The best LGBT books are too numerous to count. From Greek poet Sappho to Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and English author Virginia Woolf, a whole kaleidoscope of writers have approached the joys and challenges of being queer with verve and vigour. This hasn’t always been an easy task, obviously. During the eras in which queerness was considered both a sin and a crime – as it still is, in certain corners – much of this was expressed between the lines, or using implied meaning for those in-the-know.
Now, we have a rich queer literary landscape. From this generation’s most talented writers – Ocean Vuong, Shon Faye and Andrea Lawlor, to name just a few – to the must-reads of prior decades, there’s so much to choose from if you want to read books by and about queer people. But where to start? While the below list is merely a handful of suggestions – for every inclusion, there’s another notable absence – here are some of the best LGBT books to add to your reading list if you haven’t already.
The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye
@proudgeekbookshop The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye is queer non-fiction about trans history and trans rights in modern day Britain. Looking for more queer history books that are easy to read but super informative this LGBT History Month? Check out the Proud Geek Bookshop. #queerhistory #lgbthistorymonth #queerbook ♬ original sound - Proud Geek Bookshop
Vogue columnist Shon Faye’s memoir, Love in Exile, came out just last year, but before you get to that, it’s definitely worth diving into her seminal 2021 book The Transgender Issue. Altogether, it’s an informative, incisive read on what it means to be a trans person in the UK today (though it’s worth pointing out here in the five years since its release, many of the issues affecting trans people in the book have depressingly worsened). From the rampant transphobia inherent to the British press, to how issues of social class, unemployment and housing insecurity affect trans people, Faye offers a clear-eyed and well-researched view on exactly where we are and how we got here.
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
When Sunburn came out in 2024, it very quickly became one of those books that sapphics passed between hands with some version of, “You have to read this.” Many books have been written about the all-consuming nature of first love – it’s a classic of the queer genre, especially – but few with such poetic flair and dart-like relatability as Howarth. The story is set in a small village in ’90s Ireland – a time and place where the conventional path of marriage and motherhood is expected – as one teenager, Lucy, becomes infatuated with her classmate. Their love unfurls over one sticky summer – but eventually, of course, it all must come to a head.
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
“The law said we needed to be wearing three pieces of women’s clothing. We never switched clothing. Neither did our drag queen sisters. We knew, and so did you, what was coming. We needed our sleeves rolled up, our hair slicked back, in order to live through it.” Leslie Feinberg’s novel is a blistering and incisive depiction of the lesbian and trans experience. Exploring the life of Jess Goldberg, a working class butch lesbian growing up in 1950s Buffalo before moving to New York, Feinberg sheds light on horrific police brutality and queer networks of community and care, and asks what it means (and what it takes) to resist. For an equally powerful meditation on butch identity, read Joelle Taylor’s recent TS Eliot-winning poetry collection C+nto & Othered Poems (2021).
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
@sboshmafu Carmen, the writer you are #inthedreamhouse #carmenmariamachado #booktok ♬ original sound - Sibongile Mafu
“You’re not allowed to write about this… Don’t you ever write about this. Do you fucking understand me?” Carmen Maria Machado’s “petite, blond, Harvard graduate” ex-lover once told her before unleashing a tirade of abuse. Years later, Machado indeed does choose to write about the toxicities of this particular relationship, and the result of that is this book. More than a straight-up account of an abusive queer relationship, though, In the Dream House is an exploration of both genre, form and gendered expectations. Vivid, colourful and compulsively readable, here is a novel that feels just as shape-shifting and slippery as its main antagonist.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Another fictional work that you won’t be able to put down (and luckily you won’t have to for quite some time because it’s a full 464 pages, each of them more riveting than the last). Here’s everything you need to know about Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker Prize-winning novel: it follows 12 characters of various ages, sexualities and social classes across modern Britain, each somehow interconnected despite their various differences. Through this, Evaristo explores issues of race, class and gender, with just as much focus on joy as there is struggle. Worth a read if you like burying yourself in a book and being completely transported.
After The Parade by Lori Ostlund
As Aaron Englund leaves his older partner after 20 years, his life packed up in the back of a truck, the past constantly infiltrates his chosen future. Relocating to San Francisco, disturbing recollections from childhood mingle with examinations of his time with Walter – a quiet, ordered man who wished “to serve as benefactor to Aaron’s wishes and ambitions, and so bind Aaron to him”. In breaking free of all that has tethered him, Aaron finds room to unravel a complex web of trauma and loss. After The Parade is a stunningly written book, deft in its understanding of love and alienation. For a very different slice of San Francisco, buy Armistead Maupin’s much-beloved Tales of the City series (1978-2014).
