Once a culturally rich world, the planet Aka has been utterly transformed by technology. Records of the past have been destroyed, and citizens are strictly monitored. But an official observer from Earth named Sutty has learned of a group of outcasts who live in the wilderness. They still believe in the ancient ways and still practice its lost religion – the Telling.
Intrigued by their beliefs, Sutty joins them on a sacred pilgrimage into the mountains…and into the dangerous terrain of her own heart, mind, and soul.
Representation Includes
- Lesbian protagonist of Indian descent
Content Warnings
Religious oppression; war and trauma; homophobic government; grief over the death of a girlfriend; allegories for Chinese Cultural RevolutionReviews
- Nicky’s review
- Kate’s review
- Charlie Jane Anders examines the entire Hainish Cycle, with a strong thread of The Telling’s place in it
- Reviews from South Asian reviewers needed
Where to Find
Details
- Published September 11th 2000 by Ace
- ISBN13: 9780441011230
A novel written in cyberspace, Nearly Roadkill is an Infobahn erotic thriller without any boundaries – virtual, sexual, legal, or otherwise. What-appears-to-be Boy meets what-appears-to-be Girl. But their world is the Net, where any persona – and any gender – can be created. They pose as a host of different personalities, switching identities and genders as quickly as they create passwords. Named Scratch and Winc, these two genderless beings cybersurf into the various worlds on the Net as they fight government intervention on this final frontier.
Representation Includes
- Non-binary transfeminine protagonist (Winc)
- Sapphic cis woman experimenting with gender presentation (Scratch)
- Both use ze/hir pronouns
Content Warnings
Many explicit cybersex scenes; other content warnings needed.Awards
- Longlisted for Otherwise Award
Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- First published 1996
- Original title: Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure
- ISBN13: 9781852424183
“Love and Comets” and Other Stories is a collection of stories, poems, and journal/memoir that I published on my website in 2016.
The title story, “Love and Comets”, is a space adventure and slice of life story. Maria Flores has been sent on a mission to save the Earth from several comets heading for it. In the time leading up to her leaving, she meets Hailey Wen and they begin a relationship.
The other thirty-nine stories are a mix of scifi, fantasy, contemporary, and surreal.
Representation Includes
- Flash fiction collection; focuses on stories about trans women, lesbians, and trans lesbians
- Many protagonists are sapphic Latina trans women
- Title novelette “Love and Comets” features romantic relationship between Latina trans woman and East Asian (cis?) woman
Content Warnings
Medical procedure, car crash and death of loved one in “What’s the Last Thing You Remember?”; transphobia expressed and rejected in some of the “Contemporary” and “Memoir/Personal” pieces.Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- Published July 10th, 2017
Raven, a trans girl from south London, wakes on a piece of ice floating on a frozen ocean. Adap, who has lived his whole life in a dying village just off the coast, finds her and brings her home. When she is told she must travel to the Golie Mountains, at the center of the world, Adap volunteers to take her. Together they navigate around a resurgent soviet-esque state that is at war with an ancient culture of gender-wild shamans. As they travel, she realizes that there is no one in this magical world who is not black, like her, and that every place they go seems uncannily familiar.
Representation Includes
- Black trans girl protagonist
Content Warnings
dysphoria, bullying related to being trans, forced biology revealReviews
Where to Find
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Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron’s new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.
Representation Includes
- Bi/pansexual Black protagonist, who is adopted
- Black WLW love interest
- The protagonist has two moms
Content Warnings
Stalking; on-screen murder of a parent; vivid descriptions of the effects of poisonous plants; immortal love interest for 17-year-old MCReviews
Where to Find
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What would the future look like if we weren’t so hung up on putting people into boxes and instead empowered each other to reach for the stars? Take a ride with us as we explore a future where trans and nonbinary people are the heroes.
In worlds where bicycle rides bring luck, a minotaur needs a bicycle, and werewolves stalk the post-apocalyptic landscape, nobody has time to question gender. Whatever your identity you’ll enjoy these stories that are both thought-provoking and fun adventures.
Featuring brand-new stories from Hugo, Nebula, and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders, Ava Kelly, Juliet Kemp, Rafi Kleiman, Tucker Lieberman, Nathan Alling Long, Ether Nepenthes, and Nebula-nominated M. Darusha Wehm. Also featuring debut stories from Diana Lane and Marcus Woodman.
