Discussion: Goodreads Awards 2022 & LGBT Books

The Goodreads Choice Awards are back and so is this post! Anna being busy this afternoon, I’ve taken over writing it. Which will explain the discussion part of this at least… As with last year’s post, the books are sorted into those which have LGBT main characters and side characters alone. Particularly with side characters, it’s possible we have missed a few.

And, if you’re looking out for our awards, don’t worry if you don’t see them for a while yet! We’re working on a little something…

Related: Goodreads Awards & LGBT Books in 2019, in 2020 and in 2021.

1. Fiction

True Biz by Sara Nović (f/f relationship)
The Winners by Fredrik Backman (gay mc)
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (gay mcs)
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González (achillean mc)
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley (f/f relationship)
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan (trans mc, f/f parents)

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz (gay side character)
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (side; gay best friend)
Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult (lesbian side character)
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (sapphic character)

2. Mystery & Thriller

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanne Raybourn (sapphic mc)
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (gay mc)

3. Historical Fiction

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (gay mc)
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (lesbian mc)

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (lesbian side character)

4. Fantasy

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake (bi mcs)
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean (lesbian mc)
Babel by R. F. Kuang (gay mc)
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (sapphic mc)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (f/f relationship)

The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin (lesbian mc, gay mc, trans side character)
The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout (bi mc)
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (ace mc)
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik (bi mc)
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (bi mc, f/f relationship, nonbinary character)

The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson (genderfluid side character)
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (side m/m & f/f relationships)
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (nonbinary side character)

5. Romance

Electric Idol by Katee Robert (bi/pan mcs)
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (bi mc, lesbian mc, f/f relationship)
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (bi mcs)
The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling (bi mc)

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (side f/f relationship)
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman (gay side character)

6. Science Fiction

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang (nonbinary mc)
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (lesbian mcs)
Leech by Hiron Ennes (nonbinary mc, genderfluid side characters)
Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell (m/m relationship)
The Measure by Nikki Erlick (f/f relationship)
Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (bi mc)

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (sapphic & achillean side characters)
Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka (f/f parents)
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (nonbinary & trans side characters, side m/m relationship)
Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty (trans side character)

7. Horror

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson (sapphic mc)
Small Angels by Lauren Owen (lesbian mc)
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin (trans mc)
The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker (f/f relationship)
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (f/f relationship)
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (nonbinary mc)

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid (lesbian side character)

8. Humour

Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
Start Without Me (I’ll Be There in a Minute) by Gary Janetti
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris

10. Memoir & Autobiography

Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz

11. History & Biography

Bad Gays by Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller
Agent Josephine by Damien Lewis

12. Graphic Novels & Comics

Thieves by Lucie Bryon (f/f relationship)
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser & Robyn Smith (sapphic mc)
Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez, Danice Brine & Hank Jones (m/m relationship)
Crumbs by Danie Sterling (bi mc)
Heartstopper, Volume 4 by Alice Oseman (m/m relationship, f/f relationship, trans mc)

Messy Roots by Laura Gao (memoir)
Welcome to St. Hell by Lewis Hancox (memoir)
Killing Stalking: Deluxe Edition Volume 1 by Koogi (m/m relationship)

Saga, Volume 10 by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples (lgbt supporting cast)

13. Poetry

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón
The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi
All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran
Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
Unlock Your Storybook Heart by Amanda Lovelace

14. Debut Novel

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (ace mc)
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (sapphic mc)
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González (achillean mc)
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (f/f relationship)
The Measure by Nikki Erlick (f/f relationship)

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley (f/f relationship)
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (f/f relationship, nonbinary side character)

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (gay side character)

15. Young Adult Fiction

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White (trans mc)
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie (sapphic mc)
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes (lesbian mc)
Loveless by Alice Oseman (aroace mc, f/f relationship)
I Fell in Love with Hope by Lancali (m/m relationship)

