As ever, this is an incredibly difficult post to write. There were so many good books we both read in the year, that picking only 10 each was a challenge. In the end, I (Charlotte), at least, had to go by the criteria: a) did it stick with me?, and b) how well was it crafted. Tricky criteria still, but it helped.
Once again, we have divided our list into 3 categories: backlist books, books released in 2022 & books to be released in 2023 that we read ARCs of (and, in one case, a 2024 book). Each of these categories, would you believe it, actually has 5 books. For once, we’ve managed to stick to our original plans! (Though there are so many books we still missed out, some of which we featured in our little advent calendar thread we did through December.)
But anyway. Here’s our list of our favourite 25 books of the year! If you want to have a look at the last few years of lists (and how our tastes have or haven’t changed), you can find them here: from 2018, from 2019, from 2020, and from 2021.
BACKLIST BOOKS
ANNA
There Is a Light by Ban Gilmartin
Rep: biracial Indian Scottish gay mc with depression and anxiety, bi mc, Black trans side character, nonbinary side character
TW: alcoholism, past drug use, past suicide, suicidal ideation
Release date: 26th April 2020
If you want something to induce a brain-rot, this is a book for you! I swear I’ve been thinking about those characters non stop since finishing it! It’s a lovely, slow story about two boys who just happen to find each other and make life more colorful for one another.
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
Rep: Jewish gay mc, gay li
TW: self-harm, suicide, murder, violence, blood, gore, toxic relationships, homophobia
Release date: 15th September 2020
The Secret History on steroids, yeah, but mostly a book which showcases the beauty of an unreliable narrator. It will grip you by your heart and crush it a little bit, and you inevitably will root for murderous teenagers. It’s like nothing else.
Disoriental by by Négar Djavadi, trans. by Tina A. Kover
Rep: Iranian cast, sapphic mc, Dutch lesbian li, gay side character
TW: blood, gore, murder, mentions of homophobic violence
Release date: 3rd May 2018
The writing in this book is amazing, it makes you feel like your best friend is catching you up on their life over coffee. A lot happens on those pages, but somehow it doesn’t seem like a complicated story. It’s mainly the emotional journey that you go on.
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell
Rep: nonfiction
Release date: 1st January 1977
Part manifesto, part a fable, this is truly the most healing of books. There’s beauty and softness here that you cannot describe, and no one in the LGBT community should be deprived of.
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar
Rep: Syrian American trans gay mc, Syrian American gay li, Syrian sapphic mc, Syrian trans li, Syrian sapphic li, Black nonbinary character
TW: Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, violence, death, blood
Release date: 24th November 2020
This is a novel about grief and pain, but it’s somehow also the most beautiful and full of hope one I’ve read in a long time. It paints gay love almost as a miracle, and transness as a gift. It’s gorgeous and moving, and unforgettable.
CHARLOTTE
Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen
Rep: nonbinary character, gay character
Release date: 28th September 2021
Garlic and the Vampire is probably the sweetest graphic novel I’ve read this year. What’s not to love a series about a sentient clove of garlic and her vegetable friends? Nothing, and I’m right.
Southernmost by Silas House
Rep: gay characters, lesbian character
TW: homophobia
Release date: 26th June 2018
I’ve been thinking about this book on and off ever since I first read it. It’s a story of a man unlearning his homophobia, but that’s a reductive way of looking at it. It’s about so much more than that, about love, about forging genuine connections, about learning to look at the world with kindness.
Summer of the Cicadas by Chelsea Catherine
Rep: lesbian mc, bi side character
Release date: 18th August 2020
Sometimes the shortest books are the ones that stay with you the longest, and that’s certainly how Summer of the Cicadas felt. I love books which are, on the face of it, about something completely different to what you end up getting: here, a plague of giant cicadas and a book about love and grief.
The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine
Rep: Lebanese-Syrian trans lesbian mc, Haitian lesbian li, trans side character, Lebanese gay side character, Palestinian gay side character
TWs: transphobia, torture, implied rape, violence
Release date: 2nd September 2021
There’s a certain poetry to The Wrong End of the Telescope that makes it hard to look away from. A book about the refugee crisis, this feels like the perfect book for our times that, at its heart, is about human connection and the relationships we make.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman, trans. by Neil Smith
Rep: gay mc
TW: rape, mentions of self harm, suicidal ideation
Release date: 25th September 2017
If you haven’t read Beartown yet, there’s a hole in your life that you don’t know is there, and won’t know until you read it. Yes, that sounds confusing, but bear with me. Or don’t! Read it and find out for yourselves.
2022 BOOKS
ANNA
Contract Season by Cait Nary
Rep: gay mcs, aro side character
Release date: 6th September
Cait Nary writes the best romances. Period. You cannot tell me otherwise. She crafts amazing characters and so the chemistry between them is always to die for. It’s a romance full of pining and sexual tension. And actually growth. Please, even if you’re not a fan of the genre, do yourself a favour and read this one! [full review]
Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales
Rep: bi mcs, gay side character
Release date: 29th November
Listen, listen, Sophie wanted a book with a villain and plot-twists, and she delivered on that so beautifully! Her signature humour is ever present, the characters are amazing, the plot is very much a 21st century entertainment type of thing. The book has it all!
Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
Rep: lesbian mc, nonbinary lesbian li, bi side character
TW: domestic violence, child abuse, magic requiring self harm, blood, body horror, violence, murder, guns
Release date: 29th March
I still think the elevator pitch is all you need to hear to run to a bookstore for your own copy: The Great Gatsby but it’s about blood witches & Gatsby is a nonbinary lesbian. The writing is lush and beautiful, the atmosphere is almost claustrophobic, the aesthetic a most perfect one. [full review]
The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby
Rep: sapphic mc with anger management issues, sapphic li, lesbian parents, side character with ADHD
TW: blood, bullying, panic attacks
Release date: 25th May
This is very much a Melleby book. It’s about kids figuring stuff out, but mostly about being love and about hope. About the power a loving childhood can have on a person. And how even the biggest problems can finally seem a bit smaller when you allow the people close to you to help you. [full review]
Real Hero Shit by Kendra Wells
Rep: pan polyamorous mc, nonbinary mc, gay mc
Release date: 1st February
This is just straight up, unadulterated fun! It’s a wild ride from start to finish, and yes, it’s obviously a quick read, but it will leave you feeling like you can achieve anything. Also it’s absolutely hilarious and features a true himbo character.
CHARLOTTE
Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. by Noor Hindi
Rep: poetry
Release date: 31st May
Poetry should, at its best, shake you to your core as you read it. You should come out of it feeling just a little hollowed out. That’s exactly what Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. does.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
Rep: achillean mcs
TW: gore, violence, cannibalism
Release date: 30th August
Possibly the most creative fantasy release of 2022, The Spear Cuts Through Water is like no other fantasy I’ve read in recent times. It’s honestly hard to describe this one — it sounds trite to say it, but I really feel you have to read this one and experience it for yourself. Nothing I say could come close.
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr
Rep: tLebanese Turkish Muslim Australian bi mc, Lebanese Australian characters, Black sapphic side character, Arab achillean side characters, gay side character
TW: racial slurs, homophobic slurs, domestic abuse, racism, homophobia, sexual assault, suicidal ideation, implied child sexual abuse
Release date: 22nd February
You can always tell when the author of a novel is also a poet because there’s always a poetry to what you’re reading. It always feels like the words are so carefully chosen, pieced together with the care of a poem. These, like Son of Sin, are books you don’t simply read, you absorb.
Spell Heaven and Other Stories by Toni Mirosevich
Rep: lesbian mcs
Release date: 26th April
Spell Heaven is a short story collection about human connection, about the relationships they build when arriving in an unknown place. Centered around a small town and the arrival of our narrator and her wife, Spell Heaven is a quiet collection, and one that’s more than worth the time reading.
The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan
Rep: Syrian cast & setting, gay mcs, mc with PTSD
TW: drug use, homophobia, controlling relationship, internalised homophobia, implied torture, rape/dubious consent, overdose
Release date: 30th August
This is a book about people trying, about characters who mess up, who fall down, and how they come back from that. It’s also a book full of immense kindness, never judging these characters for not reaching perfection. Really, a wholly human book. [full review]
2023 (and beyond) ARCS
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
Rep: Jewish gay mc, gay mc
TW:
Release date: March 2023
Anna won’t allow me to describe this one as a romance novel and, sure, it’s not romance in the conventional sense, but at its core is romance. At its core is a love that transcends everything, that drives the characters forwards, that is, basically, their raison d’être. And that’s what makes this novel so unforgettable. Anna and Charlotte.
Now She Is Witch by Kirsty Logan
Rep: sapphic mc, nonbinary li
TW: misogyny, rape, gore, violence
Release date: 12th January 2023
Half fantasy, half historical, Now She Is Witch is a kind of indescribable book. Its format feels more creative than a lot of what’s out there, more experimental, and I think that’s one of the reasons it stuck with me so much. This is Kirsty Logan pushing the bounds of literature. Charlotte.
The Loch by Fran Dorricott
Rep: lesbian mcs, bi side character
TW: murder
Release date: 16th March 2023
No one should be surprised that, for probably the third year running, a Fran Dorricott book features on this post. The Loch was thrilling and unputdownable, a twisting, turning mystery you’ll find yourself completely hooked on. Charlotte.
Confidence by Rafael Frumkin
Rep: gay mc, bi li
Release date: 7th March 2023
Darkly satirical, Confidence is a book about an obsessive relationship, conmen, capitalism and the American Dream. Remember all those books you had to critique in English Lit, where, out of nowhere, the American Dream? This is a sorely needed antidote to that (and fascinating analysis of it besides). Charlotte.
Icarus by K. Ancrum
Rep: achillean mc with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, achillean intersex li, achillean side character, Black side character
TW: child abuse, cancer, past off page death, drug addiction, violence
Release date: 2024
This might be Kayla Ancrum at her best, and if you know anything about how much I love her writing, this is saying a lot. It’s pitched as a re-imagining of the Icarus myth meeting The Goldfinch, and for once the early description is spot on. It’s a beautiful, tender story about two boys falling in love, but mostly about all kinds of love (found family love, the love of a parent who’s not the best one, religious love). Anna.
Are any of those books on your top of the year? What other books made your list?
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