Happy Pride Month! Once again, we present a unique array of newly published and upcoming queer fiction and in the coming weeks. Memoirs, nonfiction, and all the family-friendly queer books under the rainbow.
“Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” by V.E. Schwab, $29.99 (Tor)
Spanning three separate historical eras, Schwab’s brilliantly conceived newly published novel follows three interconnected sapphic vampires and their epic bloody adventures. Maria is the first character depicted where, in 16th-century Spain, she is stuck in a fruitless marriage until a mysterious herbalist becomes her only hope for escape.
The novel then shifts forward into 19th-century London where Maria, now known as Sabine (she takes the herbalist’s name after killing her) bites beautiful Charlotte, but their lesbian romance ends bitterly.
Finally, in contemporary Boston, we find Scottish Harvard student Alice who is struggling to reconnect with the woman who turned her, then disappeared. Schwab is masterful at creating sweeping backstories for each of these women and the result is an entrancing narrative that is dramatic, sexy, beautifully written and wholly immersive.
This book is huge and wonderfully atmospheric as the three women’s storylines eventually coalesce in exciting and bloodthirsty ways. Certainly, at nearly 550 pages, this one requires an investment in both time and attention, but you won’t even notice the book’s length once this epic vampire story begins. It will suck you in and hang on until the very last page. Stick your neck out for this amazing vampiric fantasy!
https://read.macmillan.com/
Victoria Schwab will sign and read from her new novel on Friday, June 13, 7pm at The Booksmith, 1727 Haight St. https://www.booksmith.com/
“Awakened” by A.E. Osworth, $29 (Grand Central)
Trans novelist Osworth’s fun and entertaining story about a coven of transgender witches has more than spooky October vibes embedded at its core. The story features Wilder, a 30-ish trans Brooklyn dweller who awakens on his birthday with the sudden ability to speak different languages.
This secret sense has attracted the astute attentions of a coven of witches each with their own special powers, all eager to convince Wilder to join them. Coven leader Artemis is a Seer; Quibble is a time portal jumper; and Mary Margaret is a plucky telekinetic teenager; each welcome Wilder into the group, and just in time for danger to strike and put their newly expanded coven in grave danger.
The trouble stems from a malevolent Artificial Intelligence program that threatens not just the coven’s stability, unique balance, and sense of unity, but everything that is based in reality within the world at large.
There’s a meaningful message running alongside the plot encapsulating the importance of queer community, establishing one’s own identity, and the precious energy and vitality which comes from belonging to a group of like-minded individuals. Read this for the kooky magic and witchery, but remember the philosophically resonant takeaways that are the true beating heart of this book.
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com
“It’s Not the End of the World” by Jonathan Parks-Ramage, $29.99 (Bloomsbury)
After the success of his debut modern gothic novel “Yes, Daddy,” Parks-Ramage returns with this new yarn chronicling the lives of queer men navigating homophobia, political opposition, a totalitarian government, and climate collapse in a futuristic world.
Gay couple Mason and Yunho are excited for their baby shower celebration despite the fires ravaging the LA region, their mounting money problems, and the poisonous pink gas blooming in the upper atmosphere. Both finally escape the catastrophe set out before them and head to a rural Montana communal ranch with their baby’s surrogate and her partner.
There’s an otherworldly plot development later on involving Mason and Mars, but that’s something readers will have to discover for themselves. If the story is a bit clumsy in the delivery, the details and the oddly intertwined storylines more than make up for it. This is a wild ride that spans a century in the life of two queer fathers in the future.
https://www.bloomsbury.com
“Summerhouse” by Yigit Karaahmet, $28.95 (Soho Crime)
Translated from the Turkish by Nicholas Glastonbury, this crime novel, and writer Yigit Karaahmet’s first book in English, takes the form of a queer relationship melodrama between pianist Sener and his husband, Fehmi, who have decided to spend their 40th anniversary together on a retreat vacation on Buyukada, the largest of the Turkish Princes’ islands. While enjoying their time away, a young teenaged boy named Deniz moves in next door to where they are staying and immediately catches Fehmi’s wandering eye.
Naturally, libidos are reignited, jealousies flare, and tensions ignite as the couple questions what the next years will be like after this development between lusty Fehmi and gorgeous barely legal Deniz. Also of note is the author’s excavation of a longtime couple’s struggle with navigating a queer relationship beneath the heavy oppression of Turkish society. This one is well worth taking to the beach.
https://sohopress.com
“Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity,” edited by Lee Mandelo, $18.95 (Erewhon)
There are twenty-two stories in this fantastic speculative fiction collection, masterfully compiled by editor Lee Mandelo, each brimming with plenty of literary gusto and imaginative worldbuilding, with nods to the enduring plight of queer survival, rebellion, and collective resistance.
