Book Releases: 2019 LGBT YA Books

If you follow our blog and/or twitter accounts, you’re probably aware I’m (Anna) a big fan of YA books. So it was always just a matter of time before I made for you guys a compilation post like this, to highlight the books I enjoy reading the most…

For this list, I decided to mark if a book is a part of an ongoing series, just so you know you have some catching up to do before you can read it. Per tradition, I also listed trigger warnings whenever I knew about them. If there’s something else you think I should add, please let me know!

And of course, books by LGBT authors – to the best of my knowledge – are marked with a 🌈 emoji! Once again, please correct me if I’m wrong.

So dive in! There are over 160 books on this list, you’re bound to find something for yourself!

See also: LGBT YA books of 2021 and more

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (m/m relationship, Filipino-Spanish bi mc, Haitian-French mlm mc) [Charlotte’s review]
🌈 Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig (bi mc, gay & nonbinary characters)
Firestarter (Timekeeper #3) by Tara Sim (m/m, bi mc, gay li) tw torture, violence, deaths
🌈 Song of the Dead (Reign of the Fallen #2) by Sarah Glenn Marsh (m/m relationship, f/f relationships, bi mcs)
Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon (bi mc, m/m relationship)
The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan (f/f relationship) tw death of a gay character

🌈 Cub by Paul Coccia (m/m relationship)
🌈 Lock & West by Alexander C Eberhart (m/m relationship, half-Black gay mc with anxiety, gay mc with PTSD & eating disorder)
🌈 The Poison Within by Rachel Marie Pearcy (f/f relationship)
All the Lonely People by David Owen (f/f relationship)
🌈 What Makes You Beautiful by Bridget Liang (trans mc, side m/m relationship, side trans character)
🌈 Prom Kings by Tony Correia (m/m relationship)

Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto (pan mc, m/m relationship)
Bloom by Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau (m/m relationship, Greek mlm mc, Samoan-American mlm li, Black mlm side character) [review]
🌈 The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson (gay mc, trans li)
The Afterward by E.K. Johnston (f/f relationship, Black bi mc, poc lesbian mc, trans side character)
🌈 We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia (f/f relationship, Latinx-inspired cast, sapphic mc, lesbian li)
Chicken Girl by Heather Smith (trans side character, gay side character) tw rape

🌈 Robbergirl by S. T. Gibson (f/f relationship, bi mc, lesbian mc)
🌈 The Darkest Bloom by P. M. Freestone (bi mc)
🌈 Highway Bodies by Alison Evans (bi mc, nonbinary bi mc, trans sapphic mc, lgbt side characters)
🌈 The Fever King by Victoria Lee (m/m relationship, bi Jewish mc, gay li)
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Modern Romance by Madeline J. Reynolds (m/m relationship, bi mc, gay mc)
🌈 Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve (genderqueer mc, Turkish lesbian mc)

🌈 The Last 8 by Laura Pohl (bi mc with PTSD and depression, f/f relationship)
You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman (m/m relationship, bi Jewish mc, gay Muslim li, Korean-American lesbian side character)
Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution (Fat Angie #2) by E.E. Charlton-Trujillo (f/f relationship)
🌈 Proud – anthology ed. by Juno Dawson (lgbt characters)
All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins (bi mc)
🌈 The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown (f/f relationship, lesbian mc, Black biracial bi li with depression/anxiety/PTSD, Black gay side character, bi side character)

Kiss Number Eight by Colleen A. F. Venable & Ellen T. Crenshaw (f/f relationship, bi mc) tw transphobia, homophobia, forced outing
Squad by Mariah MacCarthy (m/f, bi female mc, trans li)
🌈 The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum (lesbian mc, mixed-race Black lesbian li, side m/m relationship, side interracial polyam relationship)
🌈 Small Town Hearts by Lillie Vale (bi mc)
Never-Contented Things by Sarah Porter (Black bi/pan mc, pan gnc mc, bi/pan nonbinary mc) tw foster brother/sister incest, codependency, parental neglect, emotional abuse, sexual assault, on-page death, body horror, mentions of suicide
🌈 Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy (brown pan mc, gay mc)

