Best gay novels 2024

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Sixteen years later, the evil of that summer is back in the world—and only those seven survivors can stop it.

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Happy Pride Month, readers!

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Director’s Cut by Carlyn Greenwald

In this contemporary sapphic romance, actress Valeria recovers from her failed shift to film director by shifting into teaching and surprisingly hits it off with her co-professor, Maeve.

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Please Stop Trying to Leave Me by Alana Saab

The lines between fiction and reality blur in this novel about a writer who starts to question everything when therapy sessions reveal the connections between her manuscript and her real life.

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I’ll Have What He’s Having by Adib Khorram

A one-night stand becomes so much more in this contemporary romance where sommelier David agrees to help substitute teacher Farzan with the family bistro he’s just inherited.

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House of Frank by Kay Synclaire

In this fantasy novel about found family and healing, a witch who lost her powers after the death of her sister takes a job as an estate caretaker and begins to find herself again after being lost to grief.

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The Woman in the Garden by Jill Johnson

A Botanical Toxicology is reluctantly drawn into a criminal case after a man is killed by the poison from a plant toxin that seems to have come from her recently vandalized garden.

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Prince of the Palisades by Julian Winters

YA readers craving a royal romance should dive into this novel following Prince Jadon, who is sent to America to clean up his image after a viral break-up and falls for a private school classmate.

What’s the last queer book you read and loved?

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Stuff Your Shelves

Tags:Adib Khorram, Aiden Thomas, Alana Saab, Alex Espinoza, Alicia Jasinska, Aliette de Bodard, Amanda Lee Koe, Andrew Joseph White, August Clarke, Carlyn Greenwald, Fiction, Freya Marske, Georgia K.

Boone, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Jill Johnson, Julian Winters, Kay Synclaire, Kwei Quartey, Lev AC Rosen, LGBTQ+, Mystery, Pride Month, Recommended Reading, Riley August, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Vincent Tirado, Young Adult

Kelly Gallucci

Kelly Gallucci (Manager, Community Success at NetGalley), oversees the editorial content of We Are Bookish, where she offers book recommendations and interviews authors and NetGalley members.

As 24-year-old Midwesterner Gordon gets more involved in Phillip and Nicola’s lives, he learns just how far his ambition and capacity for manipulation really stretch.

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It’s 1984 when high schooler Mel meets Sylvia, a tough, brash trans woman whose unselfconsciousness unlocks something within Mel.

Over 30 years later, trans man Max—formerly Mel—finds himself back in his hometown following a professional setback and is forced to reckon with the consequences of that teenage summer.

In the first novel by The Third Rainbow Girl author Eisenberg, two queer housemates—Bernie and Leah—embark upon a road trip to fulfill a late professor’s complicated legacy.

In Yuszczuk’s feminist gothic fantasia, a 19th-century vampire and a modern-day woman encounter one another in a Buenos Aires cemetery, and their meeting ignites a fire between the two.

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When an American reporter calls her asking questions about a fraught chapter from her past, Tatum’s happy life in Chile with her partner Vera gets thrown into limbo.

Enter Dylan and Lark, a startlingly attractive queer couple who offer to rent the house’s outbuilding and help with repairs on the property. Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that her debut essay collection exhibits the same arresting immediacy and mordant wit as her movies—and her pull-no-punches perspective is just as much of a treat as ever

The author of the grisly post-apocalyptic romp Manhunt is back with a second novel that promises to be just as deliciously nightmare-inducing as her first.

As Akúa desperately seeks connection with Tamika, she instead finds it in a Kingston stripper named Jayda, prompting Akúa to reckon with what it means to be both gay and Jamaican.

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Haters may say that it’s unrealistic for two of a fictional family’s three siblings to be gay—to which it would be fair to respond by chucking a Tegan and Sara CD at that hater’s head.

The reporter wants to interview Tatum about M. Domínguez, a famous author recently accused of assault—and the man around whom Tatum’s entire life once orbited. When she's not working, Kelly can be found color coordinating her bookshelves, eating Chipotle, and watching way too many baking shows.

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Her fraught days in New York with M.

Domínguez are long behind her. Villarreal-Moura’s “emotionally astute novel offers a moving perspective on the different kinds of victims abusers leave in their wake. Suddenly, Tatum finds herself reckoning with the consequences of a murky relationship she thought she’d long buried.

There’s nothing messier or more painful than trying to redefine your place in the local queer community after a devastating breakup… except for maybe trying to do exactly that amidst a mysterious zombie outbreak.

If you like your lesbian fiction campy and maximalist, look no further for your perfect summer read.

