Discussion: Goodreads Awards 2021 & LGBT Books

Later than usually, but Goodreads finally rolled out their Choice Awards for this year. And that means it’s time for us to tell you which of the books they chose to highlight are LGBT!

This year, due to growing numbers & to give you a more accurate look, I decided to divide the books into ones where the LGBT characters are actually protagonists & ones where they’re only side characters, however relevant to the plot. You will hopefully see why that seemed like a logical move, especially in YA categories.

So take a look at what’s LGBT amongst Goodread’s choices! And if you would rather vote in a contest where it’s only LGBT books to choose from, we got you! Like every year, we’re running Reads Rainbow Awards & the voting is opened until December 7th!

Vote in Reads Rainbow Awards!

Related: Goodreads Awards & LGBT Books in 2019 and in 2020

1. Fiction

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (trans bi/pan mc, trans side character)
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (bi mc)
The Guncle by Steven Rowley (gay mc)
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin (bi mc)

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Chinese-Indonesian sapphic side characters)

2. Mystery & Thriller

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica (lesbian side character)
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (gay side characters) tw homophobic violence, racism
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (Pakistani Muslim lesbian character, sapphic side characters)
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner (gay side character)

3. Historical Fiction

The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. (Black achillean mcs, m/m relationship) tw rape
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (lesbian mc)

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (gay characters, m/m relationship)
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (lesbian characters, f/f relationship) tw lesbophobia

4. Fantasy

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (Indian inspired characters and setting, lesbian mcs) tw homophobia, gore, violence, execution by burning, forced drug use, torture, death, body horror
The Unbroken by C. L. Clark (Black lesbian mc, bi mc with physical disability due to injury, sapphic side characters, achillean side character, nonbinary side character) tw violence, gore, past attempted rape, threats of rape, torture
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan (Chinese & Mongolian cast, nonbinary lesbian mc, lesbian mc, gay mc, bi mc) tw violence
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (Vietnamese bi/pan mc, biracial Chinese bi/pan character)
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon (sapphic mc)

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (Egyptian cast & setting, lesbian mc, sapphic li) tw immolation, gore, self-mutilation
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova (gay mc)
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow (sapphic mc)
Malice by Heather Walter (lesbian mc & li) tw past & present torture, lesbophobia, past suicides, blood, drugs
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (bi/pan mc, f/f relationship)
Under the Whispering Door by T. J. Klune (bi mc, Black gay li, achillean side characters)

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid (Hungarian-coded setting & cast, sapphic side characters) tw magic requiring self harm, blood, body horror, eye horror, gore, dismemberment, torture, antisemitism, ethnic cleansing, child abuse, animal death
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (pan side character)

5. Romance

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (bi mc with anxiety, Chinese American lesbian li, Black sapphic side character, Puerto Rican American trans side character, gay Jewish side character, Black gay side character, Black pan side character) tw past homophobic violence, off page death
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (Indian American gay mc with depression, gay mc with generalised anxiety disorder, OCD & a panic disorder, Chinese American bi side character, lesbian side character, Black ace bi side character with anxiety, gay side character, Muslim pan side character, Black bi side character) tw panic attacks, biphobia, homophobia, vomitting
Neon Gods by Katee Robert (bi mcs, m/f relationship)

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling (sapphic side character)
The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon (bi Chinese American side character)
The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary (gay side character) tw alcohol abuse, drug use, attempted rape, emotional abuse
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (gay & lesbian side characters)
Shipped by Angie Hockman (lesbian side characters, gay side character) tw loss of a parent, mentions of emotional abuse, seasickness

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne (lesbian side characters)
How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams (achillean side characters) tw past abuse (inc. scenes of physical abuse), attempted rape (ch. 41), stalking, revenge porn

6. Science Fiction

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (sapphic trans mc)
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (lesbian mcs, bi side character)
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (agender mcs)
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (mostly poc cast, bi mc, gay mc, sapphic, achillean & nonbinary side characters) tw past domestic abuse, past rape, mental torture, murder
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky (lgbt cast)

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace (aroace mc)
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (lgbt side characters)

The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes (gay side character)

