain system made in blood and ancient magic, and earn her fame, she may have to become the monster herself.
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, Illustrated by Wendy Xu
Nova Huang works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, helping them loan out spell books and investigate supernatural mysteries in their New England town. One night, the teen witch follows the clues of a white wolf into the nearby woods, where she comes across her childhood crush, Tam Lang, in battle with a horse demon. Living as a werewolf, Tam has never been able to find a place to call home. Now on the run from dark forces that want to take their magic, they turn to Nova for help. Along the way, feelings long dormant come back to life amid a setting of occult rituals, witchcraft, and family ties.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malindo Lo
Amid America’s Red Scare in 1954, 17-year-old Lily Hu and Kathleen Miller risk it all as they meet at a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club in Chinatown. Nothing about their situation is safe as they face racist paranoia surrounding Chinese Americans and the threat of deportation for Lily’s father. But when love is on the line, they decide to take the chance and fight to see the light of day.
Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin
Seri is the assistant to Eshai Unbroken, a young valor commander with a legendary reputation. She’s seen firsthand the struggle of fighting and keeping the beasts away from their world to ensure the safety of the People and their homes. She has watched explorers kill these animals and gain strength from the armor made from them. This is how it’s always been, but one day, Seri comes in contact with Tsana, a stranger from the unknown world who can communicate with the beasts. With this new knowledge, Seri begins to doubt everything she’s been taught. She and Tsana grow closer, creating friction between their worlds, but it could be the way to peace.
Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu
Lucky and her gay husband have an arrangement that is not ideal, but it works. On the surface, they present a happy heterosexual marriage to their conservative Sri Lankan American families. Behind the scenes, they each date on the side. It all works until one day, when Lucky’s grandmother falls, and she has to return to her childhood home. She reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who happens to be arranging her own wedding for a man she’s never met. As their connection rekindles, Lucky tries to convince Nisha not to take the same route as her and enter a marriage of lies. Exploring the complex intersections of race, sexuality, and nationality, Lucky and Nisha find themselves grappling with who they really want to be without losing the love of their friends and families.
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
Broke and closeted Jessamyn Teoh moves back to Malaysia, a home she left as a toddler. When she starts hearing voices, she thinks it’s stress, but one voice claims to be the ghost of her estranged grandmother, Ah Ma. Her grandmother had been known as a spirit medium, the avatar of the mysterious deity, Black Water Sister. In death, Ah Ma wants to settle the score with a gang boss who offended the god, and Jess will help her do it. Thrown into a world of ghosts, gods, and family secrets, Jess must fight for both retribution and to regain control of her body. If not, the Black Water Sister might end her life.
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
Fiona Lin and Jane Shen, best friends since second grade, embark on a journey through the freeways and dive bars of Los Angeles as they come of age. Together, they have survived unfulfilling romance and the trauma of toxic families. When Fiona moves to New York to take care of a sick friend and get over her breakup with an opportunistic boyfriend, Jane stays behind in California, grieving the sudden passing of her estranged father. The strain of distance and miscommunications leads the two women to come and go from each other’s lives. The story paints a portrait of the intimacy of female friendships, insecurities, shame, resentment, and somehow finding boundless love.
Don’t Tell My Mother by Brigitte Bautista
Guided by her overzealous mother, 19-year-old Sam has never found it hard to navigate her Christian suburban town. But when she befriends her widowed neighbor, Clara, the village’s social outcast, it all changes. As their friendship grows “unnatural,” Sam must interrogate her home life and her upbringing, and decide who she really is.
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