YA LGBT Books discussion
Book Related Banter
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What YA Friendly Book Are You Currently Reading?
Also read Diverse Energies by Tobias Bucknell.This is a collection of multicultural dystopian stories and all of the characters are people of color. Two of the stories are also queer themed. "Good Girl" by Malinda Lo has a lesbian relationship. And "Next Door" by Rahul Kanakia has a gay male relationship.
Read The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds. Not published as YA, but about a genderqueer/trans teen.
I forgot to mention that the story "One True Love" in Foretold also has a gay male couple, so might be of interest to both genders.
I recently finished two books from The Chronicles of Charlie Waterman series Cat's Call
and Cat's Creation
. One of the main characters is gay.
I really recommend these books for everyone who likes YA fantasy, cats and awesome characters.
First Kiss (Then Tell): A Collection of True Lip-Locked Moments by Cylin Busby.Cute collection of true stories by YA authors about their first kisses. The ones by Paul Ruditis and David Levithan have gay boy kisses. No lesbian or trans content in this book. It's kind of a bubblegum read, perfect for an 8th grade girl.
I just finished Divergent, and I wish Tris and Christina had fallen in love. Why aren't there more books with lgbt people, without the book being about only that?Still, a good book, I'll definitely read Insurgent and Allegiant.
That's what I think we need to (and will) see happening - more books like The Mortal Instrument Series: City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels or Distant Rumblings where there are prominent or even main LGBT characters, but the bulk of the story isn't about being LGBT.
I am currently reading
by Julia Crane.
I just started Superhero
by Eli Easton. (Most of hers are 18+ but this is YA.)ETA: This one is sort of YA - defintiely 16+ for the sex content though; maybe 18+. It's on some YA lists, but when the guys finally get together it pushes the limits pretty hard.
(For those with an ap that doesn't show cover links, the book Christen is reading is Rourk.)
Read Bi-Normal by M.G. Higgins. It's about a teen boy coming to terms with the fact he is bi. It's not that great though. It's way too basic. Seriously it took like half an hour to read. I wouldn't really recommend it except maybe to teens who can't read very well or who can't handle long or complicated books.
Kaje wrote: "A pity - we could use more bi books."Yeah, there don't seem to be that many, especially with guys.
Also read The Culling by Steven dos Santos. Pretty good, very action packed, lots of similarities to The Hunger Games. It's got m/m romance but most of the book is focused on them saving their family members from certain death. But it's cool to see a book with a gay MC that isn't about him being gay. And also the world in their book is totally non-homophobic, which is nice.
Read fml by Shaun David Hutchinson.Even though the MC is straight, he has two best friends who are a gay couple and they are on almost every single page, so it's as much their story as his.
I was actually pretty excited to read this one 'cause the author has an awesome-sounding book coming out called The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. And I read a guest post by him where he talks about Ben and Coop, the gay characters in "fml."
http://www.gayya.org/?p=546
So after all that, I was excited to read the book, but it's really not my style. The whole thing is about a drunken party and I'm not that on board with reading about drunken teen antics. Not that it was bad - it just wasn't my type of story.
Read How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity by Michael Cart.Wow, this book is so well known I can't believe it took me like 4 years to read it. It's a lot like the earlier Am I Blue? collection, since all of the stories are queer themed.
It was really good and diverse. I counted lesbian stories, gay stories, and also three trans stories. No bisexual ones that I remember, which is a little strange for it being so diverse in all other respects.
For people interested in transgender themes, these are the ones with trans characters....
"Trev" by Jacqueline Woodson (FTM little boy)
"My Virtual World" by Francesca Lia Block (FTM guy)
"The First Time I Wore a Dress" by Jennifer Finney Boylan (MTF girl)
The story by David Levithan was interesting 'cause it's actually an earlier version of Two Boys Kissing! Peter and Neil are there and also Ryan and Avery *and* you get to find out what happened to them years later. Avery is not identified as trans in this story, but since he is in the other book, I think this could also count as having transgender themes.
Other good stories were "First Time" by Julie Anne Peters (whoa, that's the most explicit lesbian sex I've ever read in YA!) and "Dear Lang" by Emma Donoghue, which is about a lesbian mom who lost her daughter because she didn't have legal rights. It's super sad and if Donoghue ever reads this, I want her to write a whole book from Lang's perspective! That would make an awesome novel.
Some of the stories don't really seem that YA, especially Gregory Maguire's which was really confusing and totally would not be of interest (I don't think) to most teens. And also the ones by William Sleator and Margo Lanagan seemed more like adult stories.
It's been on my TBRs a long time too. Thanks for the info.
Kaje wrote: "It's been on my TBRs a long time too. Thanks for the info."No prob! I would definitely recommend it.
Also read One Hot Second: Stories About Desire by Cathy Young.More short stories, three of which are queer themed. I think this one should be on more booklists since it is actually pretty heavy on the LGBT content. There are two lesbian stories and one gay male story....