Related: Our interview with K. Ancrum & her guest post about found family

The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James (bi mc, bi side character, trans side character)
🌈 From Breath and Ruin by Carrie Ann Ryan (bi mc)
🌈 The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman (two bi mcs, lgbt side characters)
🌈 The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston (f/f relationship)
The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu (m/m relationship)
🌈 I Knew Him by Abigail de Niverville (bi mc, gay mixed-race Filipino li, lesbian side character, gay side characters) [review]

The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown (f/f relationship) tw grief, death of a parent, death of a loved one
🌈 Starworld by Audrey Coulthurst & Paula Garner (sapphic mc)
🌈 Earth to Charlie by Justin Olson (m/m relationship)
The Exalted (Alskad Empire Chronicles #2) by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson (gay mc)
How Not to Ask a Boy to Prom by S. J. Goslee (adopted gay mc, bi Jewish li, poc lesbian side character)
You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno (trans li, bi character)

🌈 Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan (f/f relationship)
🌈 King of Fools (The Shadow Game #2) by Amanda Foody (bi male mc) tw gunshots, violence, murder, addiction, mind manipulation
🌈 The Backstagers, Vol. 3 by James Tynion IV (m/m relationship)
🌈 Belly Up by Eva Darrows (bi/questioning mc, trans side character)
🌈 Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju (biracial Sri Lankan lesbian mc)
🌈 Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley (m/m relationship, bi mc)

🌈 Keep This To Yourself by Tom Ryan (gay mc, biracial Black gay li) [Charlotte’s review]
How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox (sapphic mc) tw sexual assault, depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, dissociation, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, death of a parent, reference to physical parental abuse
Castle of Lies by Kiersi Burkhart (bi mc, nonbinary mc) tw mentions and threats of rape, violence, incest (cousins)
🌈 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (half-East Asian lesbian mc, lesbian li, poc gay character, Black gay character, Black sapphic characters, lesbian character) tw unwanted pregnany, abortion, cheating, emotional abuse, homophobia
🌈 Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins (f/f relationship, bi mc, lesbian li)
Everything Grows by Aimee Herman (lesbian mc discovering gender identity)

Tinfoil Crown by Erin Jones (bi mc)
🌈 I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver (nonbinary mc with anxiety & depression, Black bi li, Bahraini pan nonbinary Muslim side chacater) [our reviews]
🌈 Last Bus to Everland by Sophie Cameron (gay mc, gay li, gay, pan & lesbian side characters) [Charlotte’s review]
🌈 The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta (Filipino lesbian with chronic pain mc, nonbinary mc, Black bi mc, sapphic mc)
The Pursuit of Miss Heartbreak Hotel by Moe Bonneau (f/f relationship)
🌈 Missing, Presumed Dead by Emma Berquist (f/f relationship, bi mc)

Related: Our interview with Sophie Cameron

🌈 Going Off-Script by Jen Wilde (lesbian mc, Indian lesbian li)
🌈 Hold my Hand (One Man Guy #2) by Michael Barakiva (gay Armenian mc, gay li) tw cheating
🌈 The Queen of Rhodia (Tales of Inthya #3) by Effie Calvin (f/f relationship, pan-normative world)
🌈 These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling (lesbian mc, bi li, sapphic side character, trans side character)
🌈 Netminder (Codename: Winger #4) by Jeff Adams (mlm mc)
🌈 The Wise and the Wicked by Rebecca Podos (trans li, lesbian side characters)

🌈 Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno (Cuban-American bi mc, mlm and wlw side characters)
Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan (sapphic mc)
This Time Will be Different by Misa Sugiura (bi li, lesbian side characters) tw racism, homophobia, sexism, abortion
Wild and Crooked by Leah Thomas (lesbian mc, pan mc)
🌈 Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian (Iranian gay mc, gay mc, gay characters)
🌈 An Impossible Distance to Fall by Miriam McNamara (f/f relationship)

Related: Our interview with Abdi Nazemian

All Eyes on Us by Kit Frick (lesbian mc, lesbian Latina li, gay side characters) tw conversion therapy [Charlotte’s review]
🌈 The Confusion of Laurel Graham by Adrienne Kisner (f/f relationship)
🌈 Alex in Wonderland by Simon James Green (gay mc)
Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi (f/f relationship, Mexican Jewish lesbian mc, Muslim lesbian li)
The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante (f/f relationship, Salvadoran mc) tw attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression, homophobia, xenophobia
Something Like Gravity by Amber Smith (trans mc)

