Prideful Page-Turners: The 2021 LGBTQ+ Titles You Need On Your Shelf

To celebrate Pride Month, we’ve curated a rousing selection of LGBTQ+ centred books released this year. From sweet young adult fiction about new love and self-discovery, featuring gay boys and bi-curious girls, to an epic and genderqueer Chinese adult fantasy tale, we know you’ll find something that satiates those literary cravings.

1. Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (Adult Fiction)

Grace Porter is heading to Vegas with her friends to celebrate completing her Ph.D. in astronomy. She’s 28 years old and has always tried to live up to the expectations of her strict, perfectionist military dad. She’s the last person you’d expect to marry a stranger in a quickie Vegas wedding - but that’s exactly what she does. To escape the overwhelming pressure from her parents, academic burnout, and her failure in finding a job, Grace flees to New York with her new wife, Yuki. Despite her anxiety about the future, she wants to make a life with Yuki.

Honey Girl is far from a simple romance. With Grace, we explore the perils of being twenty-something, of finally leaving formal education, of being surrounded by good, caring people yet somehow - feeling completely alone. Roger's lyrical prose wills us, ever so gently, to disregard the expectations of those around us, to forge our own way and draw strength from our found family.

2. Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June (Young Adult Fiction)

This Queer coming-of-age story follows Jay, a 17-year-old senior, and the only openly Queer kid in his rural Washington school. In a desire to streamline the messy world of relationships, sex, and heartbreak, Jay curates a "Gay Agenda," a romance to-do list. When his mother gets a promotion, the family moves to Seattle. Soon, he finds himself caught up in the motions of the thriving Queer community - falling in love, having his first kiss, and getting his heart shattered - everything, while trapped in his rural hometown, he thought he would never get to experience.

3. Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler (Young Adult Fiction)

If you like the movie Grease, then this book is for you! With a decidedly Queer turn, Adler explores the world of a bi-curious teenage girl, torn between the guy she’s been crushing on and her sapphic summer adventure. On a journey of self-discovery, Lara struggles to come to terms with her identity as she finds herself caught between Chase, her forever crush, and her summer fling, Jasmine, who has transferred to her school.

The book alternates timelines, moving through both the present school year and the previous summer when Lara met Jasmine.

4. Black Boy Out of Time by Hari Ziyad (Nonfiction)

Black Boy Out Of Time is a memoir by Hari Ziyad, sharing his story about growing up Black and Queer in a multicultural, blended family in Cleveland. Goodreads praises Ziyad’s work as “Heartwarming and heart-wrenching, radical and reflective, Hari Ziyad’s vital memoir is for the outcast, the unheard, the unborn, and the dead. It offers us a new way to think about survival and the necessary disruption of social norms. It looks back in tenderness as well as justified rage, forces us to address where we are now, and, born out of hope, illuminates the possibilities for the future.” Ziyad's memoir, unrelenting in its honesty, is a necessary examination of the sociological issues both Black and Queer people face.

5. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (New Adult fiction)

Magic and fairytale love stories don’t exist. At least, not in 23-year-old August’s world. She’s a cynical, world-weary young adult who has recently moved to New York City and wants to prove that the smartest thing to do is live life alone.

During her daily subway commute, she sees a girl who captures her attention and becomes the best part of her day. She soon discovers that the girl seems to be stuck in time (the 1970s, to be exact) and becomes determined to set her free. This sweet and magical love story is brought to us by the author of Red, White & Royal Blue.

6. She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (Adult fiction)

She Who Became The Sun is a genderqueer reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of China’s Ming Dynasty. The year is 1345 and China is under Mongol rule. Two children from a famine-stricken village are given two very different fates: one of greatness and another of nothingness. Zhu Chongba is said to become great but soon dies from despair. His sister, who is not expected to become anything at all, takes on his identity and enters a monastery. She quickly learns her greatest strength lies in defying the fate that would be bestowed on her.

The author herself shared the following content warnings for the book: dysphoria, pre-existing non-consensual castration, misgendering, internalised homophobia.

This is just a drop in the ocean of the many Queer books on offer this year. You can dive further into the sea of rainbow literature by checking out your local bookstores for a wider selection of books to dig into or head over to Goodreads for more recommendations by LGBTQ+ readers and authors.