Book Lover’s Day: The Best LGBTQIA+ Books Ever Written
Books are so so important for the queer community. Not only can they be somewhere to escape when life gets tough, but they’re also a great way to explore your LGBTQ+ identity through characters you inexplicably feel like you relate to. Outside of queer theory, LGBTQ+ literature is only recently coming into canon, however, queer stories have been around for as long as the world has been turning - similar to the queer community!
So, to celebrate Book Lovers Day this year, we’ve come up with a list of the best LGBTQ+ books ever written, taking recommendations from inside the queer community to collate this mega blog. By no means do we think we’ve even scratched the surface of LGBTQ+ literature, so if we’ve missed your favourite queer title, please let us know so we can immediately add it to our reading list!
Queer Classics
These are all the titles we think should be studied in school, or those we would love to replace Lord of the Flies with if we had the chance - not to say that book wasn’t super homoerotic in of itself.
Song of Achilles: Madeline Miller
The Color Purple: Alice Walker
Call Me By Your Name: André Aciman
Giovanni's Room: James Baldwin
Big Swiss: Jen Beagin
Conversations with Friends: Sally Rooney
The Great Believers : Rebecca Makkai
Orlando: Virginia Woolf
Easy Reads
Books should be an escape, after all! This list includes all the books that you can’t seem to put down. They’re pure gay trash in the same way that BRAT is - which is the biggest compliment of all.
- Wild Things: Laura Kay
- Cleat Cute: Meryl Wilsner
- Red, White & Royal Blue: Casey McQuiston
- Delilah Green Doesn't Care: Ashley Herring Blake
- One Last Stop: Casey McQuiston
WLW Books
As they say in Mean Girls, the limit does not exist when it comes to re-watching Brittanna scenes in Glee reruns. However, it’s always nice to have some great WLW content for when Netflix catches you borrowing your family’s account.
Our Wives Under the Sea: Julia Armfield
Carol: Patricia Highsmith
Last Night at the Telegraph Club: Malinda Lo
Exciting Times: Naoise Dolan
- That Green Eyed Girl: Julie Owen Moylan
MLM Books
MLM characters and relationships have come far in literature. From previously being portrayed negatively or shoved in the background, these characters now take centre stage in some of the best queer titles out there…
- Tin Man: Sarah Winman
- Young Mungo: Douglas Stuart
- Swimming in the Dark: Tomasz Jędrowski
- Rainbow Milk: Paul Mendez
Queer Fantasy Books
After we all decided not to give that woman any more of our precious reading time, we had to fill our fantasy-shaped hole with something else.
Priory of the Orange Tree: Samantha Shannon
The Jasmine Throne: Tasha Suri
This is How You Lose the Time War: Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Six of Crows: Leigh Bardugo
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: Becky Chambers
- Crier's War : Nina Varela
Queer Non-Fiction
Because queer people really do exist!
Stonewall : Martin Duberman
The Transgender Issue: Shon Faye
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Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson: Emily Dickinson
- The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister: Anne Lister
- Before We Were Trans: Kit Heyam
- Strong Female Character: Fern Brady
The Stonewall Reader: Jason Baumann
Rainbow & Co: Top LGBTQ+ Picks
We asked the Rainbow & Co team for some of their favourite queer titles they would always recommend in a heartbeat:
“My favourite ever LGBTQ+ book is Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth. It’s a WLW coming-of-age novel set in rural Ireland and it's just written so beautifully with such raw language and imagery. It’s like every single thought or emotion I had growing up not realising I was queer had been captured - I read the whole thing in about three sittings. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is also on my list. It really lived up to the hype and the plot twists were so great, too. If anyone is into poetry, try Collective Amnesia by Koleka Putuma. Her poems are about being a black queer woman in South Africa and I’m pretty sure I spent half my time highlighting the stanzas - and the other half with my jaw on the floor.”
“The one book I encourage everyone to read, whether part of the queer community or not, is Shon Faye's The Transgender Issue. Every single word is used to punch holes in the toxic misconceptions around trans folk and call out the moral panic facing us. If you feel you need more information on the history and culture of trans people, The Transgender Issue is essential reading. I also have to give a shout out to my Pocket Guide to LGBTQIA+ Identities, the perfect pocket companion for clarifying the definitions and flags of different queer identities."
LGBTQ+ Bookshops Near Me
Now you’ve got a big new list of books to sink your teeth into, make sure to also support queer authors by shopping at your nearest LGBTQ+ bookstore (if you can.) Below is a list of queer bookshops in the UK:
Manchester: Queer Lit - also Europe's largest LGBTQ+ bookshop!
Edinburgh: Lighthouse Bookshop
Leeds: The Bookish Type
Birmingham: Proud Geek
Sheffield: Juno Books
Bristol: Aphra Books (in Sparks)
Glasgow: Category is Books
Belfast: paperxclips
Brighton: The Queery
Cardiff: Paned o Gê (in the Queer Emporium)
London: Gay’s the Word - also the oldest LGBT+ bookshop in the UK
You can find more LGBTQ+ books and resources online at Queer Liberation Library . This online library was first set up in light of the US book ban and has been a fundamental resource for LGBTQ+ readers ever since.
A big thanks to El, Vikki, Lizzie, Joe, Hannah, James and Lexi and for sharing with me their favourite queer books!
Something missing from our list?
We’re all ears! Send us your own favourite LGBTQ+ titles by filling out our contact form online or emailing info@rainbowandco.uk . We can’t wait to hear!
Tilly Brogan
Tilly is a queer Freelance Copywriter based in Manchester. She balances her time between working with LGBTQ+ organisations and women’s rights charities - and people watching in various Manchester cafes. She is also a proud lesbian. You can read more of her work here .