7. Horror

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (achillean mc, bi li, bi trans side character, achillean side character, Black gay side character) tw gore, violence, blood, f slur, internalised homophobia, implied suicide, body horror, animal death, drug use
A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson (bi mcs, m/f/f/m polyamorous relationship) tw violence, death, gore, rape mention, abusive relationship, abuse

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (sapphic side characters)

8. Humour

How Y’all Doing by Leslie Jordan (memoir; gay author)
A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris (memoir; gay author)

9. Nonfiction

Last Call by Elon Green (LGBT history)

10. Memoir & Autobiography

¡Hola Papi! by John Paul Brammer (Mexican American gay author)
Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile (lesbian author)
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (Korean American bi author)
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford (Black queer author)

12. Graphic Novels & Comics

Cheer Up by Crystal Frasier & Val Wise (half-white Latinx trans sapphic mc, lesbian mc, side nonbinary character) tw transphobia, sexual harassment, fatphobia
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Ostertag (East Asian (Korean?) lesbian mc, sapphic li) tw outing, drowning
Thirsty Mermaids by Kat Leyh (lgbt cast)
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (memoir; lesbian author)
Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall & Lisa Sterle (sapphic mcs)
The Crystal Kingdom by Clint McElroy, Carey Pietsch, Griffin McElroy, Travis McElroy & Justin McElroy (lgbt cast)

Bubble by Jordan Morris, Sarah Morgan, Tony Cliff & Natalie Riess (side pan character)
ExtraOrdinary by V.E. Schwab & Enid Balám (nonbinary character)

13. Poetry

Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans (Black queer author)
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson (nonbinary author)

14. Debut Novel

The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. (Black achillean mcs, m/m relationship) tw rape
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (trans bi/pan mc, trans side character)
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan (Chinese & Mongolian cast, nonbinary lesbian mc, lesbian mc, gay mc, bi mc) tw violence
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (Black lesbian mc, Japanese American lesbian li, sapphic side character, trans side character) tw depression, anxiety, mentions of pasts self-harm
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (mostly poc cast, bi mc, gay mc, sapphic, achillean & nonbinary side characters) tw past domestic abuse, past rape, mental torture, murder
The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade (lesbian mc) tw internalised homophobia

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (gay characters, m/m relationship)

15. Young Adult Fiction

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales (bi girl mc, trans side character, Vietnamese American lesbian side character, bi side character, gay side character, pan nonbinary side character) tw biphobia, internalised biphobia, toxic parents, drugs, alcohol, vomiting
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Chinese American lesbian mc, lesbian li, lesbian side characters)
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar (Bangladeshi Bengali Muslim Irish bi mc, Indian Bengali Irish sapphic mc) tw biphobia, racial microaggressions
You Have a Match by Emma Lord (sapphic mc, Filipino American sapphic side character)
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké Íyímídé (Black lesbian mc, bi li, Black gay mc, Black gay li) tw outing, homophobia, hit and run, homophobic violence, racism, past attempted suicide

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen (lesbian mc, lesbian Indian American li)
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe (bi mc, bi/pan li with endometriosis) tw child abuse, domestic abuse, violence, threats of rape, implied torture, implied child sexual abuse
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Mexican American gay mc & li)

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (bi female side character)
Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan (bi female side character, sapphic side character)
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (gay side character)
The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (side f/f relationship)
The Cousins by Karen M. McManus (gay side character)

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson (gay side characters)
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon (gay side characters)

16. Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Chinese-coded cast & setting, bi mcs) tw gore, murder, torture, mentions of rape, threats of rape, misogyny, femicide, suicide ideation, abuse, alcohol addiction
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong (Chinese trans mc, gay mc, Korean gay mc) tw torture, gore, violence, murder (including mass murder), parental abuse, war themes
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland (bi mc, lesbian mc) tw gore, body horror, past suicide, compulsion, sexual assault
Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare (bi mc, lesbian mc, gay mcs)
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (bi mc)
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (gay mc, achillean mc, sapphic mc, sapphic side character)

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna (sapphic side relationship, trans side characters)
A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer (gay side characters)
Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin (lgbt side characters)
Lore by Alexandra Bracken (gay side character)
Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard (lgbt side characters)