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Torrey Peters’s debut novel Detransition, Baby is one of a kind – funny, tender and unlawfully sharp. Prepare to have all of your ideas about gender, family and what it means to be a parent blown to smithereens. Set in Brooklyn and following three people – all variously cis and trans – as they navigate an impending pregnancy, as well as their own contradictory ideas about identity and community, Detransition, Baby will stay with you long after you finish the last page.
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
@elz.bookshelf Book review of Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta 📗 10/10 recommendation from @LYZA ✨ #booktok #books #bookish #booklovers #readers #blackbooktok #bookreview #bookreccommendations #booktoker #undertheudalatrees #chinelookparanta ♬ original sound - Ellen 📗🌻
In 2014, Nigeria’s then-president Goodluck Jonathan signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act with incredibly serious sanctions ranging from imprisonment to death. This sobering fact forms the author’s endnote in Chinelo Okparanta’s moving, sparingly written novel. A coming-of-age tale taking place against the backdrop of the Nigerian civil war, it focuses on a young Igbo woman named Ijeoma who struggles to reconcile faith, family and her sexuality. Coming to terms with being a lesbian in a culture hostile to homosexuality, Okparanta skilfully weaves between resignation and revelation – unstinting in her focus on the horrors of both war and deep prejudice, while offering a fragile note of hope. For an examination of LGBTQIA+ life in modern-day Nigeria told through a series of sprawling, magic realist episodes, try Eloghosa Osunde’s Vagabonds! (2022).
America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
Hero goes by several names. Named Geronima De Vera, in the Philippines she is known as Nimang. But on arrival in Milpitas, near San Francisco, her seven-year-old niece dubs her Hero. It’s a nickname both uneasy and fitting for a woman whose life has taken several distinct turns, from a wealthy upbringing, to a decade as a doctor in the New People’s Army, to two years of torture, to a new beginning in the US. Arriving with broken thumbs and a brittle exterior, Hero’s affections unravel slowly. Castillo’s book is sprawling and energetic: sharp in its interrogations of language, immigration and class, and bold-hearted in its depiction of Hero’s frank, unsentimental approach to sex and love – with things complicated and transformed by local beautician Rosalyn.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
When Leah returns after an unexpectedly prolonged deep-sea mission, Miri begins mourning the wife she once had. Julia Armfield’s Florence Welch-approved debut is several things at once: a magnificently creepy Gothic story about the unknown terrors of the ocean; a loving examination of lesbian domesticity; an unsettling portrait of what happens when the person you loved remains beyond reach, even when they’re sat next to you on the sofa. Armfield’s prose is supple and atmospheric, and her observations on the minutiae and private mythology of relationships beautifully observed. Like her short story collection Salt Slow, this is a narrative about unstoppable metamorphosis: the mundane colliding with the haunting.
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
“‘You gay?’ ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say I was gay. I’d just say I was enchanted.’” Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle made waves when it was first published in 1973 for its unapologetically raucous depiction of a “full blooded, bona fide lesbian” making her way around New York. It’s a giddy, often funny read about a wilful protagonist who is hungry for life and cares little for categories or the censure of others. On its re-release in 2016, Brown penned a new introduction reflecting on the book’s legacy. “If Rubyfruit Jungle helped to push you on your path to freedom, I’ve done something right,” she wrote briskly. “Onward and upward.”
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
@riayyoon one of the best books I’ve read so far - Giovanni’s room by James Baldwin #booktok #reading #literature #bookreview #giovannisroom ♬ original sound - ria
Giovanni’s Room condenses an incredible sweep of emotion into its scant length. Detailing the fraught relationship between American David and Italian bartender Giovanni, the former narrates the tale of their time together over a night leading “to the most terrible morning of my life”. This terrible morning, we soon discover, marks the day of Giovanni’s execution. With this looming, David recounts the trials and tumult of their love affair, and, in doing so, sketches a complex portrait of masculinity at war with itself. It is an astonishingly vivid novel, grappling not only with the heady contours of desire, but also the disturbing consequences of shame and self-loathing.
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
When I first read The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, I had to do so with a pen in one hand because there were so many lines that needed underlining. What it is about defies easy definition, but broadly speaking, it’s a memoir of love and marriage, of pregnancy and family-making, of the small acts of care and readjustment that occur within domestic units, all within the societal confines and personal expanses of the queer experience. Expect: lots of gender theory made digestible, and the sort of revelations you’ll be mulling over for a long time afterwards.