"Loving Megan" by Nancy Garden - really cute story about young lesbian with crush on older straight girl, who totally misses the fact that her best friend is in love with her - until the end!
"Lorena" by Jacqueline Woodson - kind of sad lesbian story about teen girl whose girlfriend dies of a drug overdose.
"Team Men" by Emma Donoghue - gay story about two teen boys in England (I think it's England) who are on the same football/soccer team. They start up a sort of relationship but one is kind of struggling with what it all means.
No bi or trans characters in this book.
I kind of like seeing the LGBTQ stories mixed in, rather than separate. :)
Yeah, I agree. Segregated collections kind of limit the book to a certain market, which is teens who are comfortable openly reading a book with queer themes. So a lot of the kids who might most need to read it would be too scared to even pick it up in the first place.Although you know, I would like to see a collection specifically for gender identity and trans themes. I think there would be an audience for that and it hasn't been done before.
It's a bit tough to do good short stories for that, I think. My trans stories were the longest in my collection, and still felt like scratching the surface. But there need to be more trans/genderfluid/genderqueer stories in general.
I'm reading Silent
and enjoying it so far - the focus is more on the MC being in foster care, but with the underlying thread of him also being gay and in the closet (but not in denial).
I recently finished The Douglas Fir by Anyta Sunday, and really enjoyed it. I also finished Last of the Summer Tomatoes by Sherrie Henry. Really good books!
Kaje wrote: "It's a bit tough to do good short stories for that, I think. My trans stories were the longest in my collection, and still felt like scratching the surface. But there need to be more trans/genderfl..."Yeah, I agree. I've read some good ones, but it would be awesome to see more. And not even strictly trans, but stuff about genderqueer or agender teens would be interesting too.
Read On the Fringe by Donald Gallo.More short stories, which are all about teens who are outsiders in one way or another. There is one story that has queer themes....
"Standing on the Roof, Naked" by Francess Lantz
It's about a teen girl who is butch. She is also questioning her sexuality and is not sure if she is lesbian or straight. There are hints that she might be straight but the story really doesn't give you a conclusion about that. Even though not trans, this would be a good story to include in a collection about gender identity.
Read Cinders & Sapphires by Leila Rasheed.Like Kim said up above, this is a very bubblegum read. I didn't love it but it was ok. People reading for the m/m romance will probably be disappointed 'cause it's *really* slight.
It was kind of like the author read Maurice for inspiration (seriously, some of it seemed cribbed from there) and decided to throw a couple of gay guys into her story. But they're not developed as characters very much.
Hey, Kim, how was the second book?
Unfortunately, the gay characters got just as little development and attention in
Diamonds & Deceit
-- maybe even less, which is kind of ridiculous considering how much higher the stakes were in their D&D plotline than were those for the straight characters. I'm also frustrated about what happened with one of the two characters of color and how the other was essentially offscreen for the whole second book. It's really too bad; the author had the opportunity to be much more groundbreaking with this series.
Yeah, that sounds really disappointing. Thanks for your thoughts on it. I probably won't bother reading the second one at all.It's seriously even more disappointing since there still isn't lot of historical YA with LGBT characters. There is some, but usually they're in smaller roles. And I think most of the ones with them in major roles are lesbian, not gay themed.
Is there anything historical (published by a mainstream publisher) with a gay guy in the *lead* role? Closest I can think of is The Shell House, which is only half historical (parallel stories) and has the whole forbidden love between soldiers in the first world war.
Would be cool to see a proper m/m historical romance published for the YA audience. Or even just a historical story with a gay guy as MC. There's lots of fascinating time periods to explore. Maybe Berlin in the 20s? And there's World War II, what gay men had to go through during Hitler's regime, or during the Oscar Wilde period when men were blackmailed and jailed. Could be quite interesting!
Rainbowheart wrote: "Yeah, that sounds really disappointing. Thanks for your thoughts on it. I probably won't bother reading the second one at all.It's seriously even more disappointing since there still isn't lot of..."
The Celestial
Seidman
both gay historical YA with a romance (although Seidman has some magic - with Viking magic-working as a part of the story.)
Thanks Kaje. Those sound interesting, though both are by small presses so not exactly mainstream publishers. I'm waiting for like a YA version of Maurice to hit the local bookstores. That would be awesome, especially if there was an author with the chops to really write an in-depth historical story backed up by research into the time period.
This has got me thinking about trends in YA fiction. Maybe I'll go start up a thread for that!
Yeah, they're waiting for a name author probably - David Levithan or Alex Sanchez or someone. But you are right that the big presses are disappointingly fixated on the paranormal or the contemporary-angsty-problem YA story, especially in LGBT.
Oh, I want David Levithan to do it! I like his style. But he and Sanchez only ever seem to do contemporary.You know, even something not that far into the past would be interesting. There's never been a YA book about Stonewall, for example....
