Your Gender Binary is Only Imaginary: SFF For Non-Binary People’s Day!
Non-Binary Pride dragon by Kaenith!
It’s International Non-Binary People’s Day, so OBVIOUSLY I had to put a rec list together! Here are five books I’ve read and loved, and three that I haven’t read yet but am hoping I’ll love!
Read and Recommended
Two Dark Moons (Sãoni Cycle, #1) by Avi Silver Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Nonbinary asexual MCs
Goodreads
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Sohmeng Par is sick of being treated like a child. Ever since a tragic accident brought her mountain community’s coming-of-age ritual to a halt, she’s caused nothing but trouble in her impatience to become an adult. But when she finally has the chance to prove herself, she’s thrown from her life in the mountains and into the terror of the jungle below.
Cornered by a colony of reptilian predators known as the sãoni, Sohmeng is rescued by Hei, an eccentric exile with no shortage of secrets. As likely to bite Sohmeng as they are to cook her breakfast, this stranger and their family of lizards are like nothing she’s ever seen before. If she wants to survive, she must find a way to adapt to the vibrant, deadly world of the rainforest and the creatures that inhabit it—including Hei themself. But Sohmeng has secrets of her own, and sharing them could mean losing everything a second time.
Sometimes a family is you, the kid that screech-danced and bit you, and a pack of (not!-)murderous lizards. And that’s okay.
The moon phase you’re born under determines your gender in the culture here, which is a ridiculously cool idea that I’m still in love with. It’s even more complicated because the main character has been lied to about when she was born – and thus about her gender. Cue shenanigans!
I’ve recced Two Dark Moons before, but I’m bringing it up again because the final book comes out in September! So if you haven’t read this series yet, now is the BEST time to start!!!
Leech by Hiron Ennes Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MC
Goodreads
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In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies.
For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed.
In the frozen north, the Institute's body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron's castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again.
Let’s pivot sharply and have some horror! Have you ever seen a Post-Apocalyptic Gothic novel before? Would you like to??? Because that’s what Leech is, with plenty of body-horror in an icy, polar-like setting! Our main character is a parasitic hivemind so, you know, of course it doesn’t bother with nonsense like human gender. I’m sure if I was a parasitic hivemind I wouldn’t either.
The West Passage by Jared Pechaček Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gender weirdness
Goodreads
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A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.
When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.
Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.
The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for the world is about to change.
In the West Passage, role is not tied to gender – instead, gender is tied to role, a small detail that disproportionately delighted me! Honestly, I loved everything about this: it’s extremely weird – think Medieval marginalia – but also grand and intense, like some of the strangest dreams you’ve ever had. AND it’s illustrated by the author!
The Devourers by Indra Das Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Desi MC, queer + nonbinary Desi MC, major nonbinary character, M/NB (or NB/NB?)
Goodreads
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For readers of Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and David Mitchell comes a striking debut novel by a storyteller of keen insight and captivating imagination.
LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man’s unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger’s behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins.
From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman—and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok’s interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent.
Shifting dreamlike between present and past with intoxicating language, visceral action, compelling characters, and stark emotion, The Devourers offers a reading experience quite unlike any other novel.
Praise for The Devourers
“A chilling, gorgeous saga that spans several centuries and many lands . . . The all-too-human characters—including the nonhuman ones—and the dreamlike, recursive plot serve to entrance the reader. . . . There’s no escaping The Devourers . Readers will savor every bite.” —N. K. Jemisin, The New York Times Book Review
“ The Devourers is beautiful. It is brutal. It is violent and vicious. . . . [It] also showcases Das’s incredible prowess with language and rhythm, and his ability to weave folklore and ancient legend with modern day loneliness.” — Tordotcom
“A wholly original, primal tale of love, violence, and transformation.” —Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Red Rising Trilogy
“Astonishing . . . a narrative that takes possession of you and pulls you along in its wake.” —M. R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts
Gender is very much one of the (many) things The Devourers is playing with, although it’s not as simple as characters using ungendered pronouns. Instead, the book features a race of shapeshifters who don’t seem to have gender (and possibly not biological sex? at least as we understand it?) in their non-human forms. But all the ones we meet have male human forms (this is a choice of theirs), and there’s a whole lot of calling out the misogyny that seems very deeply entrenched in their culture. If you’ve read more conventional/easier nonbinary sff already, then I think The Devourers has a lot to add to the conversation; there’s so much food for thought here!
And that aside from the fact that it’s one of the most beautiful, soul-shaking books I’ve ever read in my life.
(It’s also dark as fuck – the shapeshifters eat humans, which is not technically cannibalism because they’re not human, but hits the same ick factor for human readers; a big chunk of the plot revolves around a rape committed by one of the shapeshifters; brace for a lot of violence. If you have triggers, please go look up the warnings before diving in!)
Out of the Drowning Deep by A.C. Wise Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Nonbinary MC, gay MC
Goodreads
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In the distant future, when mortals mingle with the gods in deep space, an out-of-date automaton, a recovering addict, and an angel race to solve the Pope’s murder in an abandoned corner of the galaxy.
Scribe IV is an obsolete automaton, peacefully whiling away his years on the Bastion, a secluded monastery in an abandoned corner of the galaxy. But when the visiting Pope is found murdered, Scribe IV knows he has very little time before the terrifying Sisters of the Drowned Deep rise up to punish the Bastion’s residents for their crime.
