22 - A Book With a Queer Lead

[Nadine in NY]

A book with a queer lead.

I'm old and I hate the term "queer" because it was a nasty slur when I was growing up. Alas, here we are. The term has been reclaimed and I need to catch up. You can go old school and pick up Rubyfruit Jungle, or modern with Jonny Appleseed. As always, no homophobic posts allowed. Let loose with your favorites!!


Listopia list is Here: A book with a queer lead

[Elsa]

I tried to think of some that maybe aren't so well-known:

Everything Leads to You--YA/teen contemporary
The Coldest Touch--YA/teen vampire
Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey--graphic novel
The Midnight Lie--YA/teen fantasy(?)
Hex--adult contemporary
Skye Falling--adult romance
Perfect on Paper--YA/teen contemporary
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics--adult romance
Edward II--Renaissance drama (yes I'm serious)

[Debbie]

What exactly is queer? Is it gay and/or trans? I am currently reading book that the main character does not have a gender, is that queer? Is it just lgbt?

[Ron]

Plenty of good nonfiction ones out there so I'll be going through the bookstore or what I have and taking it from there.

[Ellie]

Debbie wrote: "What exactly is queer? Is it gay and/or trans? I am currently reading book that the main character does not have a gender, is that queer? Is it just lgbt?"

According to this it's an umbrella term, so gender non-conforming would fit: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love...

[Bea]

I usually feel uncomfortable with LBGTQ+ books...but the author who changed my mind is Nicola Griffith. Given that, I think I will use this as another crossover read with ATY's disability prompt.

Nicola Griffith has written a book about the "story of a confident woman forced to confront an unnerving new reality when in the space of a single week her wife leaves her and she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis". Seems to tick both boxes and works for me.

Oh, the book is So Lucky.

[Sarah]

There are too many books on my TBR that fit this prompt- I can't even count them! I will definitely fulfill this prompt multiple times over, but I'm not sure what my frontrunner titles are at the moment. Maybe The Sunbearer Trials or I Kissed Shara Wheeler (which also fits "a book I planned to read in 2022).

[Tracy]

Fortune Favors The Dead

[Rachel]

The Adventures of China Iron by Argentinian author Gabriela Cabezón Cámara is an exuberant queer retelling of the 1872 epic poem about gaucho Martín Fierro starring his young wife China Iron who runs away across the pampas with redheaded Scottish Liz on a series of adventures. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ here is my review

[Debbie]

Ellie wrote: "Debbie wrote: "What exactly is queer? Is it gay and/or trans? I am currently reading book that the main character does not have a gender, is that queer? Is it just lgbt?"

According to this it's an..."

Ellie wrote: "Debbie wrote: "What exactly is queer? Is it gay and/or trans? I am currently reading book that the main character does not have a gender, is that queer? Is it just lgbt?"

Thank you. This definitely helps.

[Denise]

I've got one from my TBR list, Our Wives Under the Sea

[Ron]

Good, I kind of didn't want to read that 'The 2000s Made Me Gay' book. I found this one instead:

Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America

[Luci]

Elsa wrote: "I tried to think of some that maybe aren't so well-known:

Everything Leads to You--YA/teen contemporary
The Coldest Touch--YA/teen vampire
Check, Please! Book..."</i>

[book:Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey is one of my favorite books that I read last year! I went down a rabbit hole of gay hockey romances afterwards...

[Kendra]

Debbie wrote: "What exactly is queer? Is it gay and/or trans? I am currently reading book that the main character does not have a gender, is that queer? Is it just lgbt?"

I feel like it's an umbrella term so my answer to all those questions is yes? I would check the tags that goodreads uses as well

[Diana]

This site might help: https://lgbtqreads.com/

You can search by everything from genre to representation to specific tropes

[Sunshine]

I'm reading Cemetery Boys for this one. it's been on my TBR for a while Glad I could fit it into the challenge

[Yagyrlr]

secret society by miasa

[Sylvia]

Im currently reading « kiss her once for me » and this works too! It’s not on the list

[Jamie]

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka has a gay main character. I'm reading it now and so far it's excellent!

