Infinity Son - YA Fantasy Where Two Brothers (One's Gay) Navigate an Alternate, Magical, and Violent New York

Infinity Son (Infinity Cycle #1) by Adam Silvera

Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers—a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of specters. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, specters take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures.

Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. The cycle of violence has taken a toll, making it harder for anyone with a power to live peacefully and openly. In this climate of fear, a gang of specters has been growing bolder by the day.

Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own—one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict and sets him up to be the heroic Spell Walker Brighton always wanted to be.

Brotherhood, love, and loyalty will be put to the test, and no one will escape the fight unscathed.

Check out the interview with Adam in Publishers Weekly where he spoke about this new series.

What's Queer about it? Emil is Gay, there are significant Bi characters, and a lesbian relationship in there, too.

Add your review of "Infinity Son" in comments!

The Cardboard Kingdom - a Young Graphic Novel (with an ensemble that includes LGBTQ Characters and Themes)

The Cardboard Kingdom, created, organized, and drawn by Chad Sell with writing from ten other authors: Jay Fuller, David DeMeo, Katie Schenkel, Kris Moore, Molly Muldoon, Vid Alliger, Manuel Betancourt, Michael Cole, Cloud Jacobs, and Barbara Perez Marquez.

Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters--and their own inner demons--on one last quest before school starts again.

In the Cardboard Kingdom, you can be anything you want to be--imagine that!

On the ALA's Rainbow List, this book was also named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, The New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. 

Add your review of "The Cardboard Kingdom" in comments!

Final Draft - 18-year-old Fat, Pansexual, Ecuadorian-American Laila Tries To Figure Out How To Be a Great Writer... and How To Live

Final Draft By Riley Redgate

Laila Piedra doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and definitely doesn’t sneak into the 21-and-over clubs on the Lower East Side. The only sort of risk Laila enjoys is the peril she writes for the characters in her stories. But just before her graduation, Laila’s creative writing teacher and number one fan is replaced by Nadiya Nazarenko, a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist who sees nothing at all special about Laila’s writing. A growing obsession with gaining Nazarenko’s approval leads to a series of unexpected adventures. With her sanity and happiness on the line, Laila must figure out if enduring the unendurable really is the only way to greatness.

Add your review of "Final Draft" in comments!

Daughter of the Burning City - A Fantasy Where a Bi Teen Girl Has To Solve A Series of Illusionary Murders

Daughter of the Burning City By Amanda Foody

Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival's Freak Show.

But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that--illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed...until one of them is murdered.

Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn't actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca. Their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina's illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all her loved ones disappear.

What's queer about it? The main character, Sorina, is bi, there's a lesbian secondary character, and Luca is ace-spectrum.

There's a great interview with the author here. Add your review of "Daughter of the Burning City" in comments!

Once & Future - Gender, Power, Revolution: King Arthur is Reborn as a Teenage Girl in a Futuristic, LGBTQ-Inclusive Universe

Once & Future By Cori McCarthy, Amy Rose Capetta

I've been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I've always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now I'm done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure.

What's Queer about it? Reviews (including this one) call out that Ari and her knights' identities span pansexual, asexual, genderfluid, nonbinary, gay, and lesbian.

With Starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, I can't wait to read this one! Add your review of "Once & Future" in comments!

The Pros of Cons - Three Teen Girls (A Fanfic Writer, a Drummer, and an Amateur Taxidermist) Meet at a Convention Center...

The Pros of Cons By Alison Cherry, Lindsay Ribar, Michelle Schusterman

Drummer Phoebe Byrd prides herself on being one of the guys, and she's ready to prove it by kicking all their butts in the snare solo competition at the Indoor Percussion Association Convention.

Writer Vanessa Montoya-O'Callaghan has been looking forward to the WTFcon for months. Not just because of the panels and fanfiction readings but because WTFcon is where she'll finally meet Soleil, her internet girlfriend, for the first time.