Set in futuristic lands where equality has become an unattainable goal, tales like Ramez Yoakeim’s “Fettle and Sunder” hits close to home as a gay couple become terrorized by a violent anti-gay militia, or the revenge plot hatched by trans teenagers to settle the score with their anti-trans high school administration in Nat X Ray’s “Trans World Takeover.” But not all the tales are bleak and dystopian; most are uplifting and future-forward in the most promising ways.
This is particularly true in Sam J. Miller delivers “The Republic of Ecstatic Consent,” where queer communal joy takes center stage or the brighter future witnessed in Maya Deane’s “When the Devil Comes From Babylon” as a pair of trans teens stuck in a religious cult’s crosshairs manage to imagine better days ahead. This is just a sampling of what’s in store for readers of this wildly creative story collection. Don’t miss it.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
“Hot Girls with Balls” by Benedict Nguyen, $27 (Catapult)
This debut novel from the multi-talented Benedict Nguyen (a dancer, creative performance artist, and exercise enthusiast), pits two Asian trans girls against each other in the indoor volleyball arena. Late-twenties professional athletes Six and Green are also long-distance lovers and internet influencers who eagerly await participation in the upcoming professional volleyball championships.
They adore each other, but the competitive nature of their sport coupled with the intense requirement to garner as many followers as possible by revealing the details of their relationship to those followers has driven a wedge between them. Green is more reserved and wants to keep different aspects of her relationship with Six private, but Six isn’t having it and wants to continue upping the number of followers she has.
A rash of Asian trans murders and the thrill of the volleyball court soon go hand in hand in Nguyen’s wild and potent fiction as Green and Six must decide whether to use the murders as opportunities for much-needed trans visibility or just focus on the competition before them.
ttps://books.catapult.co
“Great Black Hope” by Rob Franklin, $28.99 (Summit)
This incredibly stunning and impressive debut by author Rob Franklin finds 25-year-old queer Black tech worker David Smith plunged into trouble when he is nabbed for cocaine possession while at a Hamptons house party.
The arrest and subsequent drug charges just seem to intensify the already traumatic recent death of his roommate and best friend Elle England. Smith hails from an affluent Atlanta family and when he tells his parents about his mounting legal troubles, they immediately hire a white lawyer to swoop in and save the day.
This calls into question class privilege and the messiness of racial divides and monied heritage. Franklin’s writing talents are on fine display here and the end result is a satisfying portrayal of a young man with several life choices ahead of him. Which path will he choose and why? This novel is a winner.
https://www.simonandschuster.com
“Songs of No Provenance” by Lydi Conklin, $28 (Catapult)
After the success story surrounding their 2022 feel-good queer story collection, “Rainbow Rainbow”, Conklin’s debut novel concerns an indie folk rocker who seems to become unhinged after finding great pleasure in urinating on a fan during a punk stadium gig.
Joan Vole is a favorite singer amongst her mostly lesbian fanbase, but after the self-indulgent pissing fetish exhibition at the gig, the time comes to embrace a few months away at a Virginia writing camp with limited wifi coverage and plenty of opportunities for self-reflection.
Conklin’s prose is pungent, and they delight in sharing the details of humid body odors rising up from crotches, and, of course, an odd preoccupation with piss, which will appeal to readers who prefer their queer fiction on the gritty edgy spectrum. Not for everyone, but for those inclined to partake in what Conklin has on offer here, it will satisfy and perplex in equal measure.
https://books.catapult.co
Lydi Conklin will sign and read from their new novel on June 19, 7pm at The Booksmith, 1727 Haight St. https://www.booksmith.com/
“Be Gay Do Crime,” edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley, $17.95 (Dzanc Books)
The 16 short stories included here courtesy of co-editors Llewellyn and Buckley focus mainly on the idea that, when push came to shove, these queer characters resorted to a life of crime to settle the score or to get what’s owed to them.
It’s a devilish premise and up to the challenge are a group of queer writers who are talented enough to drum up ideas like a trans Bonnie-and-Clyde scenario to steal much-needed drugs in Aurora Mattia’s “Wild and Blue.” S.J. Sindu’s “Wild Ale” presents a queer couple supremely challenged by the Covid-19 lockdown situation as frustration strains their bond until a certain type of fight actually reunites them in different ways.
“Redistribution” by Temim Fruchter shows how a life imbalance can be righted with just the perfect amount of justified theft. This collection is predominantly satirical but it’s also feisty and fierce in the best way possible. Readers with gritty outlaw persona hiding inside them will want to run to the bookstore and snag this unconventional collection as soon as possible.
ttps://www.dzancbooks.org