Quin, a recovering drug addict turned private investigator, picks up a scrambled signal from the Bastion and agrees to take the case. Traumatized by a bizarre experience in his childhood, Quin repeatedly feeds his memories to his lover, the angel Murmuration. But fragmented glimpses of an otherworldly horror he calls the crawling dark continue to haunt his dreams.
Meanwhile in Heaven, an angel named Angel hears Scribe IV’s prayer. Intrigued by the idea of solving a crime with mortals, xe descends to offer xer divine assistance (whether those mortals want it or not). With the Drowned Sisters closing in around the Bastion, Scribe IV, Quin, and Angel race to find out who really murdered the Pope, and why. Quin’s missing memories may hold the key to the case—but is remembering worth the price?
Haunting, dreamy and beautifully written, Out of the Drowning Deep is perfect for fans of Becky Chambers, Martha Wells, and This Is How You Lose the Time War.
All the gods are real AND humans can invent new ones in this far-future setting, where sentient robots and actual angels can join up to solve a murder (of a POPE). This isn’t a book about gender, we ‘just’ have a nonbinary angel called Angel, and what am I not supposed to love about that???
Not Yet ReadIf you’ve read any of these already, I’d love to know what you thought of them!
Yoke of Stars by R.B. Lemberg Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown queer cast, nonbinary MC
Goodreads
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An apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist trade interwoven tales in order to enact revenge. Ukrainian author R. B. Lemberg (The Four Profound Weaves) returns to their legendary Birdverse in an ode to the transformative power of storytelling.
“Haunting, nuanced, and hopeful, Yoke of Stars is essential reading.”
—Izzy Wasserstein, author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart
In the School of Assassins, Stone Orphan waits for a first assignment. After their first kill, they will graduate and attain the coveted cloth of bone. But instead of a commission, Stone Orphan gets an inquisitive linguist, Ulín. Ulín has heard the Orphan Star’s song of despair, mirroring her own, and drawing her to the School of Assassins. But Ulín is far more interested in learning Stone Orphan’s language than deciding whom she wishes to kill.
Unable to contain their curiosity, Stone Orphan offers to exchange stories with Ulín to help her decide the fate of three men. By turns, Stone Orphan and Ulín narrate tales of love, suffering, exile, and self-determination, and two wounded souls find hope in each other through the radical act of listening.
The Birdverse is one of the most incredible fantasy settings I’ve ever come across, and I’m so annoyed that I still haven’t gotten to Yoke of Stars!
A Curse for Samhain (The Skeleton Crew #1) by Dahlia Donovan Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Genderfluid autistic MC
Goodreads
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Welcome to the Skeleton Crew. Bring your knitting needles and a good, strong brew.
Gender fluid, autistic vampire Hyde Snodgrass runs Between the Leaves—a cosy village book store. Their life revolves around books, all things autumnal, and the two cats who rule their world. The shop also plays host to a weekly knitting group called the Skeleton Crew.
When one of the leaders of the village coven fails to show up for the weekly knitting meeting, Hyde finds themselves investigating a horrific murder side by side with their long-term crush, Teresa Vega.
Suspicion immediately falls on other members of their group. Hyde and Teresa struggle to find answers to the growing list of questions. It’s made all the more difficult when the killer has them in their sights.
Can working together spark the romantic flame within them?
Will they solve the mystery before death comes too close?
I’ve really enjoyed this author’s Motts Cold Case Mystery series, which is very cosy and extremely validating for my autistic brain – so I’m hopeful that her cosy fantasy series will be right up my alley too! (Because adding fantasy always makes great things better!)
The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC
Published on: 9th June 2026
Goodreads
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From instant New York Times bestseller and Nero Award-shortlisted TikTok favourite Lex Croucher comes your new dark academia obsession...
Briar always dreamed of going to the elite Temple School of Thaumaturgy.
Briar's best friend, Seb, just wanted them to stay together.
When Seb gets in and Briar doesn't, their relationship is shattered.
Until, on the cusp of their final year, Briar secures a summer job sorting through the old magical textbooks strictly forbidden from the students who know how to read them, finally gaining entry to the notorious ivory tower to see what their closest friend has become and to learn, at last, who really controls the secrets of magical selection...
The Secret History meets Her Majesty's Royal Coven in this stunningly prescient fusion of dark academia and crossover fantasy following the life of a non-binary student and aspiring magician who fails to gain admission to the UK's only school of magic feat. tyrant prefects, trials-by-sorcery, queer found family fighting the establishment, and childhood friends-to-rivals-to-enemies-to-more.
Alas, this one isn’t released yet, but I think you can see why it’s on my grabby-hands list?!
Happy International Non-Binary People’s Day, everybody! Hope it’s a great one for all of us!
You can find some of my other trans and non-binary SFF recs at the links below!
Fantasy Featuring Fabulous Trans Leads
Your Gender Binary Is Imaginary: Non-Binary Characters in Fantasy (+bonus scifi)
Your Gender Binary Is Still Imaginary: SFF For International Non-Binary People’s Day!
Celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility With SFF!
SFF Faves From Trans and Nonbinary Authors!
Your Gender Binary Remains Imaginary: SFF For Non-Binary People’s Day!
SFF For Trans Day of Visibility!
Visible in SFF: Trans Day of Visibility Recs!
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