Edited to add: I've finished the book and loved it! Probably my best read of 2022 ...

[Ron]

Anxious to start



I'm running out of time for December though so it might have to be a January read instead.

[StefanieFrei]

Val McDermid Trick of the Dark

[Barbara]

I will be reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf from my TBR books.

[Liza]

Why would you be “uncomfortable” with LGTBQ+ books?

Anyway, like half of the books on my tbr have queer characters so I’ll probably double dip one of the.

[Pie]

The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time

[Rachel]

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is a cute rom com with a queer lead. The House on the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door both by TJ Klune are great books with queer leads

[Kate]

Nadine in NY wrote: "A book with a queer lead.

I'm old and I hate the term "queer" because it was a nasty slur when I was growing up. Alas, here we are. The term has been reclaimed and I need to catch up. You can go o..."

Queer has actually been used as a self-identifier all the way back to when it started being used to refer to gay men in the late 19th and early 20th century! Essentially they were reclaiming the slur not long after it came into existence. Of course, it wasn't until the 1980s that it became a commonly used umbrella term, and it was the 1990s when it became the primary term in the academic realm (i.e queer studies, queer theory.) That being said, if you're not comfortable with the word, I completely respect that. It can be very traumatic for many people to hear a term that was used as a slur in other contexts. I'm just someone who uses the term as a self-identifier, and I'm very interested in queer/LGBT history, so I wanted to make note of that for everyone's reference.

Some recommendations:
In the Dream House
Affinity
Tipping the Velvet
Because You'll Never Meet Me
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Gideon the Ninth
Sorrowland

[Nadine in NY]

Kate wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "A book with a queer lead.

I'm old and I hate the term "queer" because it was a nasty slur when I was growing up. Alas, here we are. The term has been reclaimed and I need to c..."



I did not know it was used by gay men as a self-identifier even back in the 19th century!

All I know is it was a slur when I was growing up, considered far worse than the f-word at the time, at least in my little social circle. Things you are taught when you are a kid can be hard to shake!

[Kate]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Kate wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "A book with a queer lead.

I'm old and I hate the term "queer" because it was a nasty slur when I was growing up. Alas, here we are. The term has been reclaimed an..."

I completely understand that. It can be associated with trauma for a lot of people and I would never force the term personally on anyone who isn't comfortable with it.

For others, like me, it is an inclusive umbrella term that doesn't require anyone to conform to or disclose a specific identifier (like if someone doesn't feel that they fit in with any of the things that LGBT stands for, or hasn't figured out the specifics of their identity, or even just doesn't want to share those specifics.)

Interestingly enough, the words I heard most often as slurs in my youth were "gay" and "lesbian." I had just as much trauma associated with those as others might with "queer."

[Marie-Eve]

Luci wrote: "I went down a rabbit hole of gay hockey romances afterwards...




SAME!! my favorite hockey romance last year was Gravity I laughed and cried and was asbolutely delighted. ive just now started Avon Gale's series "Scoring Chances" (loved her novella Next Season so...)

My TBR is filled with LGBTQ reads so this wil be an easy one.
Ill suggest my favorite reads from last year in here:

You & Me
Everything for You
The Charm Offensive
Total Creative Control
Written in the Stars and Count Your Lucky Stars
Kiss and Cry (also a sport romance)
Galaxies and Oceans

Most of them (if not all, actually) contain spicy scenes!

[Sherri]

I read The Guncle 5 stars.

[Ron]

I was struggling a bit with this one. Then a friend dropped by today with a bag and a box of books that he was getting rid of. In them were some LGBTQ+ YA's and some LGBTQ+ graphic novels.

The one that really caught my attention though was Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family . I've heard good things both about this book and the movie. I think for the prompt here I'll go with it. It's nonfiction, but I figure that's okay.

[Megha]

I’m thinking of the Charm Offensive.

[LeahS]

I read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, a very poetic book. It was interesting how some of the social problems shown are echoed in Demon Copperhead which I read last month.

