Throughout 2024, novels that focused on queer characters and examined issues of sexual orientation and gender identity continued to gain ardent supporters among readers and booksellers, while LGBTQ-inclusive books continued to be the major targets of bans and mild censorship.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer books of 2024 were the subjects of a nationwide survey of NBC Out readers and booksellers. A sampling of what we heard is as follows:
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
According to Kelsey Jagneaux, events coordinator at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida, this book is eerie and strange, a queer and climate-dystopian rendition of King Lear.
“It perfectly reimagines the contentious daughters of this modern Lear while delivering all the heightened drama of its source material,” Jagneaux added.
Readers may remember Armfield’s impactful first book, Our Wives Under the Sea, which explored the tale of a lesbian couple on a deep-sea research voyage while balancing aspects of terror and the paranormal.
Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Julie Wernersbach, who owns Hive Mind Books, an LGBT bookshop and coffee shop in Brooklyn, New York, says that her favorite book is Coexistence, the first collection of short stories written by Indigenous author and scholar Billy-Ray Belcourt.
According to Wernersbach, these short stories focus on the inner lives of young, homosexual intellectuals who are profoundly reflective about their relationships with other men, their families, their jobs, themselves, their Indigenous identities, and the history of their Canadian land and ancestors.
I adore novels that openly address philosophical concepts, poetry, and the workings of the mind, and that place them in the same category as sex, desire, love, and family. Belcourt’s work is rich, complex, and nuanced; it heavily explores and works with concepts. Additionally, there is a lot of information regarding intimacy in this collection for those who have used apps like Grindr.
Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Samantha Puc, the coordinator of The Nonbinarian Book Club at The Nonbinarian Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, considered Emma Copley Eisenberg’s best-selling lesbian road-trip romp to be her favorite book of 2024.
According to Puc, Housemates is a stunningly queer interpretation of the classic American road trip book that raises relevant and present issues regarding art, relationships, and what keeps us going as we get older, particularly in light of terrible actors and the devastation they cause.
Eisenberg’s most recent work, The Third Rainbow Girl, a true-crime novel published in 2020 that examined a double murder in rural Appalachia, focuses especially on how her characters express their desires, emphasizing queerness and fatness while paying attention to complexity and how difficult it can be to figure out who you are and what you want when you’re young, in love, and in the spotlight, Puc continued.
Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi
Little Rot is described by Chelsia Rice, co-owner of Montana Book Company in Helena, Montana, as an exciting, spicy, and unnerving work of literary fiction with the most diversified cast.
The book, which takes its characters on a terrifying journey, starts with a breakup and then speeds forward, following five friends through the shadowy underbelly of a fictionalized Nigerian city.
The entanglement of chaos is sultry. It’s exciting and vicious, and no one is spared. All sexual orientations and genders are represented. Rice remarked, “This book just blew my mind.”
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
Part of the Cerulean Chronicles fantasy series, this book is the much awaited follow-up to The House in the Cerulean Sea.
Both books were adored by NBC Out readers, and they’re not the only ones: One of the best-selling fantasy books of the last ten years is The House in the Cerulean Sea.
Arthur Parnassus, the headmaster of an orphanage, is the subject of the books. He aspires to be the father of the mystical and dangerous children who reside there. Readers adore this series, which tells a tale of resistance and rediscovered family. The author dedicated the book to the transgender community.
Exhibit by R.O. Kwon
The relationship between two Korean American women who are drawn to one another and at a crossroads is examined in R.O. Kwon’s second book.
“This book is full of sexy sentences, shocking images, complex characters, and unexpected tender moments,” Rachel Knox, co-host of the Tombolo Book Club at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida, stated on the occasion. Two ladies with disparate artistic backgrounds collide at the ideal moment to create something greater than the sum of their individual contributions. I kept picking up this book and going back to certain parts, reading them again, and thinking they were small arias that were just right.
American Teenager by Nico Lang
Susan Post, the proprietor of BookWoman in Austin, Texas, suggested American Teenager as a nonfiction choice for those who are interested in true tales involving LGBTQ individuals.
According to Post, no other book that supports trans families has attracted as much attention to our business. She also mentioned that in a single weekend, BookWoman sold over 75 copies of journalist Nico Lang’s debut book.
According to her, American Teenager has had a significant impact on individuals who care about trans and other queer youth since it offers such a close glimpse into their life.
As the transgender community was being targeted by hundreds of state bills that sought to limit their access to gender-affirming care and sports, among other things, Lang explained in an interview with NBC News this year that they traveled the nation for almost a year to document the lives of eight trans teens.
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
The Pairing, a dual-point-of-view book about Theo and Kit, two bisexual ex-partners who have unintentionally booked themselves on the same European tour, is a favorite with NBC Out readers.
A hookup competition starts as they bet on who can have sex with their tour guide first after being surprised to meet one another. But are these two headed for a second-chance romance?
Pick up this book for descriptions of scenic European travels, food and wine and a blend of romance and self-discovery we ve come to expect from the author of Red, White & Royal Blue, One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler.
In Universes by Emet North
In Universes, a kaleidoscopic debut of parallel universes, is regarded as one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of the year. It may be read as a standalone book or as a collection of related short stories.
The book follows various versions of Raffi, a queer physicist who exists in a multiverse and searches for belonging and love as they cross space and time.
Charlie Crawford, co-owner of Montana Book Company, loved this and thought it was both interesting and unique.
On Strike Against God by Joanna Russ
Before being republished this year, Joanna Russ’s feminist novel On Strike Against God, published in 1980, had been out of print for decades.
During the social revolution and feminist consciousness-raising of the 1970s, Esther, a divorced professor, falls in love.
A bitingly funny coming-out novel about first love and first failure, it captures the pains and pleasures of coming into yourself and falling out of step with the world around you. The quintessential feminist killjoy, Esther is sharp, intelligent, compulsive, combative, and incredibly relatable. According to Ira Beare, co-operator of Bookends in Florence, which bills itself as the last lesbian bookstore in Western Massachusetts, editor Alec Pollak takes a generous and serious approach to contextualizing a contentious, challenging, and pivotal chapter in lesbian feminist history in this edition.
Beare added this book is everything a reissue should be perfect for mean lesbians, later-in-life lesbians, academic lesbians, archive enthusiasts (who do tend to be lesbians) and anyone interested in feminist literary history.
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