Representation Includes
- Transgender and non-binary protagonists
Content Warnings
Help grow this entry by commenting below or emailing queersffbooks@theillustratedpage.net.Awards
- Nominated for the Lambda Award.
Reviews
- D.N. Bryn’s review
- More reviews from queer reviewers needed.
Where to Find
Details
- Full title: Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers
- Edited by Lydia Rogue
- Published December 8th 2020 by Microcosm Publishing
- ISBN-13: 978-1621065081
Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.
Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society—she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.
But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.
Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.
Representation Includes
- Bi/pan Vietnamese-American, adopted immigrant protagonist
- Multiple bi/pan supporting characters
Content Warnings
Racism and xenophobia; homophobia; pregnancy and abortion; domestic abuse; deathReviews
Where to Find
Details
- Published June 1st 2021 by Tordotcom
- Hardcover ISBN13: 9781250784780
Hadriana in All My Dreams, winner of the prestigious Prix Renaudot, takes place primarily during Carnival in 1938 in the Haitian village of Jacmel. A beautiful young French woman, Hadriana, is about to marry a Haitian boy from a prominent family. But on the morning of the wedding, Hadriana drinks a mysterious potion and collapses at the altar. Transformed into a zombie, her wedding becomes her funeral. She is buried by the town, revived by an evil sorcerer, and then disappears into popular legend.
Set against a backdrop of magic and eroticism, and recounted with delirious humor, the novel raises universal questions about race and sexuality. The reader comes away enchanted by the marvelous reality of Haiti’s Vodou culture and convinced of Depestre’s lusty claim that all beings–even the undead ones–have a right to happiness and true love.
From the introduction by Edwidge Danticat:
Despestre offers us the kind of tale we rarely get in the hundreds of zombie stories featuring Haitians, stories set both inside and outside of Haiti. In Hadriana in All My Dreams we get both langaj–the secret language of Haitian Vodou–as well as the type of descriptive, elegiac, erotic, and satirical language, and the artistic license needed to create this most nuanced and powerful novel.
Representation Includes
- Female central character who expresses attraction regardless of gender, and has sexual experiences with women and men
Content Warnings
Very sexual, with frequent and in-depth depictions of sex and rape; Sexual assault and sexual violence; death of queer characterAwards
- Winner of the Prix Renaudot
Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- Originally published in French in 1988
- Original title: Hadriana dans tous mes rêves
- Translated into English in 2017 by Kaima L. Glover
- ISBN13: 9781617755552
Common Bonds is an anthology of speculative short stories and poetry featuring aromantic characters. At the heart of this collection are the bonds that impact our lives from beginning to end: platonic relationships. Within this anthology, a cursed seamstress finds comfort in the presence of a witch, teams of demon hunters work with their rival to save one of their own, a peculiar scholar gets attached to those he was meant to study, and queerplatonic shopkeepers guide their pupil as they explore their relationship needs and desires. Through nineteen stories and poems, Common Bonds explores the ways platonic relationships enrich our lives.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic protagonists of various identities
Content Warnings
Content warnings for each story listed in the front of the book. Additionally, “Draconmōt Council of Human Study Report compiled by Usander Greystart” replicates some anti-Native American stereotypes; “Fishing Over the Bones of the Dragon” has discussions of dubiously-consensual sexual coercion or rape.Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- Edited by Claudie Arseneault, RoAnna Sylver, C. T. Callahan, and B. R. Sanders
- Featured Authors
- Published 2021 by The Kraken Collective
- Paperback ISBN-13: 9781775312970
One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother was shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it.
As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend’s trail of bread crumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organization with secrets of its own. Meanwhile, more people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase, and protests erupt globally, both for and against the monsters.
At the center is a mystery no one thinks to ask: Why now? What has frightened the monsters out of the dark?
The world will soon find out.
Representation Includes
- Ensemble cast including:
- Black bisexual protagonist
- Puerto Rican-American sapphic protagonist
- Biracial, bi-ace, trans protagonist
- Non-binary side character
- Polyamorous relationship
Content Warnings
Police brutality and shooting of a black man; implied sexual abuse of a minor; domestic abuse; drug abuse and overdose; loss of loved ones; suicide; mass shooting; goreReviews
- Theodore McCombs’s review
- Arley Sorg’s review
- Laura’s review
- Jessica Woodbury’s review
- K.J. Charles’s review
Where to Find
Details
- Published September 7, 2021 by Blackstone Publishing
- ISBN: 9781982603724