Hot queer summer is here, and I have the perfect reading recs for anyone who wants to heat up and queer up their bookshelf.
Gender Theory is unlike anything I’ve read before. It has the usual themes – coming-of-age, discovering one’s queerness, falling for your best friend – but this one has an added layer of complexity with topics of illness and disability. This story is unpredictable and takes you on a heart-wrenching journey you would not expect, highlighting the fragility of our bonds.
With the rise in everyone’s need for spicy fiction on TikTok it would be remiss of me not to add a sapphic romantasy novel on to this list! Saara El-Arifi’s Faebound is a level 5 on the spiciness scale. This Afro-Arabian world where Elves and Fae are sworn enemies and humans are extinct is titillating and enthralling. This is a queer read for someone who perhaps doesn’t want the realities of being queer at the forefront of the novel; here, queerness is more than accepted it is normalised, with no one batting an eye at anyone’s gender expression or sexual attraction. The story balances intense yearning with an intriguing storyline and great world building, which is a rare find in the world of romantasy.
Don’t let the title fool you, Trust and Safety is anything but safe. If you’ve read Blackett and Gleichman’s debut novel the quirky and queer The Very Nice Box, then you’re going to love Trust and Safety. The writing duo take everything from their debut and push it even further with this messy anti-romcom that you will NOT be able to stop thinking about. This satirical exploration of the ‘gay agenda’ is hilarious and witty, leaving no stone unturned and no community unscathed! Think Queer Ultimatum but with a cottagecore twist. It’s fun, light and the right choice for anyone bored of the typical romance tropes.
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth is the perfect novel for a sapphic summer. A coming-of-age queer love story set in 1990s Ireland where Lucy is desperately in love with her best friend Susannah but also deathly afraid of what her tight-knit community will have to say about it. Sunburn is a relatable read for anyone who’s dealing with or has dealt with compulsive heterosexuality, and the weight of potentially disappointing those around you with the truth of who you are. Read it while sunbathing in your garden but be warned… tears will be shed.
I read this Summer ‘23 by the beach on the island of Vis near Croatia, its beautiful prose and hard truths keeping me company. The protagonist David is imbued with feelings of uncertainty, emasculation and insecurity, yet he puts it aside when he meets Giovanni. For a moment, you believe the pair could be happy because you’re reading it on the beach and the waves are lapping rhythmically, then you remember it is a James Baldwin novel set in the 1950s and you have to make peace with the fact that everything will fall apart. It has a running theme of being too afraid to live the life you want and this having dire consequences for all those involved. If you want to be ruined, Giovanni’s Room is the book for you.