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal (sapphic side character)
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan (sapphic side characters)
Namesake by Adrienne Young (side m/m relationship)

17. Middle Grade & Children’s

Beasts & Beauty by Soman Chainani (gay mcs) tw blood, gore, racism/racial trauma, emotional abuse, implied rape, implied child trafficking

Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi (bi side character)

Let’s start with some rules & numbers. Goodreads actually changed their categories slightly since last year, and by that I mean they deleted three of them: Science & Technology, Food & Cookbooks, and Picture Books. That leaves us with 17 categories. There are 20 books nominated in each category, not 15 like in previous years. And, of course, a few are nominated in more than one category, but let’s just say that there are 340 nominees.

Now for our part! And this is a purely statistical information, but also can shine some light on everything. Between January and October 2021 (so not even counting the sixteen days of November and November & December of Last year, which are also eligible for Goodreads’ Choice Awards), over 1400 LGBT books were published. That we know of, so it might actually still be a higher number.

There are 102 LGBT books nominated in Goodreads’ Choice Awards this year. If we exclude the following four nonfiction categories from that group: Humour (2), Nonfiction (1), Memoir & Autobiography (4), and Poetry (2), it leaves us with 93 fiction books. And those, just for fun, we can divide further, into rep among the main characters & side characters. The numbers are: 56 books with main cast LGBT rep and 37 books where it’s only side characters.

I didn’t divide the books like that in my previous posts, so it’s not possible to draw any conclusions just yet. But still, that giant number – 102! almost 1/3 of all the nominees! – is somewhat deceptive after all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see normalisation of LGBT folks in books, and that means us being background characters, but at the same time it’s hard to call something representation when a character is there for a few pages.

There are a lot of categories where the numbers simply don’t change over the years. We see a few books in them, while we know for a fact there are countless more being published. Mystery & Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Horror are only a few of those. It’s not that LGBT books in those genres aren’t written, it’s just that Goodreads seems to overlook them year after year.

Brights sides of all this are clearly that there are categories which are growing with each year, getting more & more diverse! Adult fantasy, of course, always one of the most popular, went from 8 books last year (and 6 the year before) to 13. Even more spectacularly, adult romance went tripled in size: from 3 last year to 10.

It’s the two YA categories that give me the most hope, though. Just two years ago we had 2 books in fiction & 4 in SFF; last year it was 6 & 6. And this year we’re at 15 and 14! (Keep in mind, there are 20 nominees per category total.) Granted, in both categories only about half of the books offers LGBT rep in the main cast, but those are still amazing numbers.

On the other hand, the Middle Grade & Children’s category went from 6 books last year to barely 2 (and one only has a side character). Not to mention they scratched Picture Books category completely.

Out of 20 books in Nonfiction category only 1 deals with LGBT topics (and it’s a history book about a serial killer of gay men) and in History & Biography it’s a grand total of zero books, as if there was no LGBT history in this world to write about. And the numbers in those categories didn’t actually change much in the three editions of Goodreads’ Awards that we keep track of – it’s never more than one book. Not a good look, if I do say so myself.

We know how Goodreads selects its nominees—or, we don’t, really, since they never tell us in detail. You might think that it’s a numbers game, at least until you actually see some of these books’ numbers. It is, to put it bluntly, a rigged game (see this thread for more analysis). So what can we conclude here? That publishers are starting to put more effort into promoting and marketing LGBT books? That can only be good news. But we can still clearly see the categories they’re focusing on: SFF, YA, and romance. Compare the growth in these categories with the growth in others, and perhaps here we stumble upon a problem.

If you compare these stats to our releases posts separated by genre, this is probably unsurprising. The vast majority of releases are contemporary and fantasy. This is, clearly, not to say other genres aren’t being written, but the growth of LGBT representation in those genres seems, at least from our perspective, to be less. Which ties us nicely back into these choice awards: more books, better marketed books, seem to be driving these increases. So we can only hope other genres will soon follow suit.

In any case, read more LGBT books, vote in our 100% LGBT Reads Rainbow Awards, and if you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting me on ko-fi.