This would also work for book about a family, and ATY book by an Asian diaspora author.

I would recommend books by Becky Chambers and Sarah Waters, also Giovanni's Room.

[Nadine in NY]

When is Sarah Waters coming out with another book? Perhaps it's unfair for me to complain, because I've only read two of her six books, so I still have plenty to read, but ... it's been a while. Years between her previous books: 1, 3, 4, 3, 5. It's been 9 years since her last book. Is it going to be a doozy? Or is she retired from writing?

[LeahS]

Nadine in NY wrote: "When is Sarah Waters coming out with another book? Perhaps it's unfair for me to complain, because I've only read two of her six books, so I still have plenty to read, but ... it's b..."

She was interviewed about Fingersmith in The Guardian last November, so she is alive and well. Someone was recently asking the same question on Mumsnet and there was one post that was a rumour via a friend in publishing that a book was in the offing, but who knows?

[Diane]

I believe Boy Queen by George Lester would fit. Boy Queen I confess that I haven’t yet read it, but I kinda know the author, and he writes from experience of the drag Queen life.

[Ron]

Gah, I don't know which book to go with now. I've got 3 potentials:

Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America

Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family

Lesbians on Television: New Queer Visibility the Lesbian Normal

*****

All of these sound really good.

[Melanie (aka DarkBeauty73)]

I READ Hollow GN

[Britany]

Finished The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Mony]

I read Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese


I loved how the author integrated neurodiversity & different sexual orientations among her characters. Sexual orientation was not the story nor even part of the story - it just was. Here, the FMC, Bea is pan-sexual and in love with James, and Bea's sister is bi-sexual, has left her girlfriend and is now engaged to Jean Claude.

[Lilith]

Late to the party, but I finally read Loveless. I adored it, didn't want it to end and one of my 5 - star reads for 2023.

[Laura Ruth]

I understand why some people are uncomfortable with the word "queer," but it's kind of a no-win situation: in the 90s, kids used "gay" as an all-purpose putdown, saying "that's so gay" to mean "that's so stupid." And "queer" is a handy catchall term that can include gay, lesbian, bi, pan, trans, nonbinary, intersex, and I think ace as well. But it's true, as someone noted above, that you can still be affected by words that were used hurtfully when you were young.

Anyway, tons of great books for this category! Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue is one of my all-time favorite books, and I'm using it for the "book you wish you were reading for the first time" category. She also has 2 great f/f romances, One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler. Courtney Milan's romance Hold Me has a trans heroine.

There are queer superhero books, like Dreadnought by April Daniels (trans heroine), and the Sidekick Squad series by C. B. Lee, starting with Not Your Sidekick,which has a bi heroine.

A couple of people mentioned Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrard Conley. It's really good, but heartbreaking: a memoir of his time in an "ex-gay" program. That whole movement did a lot of harm.

With a lot of heavy stuff on my stack, I went with a light fake-dating romance: Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall.

[Anshita]

I am reading The Other Man by Farhad J. Dadyburjor. I wanted to read something written by and about POC queers, and I found a great one.

[Heather]

Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country by Emily Tesh. Either book in the duology would work for this prompt. I read Drowned County for the prompt and Silver in the Wood elsewhere.

[Rachel]

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers is a cozy utopian sci-fi; a sweet quirky little book featuring gender neutral, tea-making monk Dex and the caring philosophical robot Mosscap. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ here is my review

[Ron]

Well, it's Pride Month so it should make doing this prompt somewhat either. Of course celebrate LGBTQIA+ any time of the year, but still.

[Teri]

I just finished Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. Interesting look at queer life in the 1950s in San Francisco. I can't imagine how difficult life was back then.

[Katy]

I ended up reading Tricks for this. Originally I was going to use it for the banned book challenged (prompt 18) but decided to switch it to this one after finishing it.

[Jessica]

I read Mad Honey for this prompt. It was such a good book!

[Kaia]

I happened to walk past The Fiancée Farce in the library and thought it looked interesting. It had the alternative cover, so I didn't even realize it was sapphic at first. It's a great marriage of convenience story.