reviews, releases and recommendations of LGBT media
…or urbanish, since most of these turned out to be historical fantasies. But that still counts, in my opinion.
But anyway! Today’s rec list is a continuation of a previous one, because I’ve done high fantasy, I did adult fantasy, and Anna did (some) YA fantasy. So where else to turn to next, but (back) to urban fantasy. So. Without further ado, let’s start!
P.S. you can see what I recced in the first of these posts here.
When I wrote up the schedule for this month’s posts, I was initially planning for this rec list to be a continuation of that sapphic series. But, at the eleventh hour, I changed my mind, and went with adult sci fi recs.
Sci fi is, in all honesty, one of my favourite genres. And particularly sci fi that leans towards being hard rather than soft (as such, if you don’t like hard sci fi, you may not find a whole lot on this list for you, for which I apologise). And when that sci fi is gay? It just makes it all the better.
So, here are ten of my absolute faves.
Full disclosure, this year has been bad for me in terms of reading and loving YA fantasy. Yes, I have loved some, but also I’ve been bored as anything by others. So I’ve turned a fair bit to adult fantasy — mostly avoiding all the white cishet men writing it, of course.
This is not a definitive list of all the LGBT adult fantasy novels I have loved, of course. I went to write down possible entries to this list and ended up with about twice as many that I loved, and maybe three or four times as many that I would rec. But these are ten of my favourites.
So, dive in, and I hope you find something to enjoy here!
It’s August which means it’s time for PART TWO of 2020’s sapphic releases (part one here). These are all the sapphic releases that I know about from July to December this year (so, usual disclaimer of it not being on here generally means I don’t know about it. Sometimes means I completely forgot even if I did know).
As ever, 🌈 means the author identifies as LGBT. Apologies if I have screwed up a date somewhere — they’ve changed so often I know I haven’t kept track of them all.
For clarification: I have included in this list books where the sapphic character is either the main character/protagonist, has a POV, or is a major character who affects the plot.
So let’s go!
This month’s feature is a little different, in that, both me and Anna looked at our releases list, and couldn’t decide which book to pick, since there were three books we thought, hey we’ve not seen that talked about very much. And we definitely hadn’t seen them being talked about as being gay.
Hence why this post contains not one but three books.
A second part to the post I made at the beginning of the year, where I listed books with bi/pan main characters which were published between January and June (it’s here!). Now it’s time for the second half of the year.
Once again, I want to make some things clear:
1) I included only books that use the bi & pan labels or, in case of sff ones, that make it clear from context the characters are bi or pan. It’s not always clear-cut but I figured that if you’re looking for bi/pan rep, you’re looking for something concrete;
2) I did not include books which I wasn’t sure about, because I didn’t want to falsely advertise. If there’s anything I missed that you know for a fact features a bi or pan protag, please let me know!
The rainbow emoji indicates that the book is written by an LGBT author, and just for fun, I also marked YA books with a ✌️ emoji. Please let me know if I missed or mislabeled something!
About, oh a month or two back, I asked a question on twitter. Namely, if you had to rec a single LGBT book (cruel I know), what would it be.
Well, these are the results — 50+ books recommended by 50+ folks!
The other day I asked people on Twitter to give me their 5 favourite trans books. Now, I’m using trans here as an umbrella term to include all non-cis identities, so you will find recs with nonbinary characters, genderqueer characters and more.
And let me just say, the responses were great and I managed to compile a list of so many gems! And a lot of them seem to be rather overlooked, which is just another bonus & very good news to people starved for rep, who have already read all the popular titles.
Of course, as always on this blog, books by LGBT authors are marked with a 🌈 emoji. Please let me know if I got something wrong, so I can correct it!
Not to be bringing any sort of bitterness to this blog or anything, but there’s only so many times you can see “there’s no (good) f/f” as a tweet before you snap. So in the interests of not snapping, I compiled a list of all the sapphic releases I know about this year.
And I know a lot.
So this list is actually going to be split into two. The first, this post, is going to take us from January to June. The second will come in a few months time and focus on July to December. Actually, the post is based on a thread I did on twitter, so if you’re impatient, go check that out (though dates aren’t always correct, and it’s not the most up to date).
So do you want to read f/f books but you don’t want to look for them?
Well it’s your lucky day. I did the looking for you!
P.S. dates are correct to the best of my knowledge, but if I have missed a postponement somewhere, please let me know.
Our newest feature is back today! Last month we highlighted Clap When You Land as our book of the month (it’s out tomorrow but there’s still time to preorder!). This month, we’ve selected a June release to bring to your attention.
So, if you like wuxia fantasy and found families, look no further!
When we selected March’s read, we thought we’d cracked it. A book we’d both like, because we both had read and liked the author before. It was a shoo-in.
It was not a shoo-in.
So if you want to know exactly where things went wrong, read our reviews below.
In a land of myth and ice, seventeen-year-old Runa Unnursdóttir is not the runecaster her clan has been hoping for. She spends her days daydreaming of sailing away and exploring the world instead of studying the runes and learning her spells. The villagers consider her odd, in looks and in manner. She’s nothing like her talented sister, Sýr, keeper of the sacred moonstone that ensures the village’s continued survival. But when a rival clan led by an evil witch raids the village and kidnaps her sister, Runa is forced to act. With a fallen Valkyrie by her side, and the help of a gorgeous half-elf Runa is not quite sure she can trust, the apprentice must travel to the site of an ancient runecasting competition to try to win back the magical gem. But the journey will not be easy; the three unlikely companions encounter malevolent and supernatural creatures at every turn. Somehow, Runa must summon the courage and strength to face her destiny, a destiny she never wanted. Or die trying.
Brooke Carter
Published: 7th April 2020
Goodreads
Rep: nonbinary character, wlw characters
If you’re looking for books with bisexual and/or pansexual characters, you’re in luck. Here’s a list of all books coming out in January-June 2020 that fit that description. (The July-December list is available here.)
Finding specific rep in upcoming books isn’t always easy, so I want to make some things clear before we start:
1) I included only books that use the bi & pan labels or, in case of sff ones, that make it clear from context the characters are bi or pan. It’s not always clear-cut but I figured that if you’re looking for bi/pan rep, you’re looking for something concrete;
2) I did not include books which I wasn’t sure about, because I didn’t want to falsely advertise. If there’s anything I missed that you know for a fact features a bi or pan protag, please let me know!
I’ll be also marking YA books with a ✌️ emoji, if that’s something that you’re interested in. And, as always, a 🌈 emoji indicates a book is by an LGBT author.
(You might also be interested in these posts about 2020 YA releases & 2020 releases with non-cis characters.)
For March’s read, you voted we pick sci-fi. So the chances of Anna not reading a third book club book in a row have immediately skyrocketed.
We ended up picking a very recent release from an author we have both liked the short stories of for March’s read. Hopefully, that means we’ll both read the book for the first time in about 3 months.
So take a look to see what we selected.
Today, I have for you a massive rec list of books by and about QPOC (and Latinx authors/characters). There are fifty books on here – though that isn’t the sum total of those I know, so if your favourite isn’t here, it’s simply because I couldn’t fit it.
It’s gonna go like this: I’ve split this post into contemporary, historical, science fiction or dystopia, and fantasy sections. In each section, half the books have been released, half are upcoming (barring sci fi, where I could only find 4 upcoming releases).
So, enjoy!