Women by Chloe Cadwell
At just 144 pages, Women by Chloe Cadwell is a mere slip of a thing, a length that reflects the swift and whiplash romance of its central protagonist. Essentially, Women is about a young “straight” woman who falls for a cocksure lesbian called Finn who is 19 years older than her and already has a girlfriend. It’ll appeal to anyone who’s ever fancied someone so much they’ve lost all sense of reason and logic – and also to anyone who’s undergone the living nightmare known as a “first sapphic break-up”.
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
@literaryfling loved this book so much. also it’s funny #virginiawoolf #orlando #modernclassics #books #literature @Vintage Books ♬ original sound - Stacey
Some novels are dialogues with difficult questions. Others aim to capture a particular history: cultural, collective, individual. A few are love letters. Orlando is all of the above. Inspired by and written for the magnetic, imposing Vita Sackville-West, with whom Virginia Woolf had a long affair, it follows the titular protagonist through three centuries of history, several romantic liaisons, one gender switch and a very lengthy poetic project. It is a pleasurable read, full of humour and warmth as well as searching examinations of gender, sexuality, power and artistic process. For another slightly giddy read about the slipperiness of gender, pick up Ali Smith’s Boy Meets Girl (2007) with its modern-day retelling of Ovid’s Iphis myth.
Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
What would happen if you transplanted Orlando to 1993 and added dozens more explicit sex scenes? The result would possibly look something like Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl. This raucous novel follows the adventures of Paul – also known as Polly – whose body is malleable, metamorphic, and endlessly hungry for pleasure. Able to physically transform at will, Paul revels in the sexual and romantic possibilities offered by numerous adjustments in face, height, torso, genitals and more. Slipping between guises and identities, the polymorphous Paul offers a lucid look at trans identity – as playful as it is serious. For another, similarly conversation-stirring novel about the complexities of gender, reach for Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby (2021).
Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam
They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but this adage doesn’t apply to Female Masculinity, whose cover is worth framing and hanging above the fireplace (I just might!). Halberstam’s 1998 book – now considered an essential work within the realm of queer theory – is remarkably readable for a subject that can at times feel a little hard to unravel. In it, Halberstam takes aim at the idea that masculinity belongs to men, instead arguing that women – drag kings, butches, trans dykes – have offered an alternative version of masculinity for hundreds of years. A must for anyone interested in sapphic history and culture.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
@barebookery Yes, the book was WAY better. Have you read this classic? Do you want to?👀 Because you should!! #litfic #booktok #bookclub #thecolorpurple #bookreview ♬ original sound - Bailey | Booktok 📚
A devastating, but ultimately hopeful narrative told in a series of letters from protagonist Celie to God and her sister Nettie, Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple in 1983. Detailing the stark realities of abuse, misogyny and racism in rural Georgia, Walker’s novel offers both a damning indictment of institutionalised and culturally encoded oppression, and the tremendous potential found in reclaiming one’s life for oneself. With the introduction of blues singer Shug Avery, it also becomes a love story – one in which pleasure and passion is reciprocated, and female solidarity provides great solace.
Carol by Patricia Highsmith
Published under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan”, the formerly titled The Price of Salt swiftly became a runaway hit. Inspired by a “blondish” woman in a mink coat who had made her feel “odd and swimmy in the head” while working at Macy’s (and influenced too by her relationship with heiress Virginia Kent Catherwood), Highsmith conjured a love story full of erotic charge. Documenting the unfolding relationship between 19-year-old Therese and thirtysomething Carol, it is a crisply observed story in which desire simmers and the constrictions of nuclear family life are stifling. At the time, it was praised for its open-ended suggestion of a happy future. In recent years, it’s enjoyed a renaissance thanks to Todd Haynes’s stylish film.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Language, lust, addiction and inherited trauma coalesce in Ocean Vuong’s debut. Written in the form of a letter from a son to a mother who can’t read it, Vuong combines the precision and lyricism of his poetry with the varied forms of intimacy that exist between lovers, between parent and child, and between the ill and well. Growing up with a Vietnamese mother and grandmother for whom war and violence have left deep imprints, the novel’s speaker Little Dog approaches the question of survival with searching intensity. Combining fragmented memories of childhood with an account of his first troubled love – Trevor, the 16-year-old son of a tobacco farmer – Vuong’s narrative of growing up gay and escaping is tender and heartbreaking.
Original article appeared on British Vogue
