YA LGBTQIA+

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ voices by reading young adult books written by contemporary LGBTQIA+ authors!


Compiled by:
Fern S. & Claire S.
Aces Wild: A Heist

Amanda DeWitt
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Dewitt)

Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school's basement. Everything starts falling apart when Jack's mom is arrested for their family's ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family's chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something's not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by whom: Peter Carlevaro—rival casino owner and jilted lover.


All That's Left in the World

Erik J. Brown
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Brown)

Putting their trust in one another, two boys, Andrew and Jamie, search for civilization in a world ravaged by a deadly pathogen, but their secrets could cost them everything as they try to find the courage to fight for the future, together.


Always the Almost

Edward Underhill
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Underhi)

Miles Jacobson's New Year resolutions include winning back his ex-boyfriend and winning the Widewest's biggest classical piano competition, but when a new, proudly queer boy moves to town, Miles reconsiders who is was and who he is now.


Before We Disappear

Shaun David Hutchinson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Hutchin)

Jack and Wilhelm, assistants to—and captives of—rival magicians, fall in love against the backdrop of Seattle's 1908 world's fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.


The Black Flamingo

Dean Atta
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Atta)

Michael is a multiracial gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he's navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican—but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough.


Cemetery Boys

Aiden Thomas
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Thomas)

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.


Cinderella is Dead

Kalynn Bayron
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bayron)

Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl's display of finery. Sophia tries to flee the ball, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella's mausoleum. Together with Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella, Sophia vows to bring down the king once and for all.


Darius the Great is Not Okay

Adib Khorram
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Khorram)

Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it's their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life.


Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating

Adiba Jaigirdar
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Jaigird)

Everyone likes Humaira 'Hani' Khan; she's easygoing and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can't be bi if she's only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she's in a relationship—with a girl her friends absolutely hate: Shita 'Ishu' Dey.


Jay's Gay Agenda

Jason June
(Young Adult Fiction - Y June)

There's one thing Jay Collier knows for sure: he's a statistical anomaly as the only out gay kid in his small rural Washington town. Then, against all odds, Jay's family moves to Seattle and he starts his senior year at a new high school with a thriving LGBTQIA+ community. For the first time ever, Jay feels like he's found where he truly belongs.


Lakelore

Anna-Marie McLemore
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mclemor)

Everyone who lives near the lake knows the stories about the world underneath it—an ethereal landscape rumored to be half-air, half-water. But Bastián Silvano and Lore Garcia are the only ones who've been there. Eventually, the lines between air and water begin to blur; the world under the lake drifts above the surface. If Bastián and Lore don't want it bringing their secrets to the surface with it, they have to stop it.


Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

Kacen Callender
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Callend)

Lark pretends that they are the creator of a viral thread that their ex-best friend, Kasim, accidentally posted onto their Twitter account, declaring his unrequited love. Eventually, living a lie takes its toll on Lark, forcing them to deal with their own messy emotions.


Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Malinda Lo
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Lo)

17-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. However, America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown.


Like a Love Story

Abdi Nazemian
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Nazemia)

It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing. Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS.


The Lost Coast

A. R. Capetta
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Capetta)

Danny didn't know what she was looking for when she and her mother spread out a map of the United States and Danny put her finger down on Tempest, California. What she finds are the Grays: a group of friends who throw around terms like queer and witch like they're ordinary and everyday, though they feel like an earthquake to Danny.


The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

Maggie Tokuda-Hall
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Tokudah)

A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.


Ophelia After All

Racquel Marie
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Marie)

Ophelia Rojas, well known for her rose garden and her dramatic crushes on every boy in sight, begins to question her sexuality and sense of self when she starts to fall for cute, quiet Talia Sanchez in the weeks leading up to their high school prom and graduation.


Out Now, Queer We Go Again!

Saundra Mitchell
- Editor
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Out)

A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features 17 new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. This essential and beautifully written modern-day collection features an intersectional and inclusive slate of authors and stories.


The Passing Playbook

Isaac Fitzsimons
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Fitzsim)

Spencer Harris is a proud nerd and an awesome big brother, and he's also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans; he's passing. So when a discriminatory law forces Spencer's coach to bench him after he discovers the "F" on Spencer's birth certificate, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even though it would mean coming out to everyone.


Pet
Pet

Akwaeke Emezi
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Emezi)

In a near-future society that claims to have gotten rid of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting 17-year-old Jam's mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster.


A Snake Falls to Earth

Darcie Little Badger
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Littleb)

Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli's best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven't been in centuries.


We Deserve Monuments

Jas Hammonds
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Hammond)

When Avery moves to rural Georgia to live with her ailing grandmother, she encounters decade-old family secrets and a mystery surrounding the town's racist past.


The Wicked Bargain

Gabe Cole Novoa
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Novoa)

Mar, a transmasculine Latinx pirate hiding magical abilities, must learn to use their magia to save their papá and newfound pirate familia from losing their souls to el Diablo.


You Should See Me In a Crown

Leah Johnson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Johnson)

Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed Midwestern high school. Instead, she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to the elite Pennington College, but when that scholarship falls through, she's forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships.


Graphic Novels
Beetle and the Hollowbones

Aliza Layne
(Juvenile Graphic Novels - J-GN Layne Beetle And The Hollowbones)

12-year-old goblin and witch-in-training Beetle enlists her former best friend, Kat Hollowbones, to help stop Kat's sorceress aunt from demolishing the mall where Beetle's friend Blob Ghost is trapped.


Gender Queer

Maia Kobabe
(Graphic Novels - GN 921 Kobabe Kob)

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it's a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.


M is for Monster

Talia Dutton
(Graphic Novels - GN Dutton M Is For Monster)

When Doctor Frances Ai's younger sister Maura died in a tragic accident six months ago, Frances swore she would bring her back to life. However, the creature that rises from the slab is clearly not Maura. This girl, who chooses the name M, doesn't remember anything about Maura's life and just wants to be her own person. However, Frances expects M to pursue the same path that Maura had been on and continue the plans she and Maura shared. 


The Magic Fish

Trung Le Nguyen
(Graphic Novels - GN Trung Magic Fish)

Tié̂n enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard to communicate with your parents, but for Tié̂n, he doesn't have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay?


Magical Boy Volume 1

Kao Studios
(Graphic Novels - GN Magical Boy v. 1)

Although he was assigned female at birth, Max is your average trans man trying to get through high school as himself. Max's life is turned upside down when his mom reveals an eons old family secret: he's descended from a long line of Magical Girls tasked with defending humanity from a dark, ancient evil! Can Max take on his destiny, save the world, and become the next Magical Boy?


Taproot: A Story About a Gardener and a Ghost

Keezy Young
(Graphic Novels - GN Young Taproot)

Blue is having a hard time moving on; he's in love with his best friend. He's also dead. Luckily, Hamal can see ghosts, leaving Blue free to haunt him to his heart's content. But something eerie is happening in town, and when Blue realizes Hamal's strange ability may be putting him in danger, Blue has to find a way to protect him.