Technically You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson (bi li)
🌈 Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories – anthology ed. by Michael Earp (lgbt characters)
Where I End and You Begin by Preston Norton (bi/pan mc)
🌈 Destroy All Monsters by Sam J. Miller (gay mc)
The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson (sapphic side character)
🌈 Wilder Girls by Rory Power (bi mc, sapphic li, sapphic side characters) tw body horror, gore, suicide of a side character (on page), implied torture [Charlotte’s review]

Me Myself & Him by Chris Tebbetts (gay mc)
The Boy and Girl Who Broke The World by Amy Reed (lesbian mc)
🌈 Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells (bi mc, sapphic li, side sapphic characters)
🌈 The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen (bi li, gay side character)
🌈 The Black Veins by Ashia Monet (bi Black female mc, Puerto Rican queer mc, trans ace mc, bi Black male mc)
Becoming Dinah by Kit de Waal (sapphic mc)

The Rise of Kyoshi by F. C. Yee (f/f relationship, bi mc)
🌈 Monuments by Will Kostakis (Greek-Australian gay mc, poc gay li)
🌈 All The Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (lesbian mc, sapphic li, biracial Black bi side character)
🌈 Swipe Right for Murder by Derek Milman (m/m relationship)
🌈 Golden Like Summer by Gene Gant (m/m relationship)
🌈 Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon (gay mc, Native American gay li) tw homophobia, racism

🌈 The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (mixed-race Black gay mc)
🌈 The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart by R. Zamora Linmark (m/m relationship)
🌈 Of Ice and Shadows (Of Fire and Stars #2) by Audrey Coulthurst (f/f relationship)
Letting Go by Cat Clarke (lesbian mc, f/f relationship, bi side character)
Love Under Glasse by Kristina Meister (lesbian mc, Mexican-American lesbian mc) tw homophobia, abuse, violence, blood, attempted rape, attempted sexual assault, brief forced institutionalization
These Divided Shores (Stream Raiders #2) by Sara Raasch (gay mc, bi li, wlw side characters) tw torture, child abuse, death & murder

#Murderfunding (MurderTrending #2) by Gretchen McNeil (sapphic mc, sapphic parents, gay side character)
🌈 Keep Faith – anthology ed. by Gabriela Martins (lgbt characters)
The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos (trans li) tw racism, homophobia, transphobia, mass shooting, sexual assault, animal death
The Songbird’s Refrain by Jillian Maria (lesbian mc, bi li) [review]
🌈 Red Skies Falling (Skybound #2) by Alex London (m/m relationship)
🌈 The Avant-Guards by Carly Usdin & Noah Hayes (Black sapphic mc with panic attacks, Black sapphic li, Black sapphic trans side character, Black nonbinary side character)

Related: our interview with Gabriela Martins

🌈 How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters (Black gay mc, Korean-American gay li)
Nemesis (Circuit Fae #4) by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge (f/f relationship)
🌈 Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer (sapphic mc, side f/f interracial relationship, trans side character)
🌈 Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Black trans mc)
🌈 The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus (Black lesbian mc, Trinidadian lesbian mc, sapphic side characters) tw homophobia, child abuse [Charlotte’s review]
The Stone Rainbow by Liane Shaw (gay mc, m/m relationship)

Related: our interview with Julian Winters

Every Witch Way by Dakota Chase (f/f relationship)
🌈 It’s a Whole Spiel – anthology ed. by Katherine Locke & Laura Silverman (lgbt characters)
The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Romani sapphic mc) tw murder, violence, implied sexual harrassment, attempted sexual assault
🌈 The Other F Word – anthology ed. by Angie Manfredi (lgbt characters)
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell (bi mc with depression, gay li)
Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger (biracial Latinx bi/pan mc with OCD, anxiety & depression) [Charlotte’s review]

