It’s that time again: the Goodreads Choice Awards. Of all the year-end best-of lists, this one is the most transparently a popularity contest. Every year, the initial round has at least some interesting choices, including—usually—queer and BIPOC representation. And every year, by the end, most of those interesting and diverse choices are gone. But hope springs eternal, and that’s why I’m sharing with you the queer books included in the opening round, so you can cast your vote and help them out.
Hot take: I have no shame in voting for books I haven’t read in the Goodreads Choice Awards. Almost no one has read every book in a category, so it’s already wildly skewed towards the most popular books—which usually means the books with the biggest marketing budgets. Diverse books have the deck stacked against them, so if I haven’t read a great book in that category, I always vote for the queer and BIPOC books I’ve heard good things about, even if I haven’t read them. But I’ll leave that to your discretion. Whether you’re voting for them or not, this is a good snapshot of the buzziest queer books this year.
Today, I’ve highlighted the adult fiction and nonfiction categories and included recommendations from Book Riot writers for our top one or two picks. As far as I can tell, there are no queer books in the Historical Fiction and Mystery & Thriller categories. The queer books in the Debut Novel and Audiobook categories were also included in other categories, so I’ve indicated that when applicable. I’ll cover the Young Adult categories next time.
As always, these are just the books I immediately recognized as queer; let me know if you spot any I missed!
Fiction:
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (also in Debut Novel)
It’s always nice when one of the biggest literary fiction titles of the year is queer. This is a bestseller that comes highly recommended by authors like Tommy Orange, Lauren Groff, John Green, Clint Smith, and more. It follows Cyrus, a twentysomething queer poet who has been numbing his pain with drugs and alcohol. His mother was killed when her plane was shot down over Tehran in a senseless act of violence by the U.S. military. His father recently died of a heart attack. As he becomes sober, Cyrus goes looking for meaning, and he finds it by researching martyrs. When he hears about an artist dying of cancer in an exhibition at a museum, he is determined to meet her. —Danika Ellis
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (also in Debut Novel)
This award-winning book follows siblings Greta and Valdin as they contend with an eccentric, multiracial family, queerness, and just trying to figure it all out. Valdin is doing superficially well after having been dumped by his boyfriend a year ago—his colleagues are only occasionally weird about his Maaori heritage, and he has intermittent sad sex with a friend—when work sends him from New Zealand to Argentina, where his ex is. Meanwhile, Greta has her own bubbling sadness. She’s experiencing unrequited pining, and her family is in a state made even more perplexing by her brother’s sudden, secretive move to South America. —Erica Ezeifedi
More queer books in this category:
Romance:
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
Theo and Kit were childhood best friends who fell in love and were inseparable into their twenties…until a fight on the way to their dream vacation changed everything. Now, it’s four years later, and the voucher for this food and wine-tasting tour across Europe is about to expire, so Theo books the trip solo at the last possible moment—only to find that Kit had the same idea. Stuck on the same trip for weeks, they hesitantly begin to rebuild their friendship. Along the way, they make a bet about who can sleep with someone first in each of the cities they visit.
This may be my new favorite romance novel. The descriptions of food and drink, plus the beautiful locales, make this feel so decadent. It’s steamy and sweet at the same time, with a heavy dose of yearning. —Danika Ellis
Romantasy:
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
An elf colonel banished from the army by her lover, the commander, soon finds herself in even worse straits when she unknowingly kills the prince of the fae—who are not even supposed to exist. Now, she’s a prisoner alongside her sister and best friend, facing the prospect of a swift execution. But when an obeah, a creature sacred to the fae, bonds with her, Yeeran’s life is saved. Still trapped in the land of the fae, and facing their ever-present loathing, will Yeeran and the others be able to escape before it’s too late? Or will they learn there’s more to the fae than they realized? —Rachel Brittain
More queer books in this category:
Science Fiction:
Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn
Set in 2050, Yours for the Taking tells the story of The Inside Project, a series of city-sized structures that is the only way to survive the elements in a quickly changing world. When Ava is accepted into the Inside Project in Manhattan and her girlfriend isn’t, Ava is forced to leave her whole world behind in an effort to survive. But on the inside, she finds a new world that welcomes her with open arms. Could this be the family and home she has always searched for? Or is there something else going on here? —Emily Martin
Fantasy:
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
This is an immersive Nova Scotia gothic that retells the selkie wife folk tale. When Jean was younger, she was caught kissing another woman, and her girlfriend was sent away to marry a man she’d never met. Since then, she’s earned the villagers’ grudging respect as a midwife by saving lives, but she spends most of her time in isolation on the outskirts of town. One night, she is woken up by the sound of a woman screaming. She finds the stranger in labor outside in the middle of a storm. She takes her in and helps Muirin, who doesn’t speak English, give birth. Jean finds out she’s her neighbor Tobias’s new wife. But why has her pregnancy been kept a secret? And why does Muirin seem reluctant to return to Tobias’s home? —Danika Ellis
More queer books in this category:
Horror:
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Chuck Tingle is back with his second horror novel! Misha is a gay screenwriter who has broken into the industry with a long-running series that was recently nominated for an Oscar. But executives have a plan for the next season finale: kill off the lesbian main characters “for the algorithm.” Misha refuses, but then characters from his horror movies begin stalking him—or, at least, people dressed up as them. He and his friends will have to survive being drawn into Misha’s own deadly plots, because Misha refuses to be scared into burying his gays. (Here’s a quick history of the Bury Your Gays trope, if you’re curious!) —Danika Ellis
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen
Roos is never alone: she has a spirit companion only she can see named Ruth. That’s always been enough company for her—until she meets Agnes during one of her seances. Agnes is a young widow who invites Roos to her crumbling estate. Their attraction becomes undeniable, but Roos’s new life is shattered when someone is murdered and Roos is the obvious suspect. Now, she’ll have to prove her innocence by finding the real killer. —Danika Ellis
More queer books in this category:
Memoir:
The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul
RuPaul had already made a name for himself as a premier drag queen and entertainer before the first episode of Drag Race. But since the show started, he’s become more iconic and has helped usher in a new era of Drag. Here, he offers a more intimate side of himself, detailing his life growing up as a queer Black kid in California, his time as a punk in Atlanta and New York, and how he found self-acceptance. —Erica Ezeifedi
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