Whatever the status of your TBR in this new year, there are tons of LGBTQIA2S+ books slated for release in 2025 that we think are worthy of being added to your list. From biographies of transgender icons to sapphic retellings of Carmilla to new releases from beloved authors Ocean Vuong and Melissa Febos, it’s shaping up to be a banner year for queer and trans books, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
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Without further ado, here are the 15 most anticipated LGBTQ books of 2025 in order of release date.
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (February 4)
Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s Mutual Interest puts a queer spin on empire and capital in a complex tale of three individuals with overlapping needs. At the turn of the 20th century, Vivian Lesperance dreams of building an empire. She marries Oscar Schmidt, a middle manager at a soap company, for two reasons: He’s moldable and interested in men, leaving her to pursue women at her leisure.
They pair up with wealthy heir Squire Clancey to found Clancey & Schmidt, which quickly becomes the go-to manufacturer for personal care products as Vivian runs the show behind the image of both men. When Oscar and Squire fall in love, all three of them form a new kind of partnership—but when they face possible exposure, they struggle to keep everything they hold dear.
Loca by Alejandro Heredia (February 11)
Alejandro Heredia’s Loca follows best friends Sal and Charo as they chase their dreams in New York City in 1999. Both migrated for the chance at a new life. Sal struggles to move beyond his dead-end job and Charo finds herself trapped with a controlling partner, a new baby, and a supermarket job she’s had for years, leaving them both questioning whether this is truly better than what they left behind in their old countries. Then Sal makes a romantic connection at a gay club one night, and their worlds open to a vibrant social circle that drives them to make major changes, honoring themselves and their friendship in pursuit of something that truly feels like home.
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn (February 18)
Hungerstone joins the growing body of sapphic Carmilla retellings, with a sharp feminist twist from author Kat Dunn. As Lenore struggles to reconcile her soured marriage to Henry with her sudden desire for the vivacious and insatiable Carmilla against the backdrop of girls from the local village being consumed by a terrible hunger, she must come to terms with the role she’s played her entire life and decide whether she wants to change things or maintain the status quo. Hungerstone triangulates feminine rage, desire, and craving for a particularly delicious take on the source material.
They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran (March 4)
They Bloom At Night is the newest YA queer horror novel by Trang Thanh Tran, author of 2023’s She Is a Haunting. Following a hurricane, Mercy, Louisiana has been infected by a red algae bloom. Noon and her mother search for mutated wildlife in the water and trade it with the harbormaster, carving out something akin to a life in the aftermath.
In survival mode, Noon can ignore the monster under her skin and her memories of what happened to her at the Cove. But as people disappear and townies report strange knocks at night, the harbormaster demands Noon capture a watery shadow drowning residents. With his daughter, Covey, Noon attempts to find what’s tearing Mercy apart, her own monsters dogging their heels.
Woodworking by Emily St. James (March 4)
Culture critic, podcaster, and TV writer Emily St. James’s debut novel, Woodworking, follows recently divorced, 35-year-old trans teacher Erica Skyberg, who opts to keep her gender private as she teaches and directs community theater in Mitchell, South Dakota. Then, she meets 17-year-old student Abigail Hawkes, who becomes the school’s token trans girl and outspoken political protestor. Abigail doesn’t want to guide Erica through her transition, but her experiences motivate her to be there for her teacher.
Soon, their unlikely friendship comes under scrutiny from the community, calling into question who gets to be vocal about their identities and under what circumstances. In a love letter to friendship and womanhood, St. James presents a coming-of-confidence story about two people whose differences help them navigate troubled waters.
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters (March 11)
Stag Dance collects one novel and three short stories from Detransition, Baby author Torrey Peters. The titular novel follows a group of lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging company as they plan a dance that some of them will voluntarily attend as women. This provokes a strange rivalry between one of the biggest, strongest axmen and a young, pretty one, culminating in a shocking exploration of gender on the big night.
Peters’ stories are unrelated to the novel. “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” tells the tale of a gender apocalypse started by an ex-girlfriend; “The Chaser” follows a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school; and “The Masker” forces a young crossdresser to choose between two disparate guides during a party weekend on the Vegas strip.
Don’t Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo (April 8)
Don’t Sleep with the Dead is author Nghi Vo’s standalone companion novel to The Chosen and the Beautiful, her The Great Gatsby reimagining in which Jordan Baker is a queer, Vietnamese adoptee with magic at her fingertips. Don’t Sleep with the Dead follows Nick Carraway on the eve of World War II, haunted by the ghost of Jay Gatsby and his memories of the summer of 1922, which won’t leave him alone no matter how hard he tries to move on.
