Some of the Best Queer Books I’ve Read in 2023
Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
Imogen has always known she’s straight, and is a pro at the ins and outs of being the perfect ally since she’s surrounded by queer loved ones. That is until she visits her best friend, Lili, at college and has to pretend to be her ex-girlfriend. After spending time with Lili’s friend, Tessa, Imogen realizes she might not be pretending to be bi.
Imogen is sincere, funny, and easy to see yourself in, and the story explores the nuances of identity, friendship, and self-image with deftness and compassion. One of Imogen’s biggest struggles includes a friend who believes they are the aribiter of all things queer, and I think the way she handles this relationship is kind and realistic. This would be a great book for questioning teens and adults alike. Based on Albertalli’s own less-than-stellar coming-out experience, this book is big-hearted, vulnerable, and peopled with characters its easy to love (and hate!) and it filled the Alice Oseman-sized hole in my heart.
Walking Practice by Dolki Min, translated by Victoria Caudle
After crashing their spaceship in the middle of nowhere, an alien uses their shape-shifting ability to hunt humans, going on dates and then eating them after sex. This habit continues until our narrator has one date go incredibly awry. But what this story is actually about is what it is like to be a person existing in a marginalized body—a queer body, a fat body, a disabled body, a body of color. Witty, surreal, and crass, this weird and delicate sci-fi is ultimately a desperate bid for connection. I cannot stop thinking about this book—it has such interesting typographical translator choices, strange interstitial illustrations, and a narratorial voice that has me in a chokehold. Dolki Min is a nonbinary Korean person, and I think their experience writing from a culture with a less-than-friendly context for queer people also makes this book super interesting. This is me using a just-trust-me card. The best thing I’ve read all year.
Other Ever Afters by Melanie Gillman
A collection of short stories, these new fairy tales are queer, feminist, and utterly entrancing. Illustrated with colored pencil in a style that immediately captured my eye, these stories are all new—not iterations, retellings, or a new spin on Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson. In this collection, you’ll find all the characters who often get left o the side—mermaids, knights, bartenders, children, farmers, old women—get their own stories and a new kind of ever after. What if the giant who stole you away was nice? What if the princess you fell in love with still struggled with duties to her kingdom? In the classic way of fairy tales, these narratives often don’t leave you with neat endings. Instead, the actual ever afters are often left up to interpretation. If you’ve ever wanted classic-feeling fairy tales with diversity and queer rep, this is the book for you—and truly, it is so pretty you should want it just for it to be actual art on your shelf.
The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson
We recently had the honor of hosting J.R. Dawson at our store for their book birthday, and it was truly such a delight. After meeting them at Heartland Fall Forum and learning that we would be doing an event for their debut, I excitedly dived into this new fantasy, and boy was I not let down. Featuring a circus run by Sparks—people with magic powers—as they try and outrun not only an evil circus but also try and prevent WWII from happening, the characters and astonishingly beautiful writing absolutely swept me off my feet. This story is about the transformative power of art and performance and how they can make real, appreciable change in peoples’ lives. It is also about the resiliency, persistence, and joy of queer communities, and how these communities are found everywhere, even in the pockets of the flyover states. The author’s own queer love story and Jewish faith inspired this beautiful story, and I think you’ll be as delighted by it as I was.
Chain-Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
This is a book that I absolutely cannot get over—Ellyn would not stop raving about it, and since we included it as a Dog Pack subscription pick, I decided that I needed to read it. And in a rather annoying turn of events, it was as amazing as Ellyn said it was. This story is about Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker, the stars of the CAPE program, a new “extreme sport” that allows incarcerated people to earn their freedom by participating in fights to the death for three years. They are links and lovers on the same Chain Gang, and they both absolutely stole my heart. Adjei-Brenyah pushes the edges of our current system of carceral “justice”, making the reader question what society is really trying to do when we lock people up. There’s so much I could say about this book—it’s brilliant, brutal, deeply affecting, formally experimental, and I know that reading it has changed me forever. Awe-inspiring and important, every good review of this book is underselling it.
Painted Devils by Margaret Owen
This book has my whole entire heart. I honestly don’t know how to talk about it because it feels so close to me, but I’ll certainly try. Our favorite little gremlin of a girl, Vanja, is back in this sequel that dazzles just as much as it draws on your heartstrings. After starting a journey to go visit her close friend better half boyfriend (?) Emeric, Vanja accidentally ends up starting a cult instead, resulting in Emeric and his boss showing up to see if a scam is going on. But the goddess Vanja thought she made up seems very real and wants Emeric as a sacrifice. On her journey to save him, she must also deal with all the questions about the family she thought she lost. Filled with adventures, heists, and a deliciously slow-burn romance with excellent asexual and demisexual representation, I cannot say enough good things about it. With a brilliant climax that features Vanja confronting her narcissistic abuser, this book is sure to speak to you if you have a complex family situation—a stand-out favorite that pulled me along breathlessly and left me in cathartic tears.
The Princess and The Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz
The moment I pulled this book off the cart to shelve it I fell in love. I immediately ran to the front of the store to show Jess and we were both utterly besotted, so of course I read it immediately over my break. In this delight of a graphic novel, Lady Camembert is left in a lurch after the death of her father—women cannot inherit in her country, not without marry a man, that is, and she simply will not do that. Instead, she dresses as a man and moves to the capital city to live as Count Camembert. What she doesn’t count on is falling in love with Princess Brie—and Princess Brie falling in love with the Count. This funny, enchanting graphic novel of queer romance will melt your heart with its cheesy puns and delectable story of love overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Its fanciful, charming, Bridgerton-esque illustrations bolster the already precious storyline and had me utterly smitten. It’s a gouda time, guaranteed.
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
This teensy volume could be a masterclass all its own on how to pack a whole novel’s worth of world-building into barely over 100 pages. Picture this—1920s detective noir + a deal with the devil + wizard lesbians = this little novella that packs a punch. Helen sold her soul 10 years ago to save her brother’s life, and she’s been given the chance to earn it back if only she can catch the serial killer known as the White City Vampire. Using a setting we know well with tropes that could be tired, Polk crafts something fresh, eerie, and bittersweet. I absolutely tore through this book all the way to its achingly heartwarming ending. We read this for Women from Other Worlds (our sff book club here at the store) and this was the first book I can remember that was universally well-received, and when I told our readers there was a full-length novel set in the same universe, you would have thought their favorite team just won the Superbowl. If you’ve never tried a novella, this is your sign to do so.
