Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a scfi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.
Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all costs.
Take them to the stars.
Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race.
But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history: an even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.
A darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them…
Representation Includes
- WLW main character (Mia)
Content Warnings
racism & racial slurs, antisemitism, homophobia, suicide, miscarriage, blood & gore depiction, body horror, forced institutionalisation, description of conversion therapy, grief & loss depiction, sexual harassment (allusions of rape and coercion), death of a child, death of a parent, genocide, gun violence, torture, car accident, animal deathReviews
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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
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
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The day before moving into her new dorm, college freshman, Maya Lilac, has a haunting dream that ends with her coming face-to-face with a second version of herself. After being haunted by the dream during move-in day, she finally comes in contact with her double, nicknamed “Lucent”, and learns that she actually has powers and can—among other things—make her dreams come true.
Maya’s heritage, however, runs deeper when she discovers that she’s the True Dreamer, a person reaching back as far as Joan of Arc that’s tasked with protecting her species, as well as the world, from any and all threats… including her seemingly-peaceful and non-combative double. But, not everyone shares Maya’s vision that her clone isn’t out to harm anybody, especially her mother. As Maya and her mother fight over whether Lucent is a legitimate threat, Maya trains in her now-active powers to fulfill her destiny of protecting the world, whether she has to take care of Lucent or not.
Representation Includes
- Bisexual protagonist
- Lesbian supporting character
Content Warnings
Help grow this entry by commenting below or emailing queersffbooks@theillustratedpage.net.Reviews
Where to Find
Details
- Published March 19th 2019 by Ja-Mel Vinson
-
ISBN: 9781732858
Dragons. Art. Revolution.
Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint.
One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.
But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics.
What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…
Representation Includes
- A non-binary protagonist from a Korean-inspired fantasy country
Content Warnings
War, death, violence, torture, imprisonment, earthquake, bombing, some characters discuss eating a cat but the cat livesReviews
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Kris Starr used to be famous. Rock and roll. Sold-out shows. Literal magic. Empathic talents and screaming fans.
But he has a problem or two. He’s having a hard time writing new music. It’s Midwinter, which means he’s surrounded by depressing holiday cheer. And he’s in love with Justin, his manager, who has a talent for rescuing almost- or once-famous bands … and who’s hiding secrets of his own.
Justin Moore, on the other hand, is very good at keeping those secrets — he’s had to be for years. One secret involves a demonic inheritance that would make him a target of suspicion. Another involves his past.
And the third involves Justin’s feelings for Kris Starr, rock and roll icon and now his client … and a powerful empath of his own.
Representation Includes
- Both male protagonists are bi/pan.
- Justin’s human heritage is Filipino-American.
Content Warnings
Fictional prejudice (anti-demon), offscreen violence (in context of domestic relationship), “outing” of demon hertiageReviews
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A mermaid’s supernatural beauty serves one purpose: to lure a sailor to his death.
The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.
Eighteen-year-old Meela has already lost her brother to the Massacre, and she has lived with a secret that’s haunted her since childhood. For any hope of survival, she must overcome the demons of her past and become a ruthless mermaid killer.
For the first time, Eriana Kwai’s Massacre warriors are female, and Meela must fight for her people’s freedom on the Pacific Ocean’s deadliest battleground.
Representation Includes
- The main character is sapphic and Indigenous from a fictional Northwestern Pacific Island
Content Warnings
gore, death, torture, animal death, abuseAwards
- Won the Best Indie Book Award
Reviews
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Peachy is on a mission: steal a priceless family heirloom. All is going according to plan until she finds herself teetering on the edge of death. She wakes up in a bizarre world and under the care of a strange woman who can communicate without spoken words. Little does Peachy know that by taking the amulet, she’s enacted a powerful chain of events and roused a deranged being who will stop at nothing to find her and retrieve the amulet.Noomi is Fae—a Seer and Shifter—who shares a unique bond with her sister, a two-hundred-pound mountain cat. Their days revolve around creating art, making maps, and enjoying pipeweed. Until the day that Peachy enters their world and plunges it into chaos.
The Taking is a tale of a powerful amulet—a gateway from one world to another. With Noomi’s help, Peachy must combat the forces working against them…forces that will stop at nothing to kill them both.
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Editor: Ann Roberts
Cover Designer: Sandy Knowles
Representation Includes
- Peachy is a lesbian, she is LatinX and black
- Noomi is a lesbian, she is Fae
- Minette is a lesbian, she is white
Content Warnings
Submitted by Author: The opening scene describes the main character Peachy being beaten.Descriptions of how another character has killed someone else and how she’d like to kill other people.
Reviews
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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