Or Levithan could do the eighties, the generation of his chorus in Two Boys Kissing...
He could, but that might be a little issuey. There were queer YA books published in the actual '80s, and most of them are angst filled coming out stories. The '80s were not the best time to be a gay or lesbian teen, what with Reagan and AIDS and so forth....Although you know there might be a market for a YA book about AIDS and *modern* gay teens, especially since all the kids nowadays are too young to remember when people were dying left and right. That's a scary thought (also makes me feel rather old). Some of the contemporary authors try to throw in safe sex lessons but it's rarely the focus anymore. I think Trumble had a book about it recently, but I'm not sure how well known her stuff is.
Rainbowheart wrote: "He could, but that might be a little issuey. There were queer YA books published in the actual '80s, and most of them are angst filled coming out stories. The '80s were not the best time to be a ga..."I always wanted Sanchez to give us Jeremy's story.
I'm actually writing a 20-yr-old HIV+ guy right now, but it's not going to be YA.
Oh, I forgot, there is actually a book about AIDS coming out next year, set in the early '90s. Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen. There were a lot of AIDS themed books published in the late '80s going through like the middle of the '90s, but then it dropped off dramatically.
That sounds good Kaje. We definitely need more. There are so many young guys who don't see HIV as a real threat.Wasn't there a YA book about "bug chasers?" I could have sworn I remember hearing something about that, but maybe I'm thinking of a television program. If there isn't one already, that would really be a good topic for authors to explore....
Read Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd by Holly Black.More short stories. Only one that was queer themed, but it was a good one....
"The Quiz Bowl Antichrist" by David Levithan, about a gay teen's participation in a national trivia competition.
I totally want Levithan to do a full length version of this one! He expanded one of his other short stories into a novel, so it would be awesome if he decided to do this one too. I liked the MC, even though he was sarcastic and a total jerk for a lot of the story, I still wanted to learn more about what made him tick, and I'd like to know what happened after the story ended.
Also read Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets by Linda Rowe Fraustino.Short stories again. Only one queer themed....
"The Secret of Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville.
The story is about a teen boy who gets the surprise of his life when his transgender aunt Gladys (formerly George) shows up at their house.
It was ok. It felt kind of .... I dunno .... dated? Even though this story is only from late '90s, the family's reaction felt really old school. I bet there are still people like this out there but the characters did seem awfully ignorant.
Also Love & Sex: Ten Stories of Truth by Michael Cart.More short stories, and three were queer themed....
"The Cure for Curtis" by Chris Lynch (straight boy has gay dream and freaks out about it)
"The Welcome" by Emma Donoghue (lesbian MC lives in women-only co-op, also has some MTF themes)
"The Acuteness of Desire" by Michael Lowenthal (gay MC finally gets to sexually experiment with his longtime crush)
So a pretty good collection overall, hitting the gay, lesbian, and trans experience, and also addressing questioning that might happen during the teen years.
Read Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork by Scott Hunt.This is a really cool concept for a book. These were stories inspired by paintings and each painting had two authors assigned to write about it. It was fun to see how the stories were both similar and different.
One was queer themed....
"Saying No to Nick" by Bruce Coville
It's narrated by Nick's dead best friend, who died accidentally in a secret ritual baptism they were performing. After his friend's death, Nick is haunted by guilt and shame and people's rumors that they were boyfriends. But in fact Nick did have feelings for his friend, which the friend (who is kind of like a spirit/ghost/angel) can now see and he must stop Nick from trying to commit suicide.
Also Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance by Rhoda Belleza.More short stories, all about teen bullying.
Some of the stories dealt with homophobic bullying, but only two had characters explicitly identified as queer....
"Inside the Inside" by Maya Lazara Dole (about a boy whose homophobic girlfriend torments a young MTF girl in their class)
"Still Not Dead" by James Lecesne (about a lesbian girl who is plotting suicide)
I just finished
A Life for Nicholas by Matt ZacharyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
A nice story but in serious need of some proofreading. I hope that the second installment is better in the editing process.
View all my reviews
Nice cover art at least. It's a pity when proofreading isn't good though - such a simple thing to do right.
Poor editing can really distract from a very good story. I wish the second part was available from Kobo as it would make purchasing it simpler. I did find it on Barns & Noble's site so should be able to get the epub version there.
YA LGBT Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Wicked Bargain (other topics)The Wicked Bargain (other topics)
Into the Deep (other topics)
Blue Flag, Vol. 1 (other topics)
My Love Mix-Up!, Vol. 1 (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Zaya Feli (other topics)Kevin van Whye (other topics)
Marco Donati (other topics)
Simon James Green (other topics)
Cale Dietrich (other topics)
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I recommend...
"Good Girl" (in Diverse Energies)
"One True Love" (in Foretold)
"Ghost Town" (in Defy the Dark)