A broke gay dog walker gets swept up in a wealthy couple’s orbit in this clever, lush novel from the author of 2021’s The Recent East. When she meets her match in Catherine and Katrina, Helen is quickly subsumed into an intense three-way relationship that leads her to confront a long-repressed childhood tragedy.

In this collection of short stories, teenagers and young adults fall in and out of love as they congregate in nightclubs, on college campuses, and on the roofs of clocktowers.

Split between Daniel’s burgeoning romance with a classmate during his first year at school and a summer spent unearthing family secrets at his grandfather’s home in Chihuahua, Mexico, How We Named the Stars is a sweet, sensitive coming-of-age tale.

In the wake of their little brother’s death, twenty-year-old Canadian Akúa decides to visit her estranged sister Tamika in their native Jamaica—a visit that only highlights Akúa’s alienation from her home culture.

In Reilly’s delightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, the titular Greta and Valdin are the queer sibling duo of your dreams, supporting each other through career crises, heartbreaks, and family drama.

If it’s a sapphic twist on the paranormal you’re looking for, vampires are always a safe bet. Join us in celebrating, and dive in!

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The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza

Alex Espinoza’s generational novel follows a family of luchadores, alternating between Ernesto’s rise to fame in Mexico, his son’s desire for community in LA, and his grandson’s exploration of the dark side of West Hollywood.

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We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado

In this suspenseful novel, Sol and her wife Alice move into the gated community of their dreams, but the reality turns out to be a nightmare as Sol discovers the journal of a missing resident.

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Swordcrossed by Freya Marske

This book has low stakes, high heat, and a bodyguard romance—what more could you ask for?

As Tatum grapples with difficult truths in the present, the second timeline, told through a letter Tatum writes to Domínguez, takes us back to the decade she spent in New York City and the complex, destructive relationship she had with the famed author.

13 New Queer Novels We Can’t Wait to Read in 2024

Like Happiness is a stunning coming-of-age debut novel that delves into gender, sexual orientation, racial identity, and the charged power dynamics of fame.

In an instant, Tatum’s former life comes flashing back, along with a series of pointed questions: What really happened between her and Domínguez all those years ago? But she quickly finds herself drawn in by the idealistic, decadent community she initially set out to scam.

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As the filmmaker behind instant queer classics Appropriate Behavior and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Akhavan has already proven her skill at telling stories that resonate with her community.

These 20 books are just a small sampling of the great work available—meaning you can read these recs and more all year long. We believe there’s no better way to celebrate than by reading books that explore queer identity across all of our favorite genres. In the summer of 1995, seven queer teenagers survived unspeakable supernatural horrors at a remote conversion camp.

But as Rosie becomes increasingly drawn to the new tenants, cracks begin to surface in her and Jordan’s marriage.

Years after leaving the city behind, trans woman Jhanvi returns to San Francisco with a very specific mission: to financially exploit her situationship Henry’s wealthy techie friend circle.

Freya Marske returns with a tale of a con artist hired to serve an heir during his arranged marriage.

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This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska

This YA fantasy features a polyamorous romance between Gisela, a water nymph seeking a kiss from a mortal; Kazik, a spirit hunter attempting to exorcise her; and the man they both fall for.

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Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard

Take a journey to the stars in this space opera, where Việt Nhi and Hạc Cúc—members of rival clans—must reluctantly learn to work together to contain a dangerous creature loose in space.

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Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Sixteen years after being sent to conversion camp as kids, seven survivors come together to put an end to the evil buried in the desert around Camp Resolution and save the world.

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Rough Pages by Lev AC Rosen

Set in 1950s San Francisco, this mystery features Private Detective Evander “Andy” Mills, who is searching for a missing person and an address book including a secret list of queer readers.

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I’ll Be Gone for Christmas by Georgia K.

Boone

If you’ve been dreaming of a queer rom-com inspired by The Holiday, your Christmas wish is coming true this fall when Bee Tyler and Clover Mills swap houses and find love along the way!

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Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

In this YA duology closer, three semidioses must contend against gods released from their prisons and monsters in order to find the Sol Stone and return the sun to the sky.

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The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August

Scout is an Archivist of dead worlds, and when they discover a message from an alien witness to the end of a world, it sends them, their brother, and their cat on a mission to save their home.

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Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe

Readers looking for a retelling this winter won’t want to miss Amanda Lee Koe’s reimagining of the Chinese folktale “The Legend of the White Snake” into a novel about secrets and sisterhood.

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The Whitewashed Tombs by Kwei Quartey

This mystery transports readers to Ghana and draws from real life as an anti-gay bill results in the death of a queer activist.

best gay novels 2024