The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen (mlm mc, gay li with depression) [review]
A Dream So Dark (The Nightmare-Verse #2) by L. L. McKinney (Black bi mc)
Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall (f/f relationship, bi mc, Black lesbian side character)
🌈 His Hideous Heart – anthology ed. by Dahlia Adler (lgbt characters)
Rated by Melissa Grey (f/f relationship, m/m relationship)
🌈 Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden (f/f relationship, lesbian mcs) tw rape

🌈 Crier’s War by Nina Varela (f/f relationship, lesbian mc, bi mc) [review]
🌈 Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard (m/m relationship) tw suicide
The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake (bi/pan mc, gay side character)
I Am Water by Meg Specksgoor (nonbinary mc, genderfluid character)
🌈 The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis (side f/f relationship) tw sexual assault, gun violence, suicide
🌈 The Athena Protocol by Shamim Sarif (lesbian mc) tw human trafficking, rape mentions

Related: our interview with Nina Varela

🌈 Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry (lesbian mcs, f/f relationship, trans side character, gay side character) tw homophobia (from family, slurs, telling them they’re disgusting/going to hell), conversion therapy (aversion therapy with freezing water, later electroshock therapy), transphobia, suicide attempt [Charlotte’s review]
🌈 By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery (Black gay mc, Afro-Latino bi li) [review]
🌈 The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco (lesbian mc, sapphic mc with ptsd)
Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor (lesbian mc)
🌈 Monster of the Week (The Rules #2) by F. T. Lukens (bi mc with anxiety, Latino [half-Puerto Rican] gay li, sapphic side character) tw panic attacks, absent parent, homophobia [review]
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu (bi/pan Chinese-American mc using a hearing-aid, nonbinary Chinese-American li, side interracial f/f relationship)

🌈 Most Ardently by Susan Mesler-Evans (Latina bi mc, Black lesbian li, trans and nonbinary minor characters) tw statutory rape, mentions of domestic abuse [Charlotte’s review]
🌈 I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi (gay mc, Muslim lesbian character)
🌈 Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett (Black bi mc)
🌈 All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell (f/f relationship, pan mc) tw rape, abuse
🌈 I’m A Gay Wizard by V. S. Santori (m/m relationship, gay mc, trans character, mlm character)
Boy Meets Ghoul (Boy Meets Hamster #2) by Birdie Milano (gay mc)

Resurrection Girls by Ava Morgyn (bi mc)
Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo (f/f relationship)
🌈 Girls of Storm and Shadow (Girls of Paper and Fire #2) by Natasha Ngan (f/f relationship, side m/m relationship) tw mentions of past sexual assault and rape, gore, violence [Charlotte’s review]
🌈 Ghosting You by Alexander C. Eberhart (m/m relationship)
Practically Ever After (Ever After #3) by Isabel Bandeira (f/f relationship)
🌈 Color Outside the Lines – anthology ed. by Sangu Mandanna (f/f relationship, bi mc, m/m relationship stories)

🌈 Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz (Jewish bi mc with Gaucher disease)
Sins of the Sea by Laila Winters (m/f, bi mc, side f/f relationship, side gay character)
🌈 From Flame and Ash (Elements of Five #2) by Carrie Ann Ryan (bi mc)
Pax Novis by Erica Cameron (nonbinary mc, sapphic parents)
🌈 Runemaker (The Runebinder Chronicles #3) by Alex R. Kahler (gay mc, m/m relationship)
🌈 Reverie by Ryan La Sala (gay mc, m/m relationship)

🌈 Say Her Name by Stefani Deoul (A Sid Rubin Silicon Alley Adventure #3) (f/f relationship)
🌈 The Relic Spell by Jimena I. Novaro (Argentine-Japanese American bi mc, nonbinary side character) [review]
🌈 The Gay Girl’s Guide to Ruining Prom by Siera Maley (lesbian mc & li, bi side characters) tw homophobia, mc gets kicked out by parents
🌈 The Empress of Xytae (Tales of Inthya #4) by Effie Calvin (f/f relationship, pan-normative world)
There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool (mlm mc, brief side m/m relationship, largely poc cast) tw physical & emotional abuse, past trauma, violence, murder, blood, burnings
Cold Falling White (The Nahx Invasions #2) by Gabrielle S. Prendergast (bi mc, m/m relationship, side f/f relationship)

Have you found anything on this that you didn’t previously know about?

What were your favourite YA books that came out last year?

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