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick (f/f relationship)
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (bi mc, lesbian li, f/f relationship, m/nb side relationship)
The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera (m/m relationship)

A Show for Two by Tashie Bhuiyan (lesbian side character)
See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon (lgb side characters)
Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus (gay & lesbian side characters)
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (bi & sapphic side characters)

16. Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (achillean trans mc)
All That’s Left in the World by Erik J. Brown (m/m relationship)
So This is Ever After by F. T. Lukens (bi mc, m/m relationship)
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong (bi mcs, demi mc, trans mc)
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn (bi li)

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (achillean side character)
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson (genderfluid side character)
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen (bi & lesbian side characters)
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len (gay side character)
These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan (side f/f relationship)

17. Middle Grade & Children’s

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao (achillean mc)
Small Town Pride by Phil Stamper (gay mc)
Rise of the School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani (gay mcs)

Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson (gay side characters)
Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality by Roshani Chokshi (bi side character)

The first thing to note, very quickly, is that there were 108 nominations of books with LGBT mains or side characters this year. That takes us only 6 up from last year’s 102. It’s still an increase, but it’s not an increase to the extent that 2019 to 2020 (52 to 67), or 2020 to 2021 (67 to 102), were increases. With 2022 as a bumper year of LGBT releases so far — our list currently stands at over 2,000 — this is a little disappointing, but probably about in keeping with (if not better than) publishing-wide percentages of LGBT books being published. If we only look at fiction books, we end up with 95, which is about the same as 2021 (93). We have a better increase when we isolate books with main characters alone, which is what the bulk of the rest of this will discuss.

In order to better visualise what I’m about to discuss, I made us some graphs! These are applicable to main characters only (since, I think in 2022, we’re at the stage where we might, if not disregard side character rep, then at least set it aside for a moment).

The first graph shows us that, even though total numbers with main and side characters stayed roughly the same, the ratio of main to side increased, from 64 in 2021 to 79 in 2022. As the total number of nominations in the Goodreads Choice Awards currently stands at 340, this means an increase from 18.8% to 23.2%. Although, it is worth noting that the debut novel category (20 books) is almost entirely made up of repeats from previous categories so, if we’re counting books nominated, the number and percentages will be a little lower.

There aren’t many patterns to be seen here, but it’s clear enough that it’s speculative fiction, graphic novels and YA that is driving the increase. These five categories — fantasy, science fiction, graphic novels and comics, YA fiction and YA SFF — are the ones that are consistently the biggest categories for LGBT books. This tallies with what our releases lists tell us, really, since contemporary and fantasy are the categories with the most releases every month.

None of the categories this year top 50% of the books being LGBT and actually, only one even reaches 50% (fantasy). The average number of books per category is 4.6, although this is skewed by categories containing zero and fantasy. If we disregard the former, the average is 6.1. In comparison, 2021’s average was 3.8 and 5.3, respectively. The mode for both of these years is 6.

Nine categories saw an increase in number of LGBT books. These were fiction, mystery & thriller, romance, horror, humour, history & biography, graphic novels & comics, poetry, and middle grade & children’s. Four categories saw decreases. These were fantasy, non-fiction, memoir & autobiography, and YA SFF. Four categories stayed the same (the other three which did had been dropped from the awards in 2021 anyway). These were debut novel, YA fiction, and science fiction.

So, can we really draw any conclusions from this? It’s year 4 of us writing this post up and, while there has been increases in the number of LGBT books featured in the Goodreads Choice Awards, we perhaps look to be reaching a plateau. Although, this is based on only a couple of years, so I will happily (and hopefully!) come back to this next year, as need be, and eat my own words. The other conclusion is that all of this seems utterly random. Goodreads, expose how you pick your nominees already!

Which is a nice segue into mentioning our awards! I said at the start don’t be too worried if you don’t see them in coming weeks. We are working on making them bigger and better this year and that starts with timing them completely differently to Goodreads. But, if you wanted a clue, just get your own nominees ready…