The 16 best queer books for pride month and beyond

Smack in the middle of the calendar year, like a shimmering rainbow island in a sea of heteronormativity, sits the month of June: the first month of summer, sure, but also LGBTQ+ Pride Month, that thirty-day stretch during which every queer person faces an ultra-heightened risk of running into their ex whenever they leave the house. But Pride isn’t just a breeding ground for gay drama. At a time when anti-LGBT sentiment is increasingly getting codified into U.S. law, it’s more important than ever for queer people to loudly celebrate each other and lift up our community.

And despite the hostile political climate, queer stories are more prevalent than ever. Just speaking of movies, 2024 has already brought us a number of instant queer classics, such as Love Lies Bleeding and Challengers; Billie Eilish’s ultra-sapphic single “Lunch” recently broke the internet; and TV fans are spoiled for choice with series like Ripley. and the latest season of Hacks. As always, though, it’s this year’s literary landscape that I personally am most excited about: from essays and memoirs to Schitt’s Creek-esque sibling shenanigans, there’s a new release for every LGBTQ+ reader. Here are our favourite and most-anticipated queer titles of 2024.

How We Named the Stars

Grief and first love run alongside one another in poet Ordorica’s debut novel, which tells the story of a college freshman named Daniel coming into his queerness for the first time. Split between Daniel’s burgeoning romance with a classmate during his first year at school and a summer spent unearthing family secrets at his grandfather’s home in Chihuahua, Mexico, How We Named the Stars is a sweet, sensitive coming-of-age tale.

Broughtupsy: A Novel

In the wake of their little brother’s death, twenty-year-old Canadian Akúa decides to visit her estranged sister Tamika in their native Jamaica—a visit that only highlights Akúa’s alienation from her home culture. As Akúa desperately seeks connection with Tamika, she instead finds it in a Kingston stripper named Jayda, prompting Akúa to reckon with what it means to be both gay and Jamaican.

Greta and Valdin

Haters may say that it’s unrealistic for two of a fictional family’s three siblings to be gay—to which it would be fair to respond by chucking a Tegan. and Sara CD at that hater’s head. In Reilly’s delightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, the titular Greta and Valdin are the queer sibling duo of your dreams, supporting each other through career crises, heartbreaks, and family drama.

Thirst: A Novel

If it’s a sapphic twist on the paranormal you’re looking for, vampires are always a safe bet. In Yuszczuk’s feminist gothic fantasia, a 19th-century vampire and a modern-day woman encounter one another in a Buenos Aires cemetery, and their meeting ignites a fire between the two.

Like Happiness: A Novel

When an American reporter calls her asking questions about a fraught chapter from her past, Tatum’s happy life in Chile with her partner Vera gets thrown into limbo. The reporter wants to interview Tatum about M. Domínguez, a famous author recently accused of assault—and the man around whom Tatum’s entire life once orbited. Suddenly, Tatum finds herself reckoning with the consequences of a murky relationship she thought she’d long buried.

The Z Word

There’s nothing messier or more painful than trying to redefine your place in the local queer community after a devastating breakup… except for maybe trying to do exactly that amidst a mysterious zombie outbreak. Suddenly, chaotic bisexual Wendy is forced to join forces with her frenemies—including her dreaded ex-girlfriend Leah—to stay alive (and save Pride) in this gory, laugh-out-loud debut.

A Good Happy Girl: A Novel

Desperate to distract herself from a family scandal, high-strung attorney Helen is practically making a second career of hooking up with married lesbian couples. When she meets her match in Catherine and Katrina, Helen is quickly subsumed into an intense three-way relationship that leads her to confront a long-repressed childhood tragedy.

Bad Seed: Stories

In this collection of short stories, teenagers and young adults fall in and out of love as they congregate in nightclubs, on college campuses, and on the roofs of clocktowers. Whimsical and heart-wrenching in equal measure, Carle’s English-language debut is a vibrant romp through the queer Puerto Rican experience.

Perfume and Pain: A Novel

Dorn’s riotously funny third novel follows Astrid, a semi-canceled 35-year-old novelist living in L.A., as she reluctantly comes to terms with the fact that her old coping mechanisms aren’t so cute anymore. If you like your lesbian fiction campy and maximalist, look no further for your perfect summer read.

In Tongues: A Novel

A broke gay dog walker gets swept up in a wealthy couple’s orbit in this clever, lush novel from the author of 2021’s The Recent East. As 24-year-old Midwesterner Gordon gets more involved in Phillip and Nicola’s lives, he learns just how far his ambition and capacity for manipulation really stretch.

Some Strange Music Draws Me In: A Novel

It’s 1984 when high schooler Mel meets Sylvia, a tough, brash trans woman whose unselfconsciousness unlocks something within Mel. Over 30 years later, trans man Max—formerly Mel—finds himself back in his hometown following a professional setback and is forced to reckon with the consequences of that teenage summer.

Housemates: A Novel

In the first novel by The Third Rainbow Girl author Eisenberg, two queer housemates—Bernie and Leah—embark upon a road trip to fulfill a late professor’s complicated legacy. The result is a moving meditation on queerness, community, and art-making.

Trust and Safety: A Novel

When newlyweds Rosie and Jordan buy a rural fixer-upper, they quickly find themselves in over their heads—especially after Jordan loses his well-paying tech job. Enter Dylan and Lark, a startlingly attractive queer couple who offer to rent the house’s outbuilding and help with repairs on the property. But as Rosie becomes increasingly drawn to the new tenants, cracks begin to surface in her and Jordan’s marriage.

The Default World

Years after leaving the city behind, trans woman Jhanvi returns to San Francisco with a very specific mission: to financially exploit her situationship Henry’s wealthy techie friend circle. But she quickly finds herself drawn in by the idealistic, decadent community she initially set out to scam.

You're Embarrassing Yourself: Stories of Love, Lust, and Movies

As the filmmaker behind instant queer classics Appropriate Behavior and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Akhavan has already proven her skill at telling stories that resonate with her community. Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that her debut essay collection exhibits the same arresting immediacy and mordant wit as her movies—and her pull-no-punches perspective is just as much of a treat as ever

Cuckoo

The author of the grisly post-apocalyptic romp Manhunt is back with a second novel that promises to be just as deliciously nightmare-inducing as her first. In the summer of 1995, seven queer teenagers survived unspeakable supernatural horrors at a remote conversion camp. Sixteen years later, the evil of that summer is back in the world—and only those seven survivors can stop it.

This article originally appeared in harpersbazaar.com/us in June 2024

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