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory (April 8)
Beloved romance author Jasmine Guillory’s new book, Flirting Lessons, follows Avery Jensen, an uptight good girl fresh off a breakup and wants to shake things up as she approaches her 30th birthday. The problem is that she doesn’t know where to start. Then there’s Taylor Cameron, the biggest flirt in Napa Valley and an infamous heartbreaker, whose best friend bets her that she can’t make it two months without sex following her own breakup.
Taylor offers Avery flirting lessons to keep herself busy, assuming nothing will come of spending time with a woman whose closet seems to only contain business-casual clothing. But as they say, opposites attract, and Taylor might just lose that bet with her BFF.
Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom (April 8)
Zee Carlstrom’s Make Sure You Die Screaming follows a newly nameless, non-binary narrator who burns out on their corporate job and has a violent breakup with their ex-boyfriend, then goes on a serious bender. When their mom calls to report that their conspiracy theorist father with MAGA leanings has gone missing, they venture out on a road trip with a stolen car from Arkansas to Chicago to track him down. During the drive, their new best friend, a self-described “garbage goth” trying to escape a pursuer, helps them unpack the current moment and their childhood in a sharp commentary on class rage, poverty, gender, and the mother of all evils: capitalism.
When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris (April 15)
Denne Michele Norris’s debut novel, When the Harvest Comes, follows Black, gay protagonist Davis through an incredibly difficult emotional reckoning during what should be one of the happiest times of his life. During his wedding reception, he learns his father has been in a terrible car accident, which awakens decades of childhood trauma.
His father, the Reverend Doctor John Freeman, forced Davis to flee their home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio for a safer, freer life in New York where he could fall in love with whom he pleased, regardless of their skin color or gender. Davis’s mother has been dead for years. At the risk of losing his new marriage with his beloved Everett, Davis revisits everything that happened between him and his father and struggles to reconcile his inheritance with his memories and hopes for the future.
The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis (May 6)
Award-winning culture writer Niko Stratis’s debut book, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, collects essays about the surprising vulnerability of artists like Wilco, The National, Radiohead, and Bruce Springsteen, and how their music allowed Stratis to forge a new path as she came out as a trans woman in her late 30s. A love letter to the colloquial genre of “dad rock” and a deeply personal treatise on selfhood, this book is not to be missed.
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (May 13)
Ocean Vuong’s second novel, The Emperor of Gladness, follows an unlikely friendship between 19-year-old Hai and Grazina, an elderly widow with dementia, over one year in East Gladness, Connecticut. One rainy summer night, Hai stands on a bridge ready to jump when Grazina shouts at him from across the river, changing the trajectory of both of their lives forever. Through a two-person found family, Vuong explores empathy, grief, spirituality, labor, loneliness, and the meaning of community in a post-industrial American town.
So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis (May 13)
Award-winning novelist Caro De Robertis compiles the first-of-its-kind oral history of queer and trans elders of color in So Many Stars, including testimonies from over a dozen activists, community leaders, and more about how they created space for themselves and their communities in an inhospitable world.
These stories span decades of life, movements, survival, and major changes in American culture, showcasing experiences that are rarely (if ever) presented in history books but reveal the roots of a long march toward equal rights for queer and trans people of color without censorship or editing for an agenda.
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline (May 20)
Black, transgender icon Tourmaline honors late Black, transgender icon Marsha P. Johnson in Marsha, the first definitive biography of the activist who threw the first brick at the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Rooted in deep research about her life, Marsha explores her life as an activist and artist, from her performances with RuPaul and the drag troupe the Hot Peaches to the ways she’s inspired generations of queer and trans people even decades beyond her death.
The Dry Season by Melissa Febos (June 3)
Melissa Febos’s newest book, The Dry Season, follows her through a year of celibacy in her mid-30s after a disastrous two-year relationship. Since her teens, she had a “daisy chain of romances” and wanted to explore singlehood and the patterns that led her into one catastrophic relationship after another. During a year without romantic entanglements, her entire life changed.
Here, Febos draws connections between her experience of that year and the experiences of women like Virginia Woolf and Sappho, combining personal narrative and cultural criticism to recenter the conversation about sex and love.
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