The Underrated Queer Books That Deserve Your Heart (Read Now)
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There’s something soul-deep about lgbtq books that feel like home. The kind that wrap around you with found families, fierce love, and quiet truths. During Pride Month, it’s easy to get swept into the same five titles you see rated everywhere, but this space is for the diverse books, the stories you might’ve missed. The queer fiction that lingers. The science fiction worlds are built with both rage and tenderness. The books that hold space for kids finding language and families unlearning shame.
These are the LGBTQ stories that don’t just entertain—they help us learn, offer clarity, and remind us what it means to be fully seen. Whether published last week or years ago, each author on this list has given us a book worth remembering.
If you’ve ever stepped into a bookshop looking for something more, this is where your reading journey begins.
Why This List Matters
So many lgbtq books never reach the spotlight they deserve. When we only share the same five titles, we risk flattening the depth, beauty, and diversity of queer stories. This list is a celebration of diverse books—the kind of fiction that centers love, family, and the complex realities of lgbtq lives across genres, including science fiction, romance, and literary reading.
We highlight authors who deserve to be read, remembered, and cherished. These are the books that help us learn, grow, and see the world—and ourselves—more clearly. Whether recently published or tucked into the back corner of your favorite bookshop, each story offers a kind of truth that feels both quiet and revolutionary.
You’ll find titles that explore chosen families, tender queer beginnings, and the pain and joy of being fully seen. This isn’t just a roundup. It’s an invitation—to read with your whole heart, to discover new voices, and to rate and recommend the lgbtq books that deserve space on your forever shelf.
1. The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
YA Fantasy | Trans + Latinx Rep
In a vibrant fantasy world inspired by Mexican mythology, semidioses must compete in the Sunbearer Trials to prevent the apocalypse. Teo, a trans demigod of light, is forced to fight for survival—and identity—in a system stacked against him.
Why add it to your TBR: It’s a fierce, glittering fantasy that unpacks gender, class, and destiny with grace and fire. Feels like Percy Jackson meets The Hunger Games—but queer, brown, and radiant.
2. The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante
Contemporary Sci-Fi | Immigrant Story | Sapphic
After fleeing El Salvador, Marisol agrees to become a “grief keeper” in an experimental medical trial—absorbing the trauma of another to earn asylum. But what begins as a sacrifice blooms into a deeply tender sapphic love story.
Why add it to your TBR: It’s haunting, original, and full of aching hope—exploring trauma, immigration, and what it means to carry someone else’s pain.
3. The Center of the Universe by Ria Voros
Contemporary | Queer Family | Mystery
Grace’s mother—celebrity astrophysicist and public figure—vanishes without a trace. As Grace searches for the truth, she uncovers secrets about identity, queerness, and how complex love can be.
Why add it to your TBR: It’s a quiet story about daughters, secrets, and stars. Perfect for readers who want more queer family stories that aren’t only centered on coming out.
4. Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Southern Gothic | Queer Horror
Andrew’s best friend is dead. Everyone says it was suicide—but Andrew knows better. As he returns to a ghost-soaked Tennessee, he uncovers blood-deep secrets, academic obsession, and haunted masculinity.
Why add it to your TBR: If you loved The Raven Cycle but wished it was gayer, older, and darker—this is that book.
5. The Unbroken by C.L. Clark
Military Fantasy | Queer Women | Anti-Colonial
Touraine, a conscripted soldier, and Luca, a princess clinging to power, find themselves caught between revolution and empire. What unfolds is a brilliant, brutal exploration of loyalty, identity, and sapphic yearning.
Why add it to your TBR: Rich world-building + queer tension + big questions about power and survival. It’s perfect for readers who love politics with their slow-burn.
6. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Trans Rep | Found Family
A runaway trans violin prodigy, a deal with a demon, and a doughnut-making alien spaceship captain collide in a story about music, survival, and cosmic love.
Why add it to your TBR: This book is bizarre, brilliant, and full of heart. It’s about healing through art and finding joy after being made to believe you don’t deserve it.
7. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
Novella | Fantasy Folklore | Queer Nonbinary Lead
Cleric Chih journeys through a land of legends and martial artists, collecting stories along the way. Subtle queerness flows through a narrative that’s lush, mythical, and effortlessly lyrical.
Why add it to your TBR: If you love quiet power, queerness in fantasy that just is, and gorgeous prose, this is a hidden gem.
8. A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
Cozy Sci-Fi | Nonbinary Lead | Hopepunk
In a post-collapse world where nature and machines coexist peacefully, a tea monk and a robot cross paths to answer a simple question: What do humans need?
Why add it to your TBR: It’s healing. It’s soft. Queer. It’s the gentle science fiction hug you didn’t know your nervous system needed.
9. The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Afrofuturism | Memory + Trauma | Queer
The descendants of enslaved African women thrown overboard have evolved into merfolk living beneath the sea. Yetu, the historian of her people, must carry their generational memory—but what if she no longer wants to?
Why add it to your TBR: This novella packs myth, sorrow, and queer liberation into every sentence. It’s unforgettable.
10. Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
YA Fantasy | Queer Black Lead | Protest & Art
In a world of revolution, Bitter wants to stay safe inside her art school. But when angels and monsters come alive around her, she must decide what kind of world she’s willing to fight for.
Why add it to your TBR: A queer Black coming-of-age story that blends rage, hope, and beauty. It asks: What does it cost to make change?
11. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Historical Fiction | Sapphic | Coming-of-Age
Set in the shadowy theaters and gas-lit streets of Victorian England, this is the story of Nan Astley—a working-class oyster girl who falls for a charming music hall performer and tumbles into a world of disguise, desire, heartbreak, and reinvention. It’s bold, sensual, and brimming with queer yearning and survival.
Why add it to your TBR:
This book walked so sapphic historical fiction could run. It’s immersive, intoxicating, and unflinchingly honest in its exploration of identity, gender, and the cost of freedom.
Honorable Mentions: More Queer Gems to Discover
- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
- Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
- When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
- Wilder Girls by Rory Power
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
- Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
What queer books have stayed with you long after the last page?
Drop your favorite lgbtq+ books in the comments! I want to hear every story that broke you open and put you back together again.
Bookmark this post, share it with someone who needs it, or head to your local bookshop and bring one of these books home.
Because reading queer fiction isn’t just about visibility! It’s about family, love, and claiming our place on the shelf. Always.
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