Taxidermy assistant Callie Buchannan might be good at scooping brains out of deer skulls, but that doesn't mean it's her passion. Since her parents' divorce, her taxidermist father only cares about his work, and assisting him at the World Taxidermy and Fish-Carving Championships is the only way Callie knows to connect with him.

When a crazy mix-up in the hotel lobby brings the three girls together, they form an unlikely friendship against a chaotic background of cosplay, competition, and carcasses!

Add your review of "The Pros of Cons" in comments!

Dactyl Hill Squad - Dinosaurs and Race in a reimagined 1863 New York (with a Trans Hero!)

Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older

It's 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker.

Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community--a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?

What's Queer about it? One of the heroes of this story is the pirate Redd, a trans man.

This Middle Grade title has won a LOT of praise, including being named A New York Times Notable Book, An NPR Best Book of the Year, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, A Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. 

Add your review of "Dactyl Hill Squad" in comments!

My Seventh Grade Life In Tights - A Boy Wants To Dance (and the real-world fuss is about the openly Gay secondary character on his dance crew.)

My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights by Brooks Benjamin

All Dillon wants is to be a real dancer. And if he wins a summer scholarship at Dance-Splosion, he’s on his way. The problem? His dad wants him to play football. And Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, says that dance studios are for sellouts. His friends want Dillon to kill it at the audition—so he can turn around and tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are.

At first, Dillon’s willing to go along with his crew’s plan, even convincing one of the snobbiest girls at school to work with him on his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders: what if studios aren’t the enemy? And what if he actually has a shot at winning the scholarship?

Dillon’s life is about to get crazy . . . on and off the dance floor

This is the book that I wrote about on Wednesday, that has "LGBT content," and for that content had a lot of drama at the author's school (Brooks is also a teacher), with "My Seventh Grade Life In Tights" being pulled from the school library and then, subsequently, only provided to students on the down-low.

I reached out to Brooks to find out more about the queer content of this middle grade book. Here's part of our correspondence:

Brooks: Hi, Lee!

This is something--especially with all the junk going on in today's world--that we need to be talking about. Thank you for being willing to share it. I know (as a teacher and as an author) that there are more books out there that have been challenged simply because of the characters (Alan Cole is Not a Coward, George, Star Crossed). In my book, Carson (who dances on the main character's dance crew) is openly gay. Sometimes I wonder if that's what has so many people all in a fix. The fact that he's not "confused or concerned" about his sexuality, but out and proud with friends and parents who love him.

Lee: wow - a happy, out and proud secondary character? Is his being Gay an issue in the book?

Brooks: He gets teased by some kids and made fun of a couple of times (it is set in east TN after all) and he acknowledges how it never doesn’t hurt to hear it, but his story isn’t about him crushing on another boy. His story is about his desire to compete because he wants to dance professionally one day.

So there you have it. A secondary gay character in a middle grade book is too scary for some adults to handle. What can we do? Help get the word out about this title!

Oh, I'm going to share one more tweet from Brooks' twitter account, from Aug 11, 2018, because it sums it up perfectly:

There are times we need to be silent. Times when we need to stop talking and listen. But silence when we’re seeing the silencing of others? That is always wrong. That’s when we need to find our voices. That’s when we must be our loudest. —Brooks Benjamin

Add your review of "My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights" in comments!

"The Hurt Patrol", "Beau, Lee, The Bomb & Me," and "Rusty Summer" - a trio of books about a trio of teen friends, including a gay teen boy and a fat-shamed girl

The Hurt Patrol by Mary McKinley

"Give me your nerds, your freaks, your huddled weirdos yearning to breathe free. Stick them in Boy Scout uniforms and you'll have ...a sorry bunch of rejects who will never make Eagle."

Welcome to the club... Beau has been scouting since first grade. Not because he loves it, but because his dad does. It’s the only thing they’ve ever bonded over, what with Beau’s dad being into sports, beer, and brawling. So when they move to yet another Midwest town, Beau expects the usual Boy Scout experience, filled with horribleness and insults. Instead he finds something else entirely. Kicked out of every other patrol, their little band of brothers is equal parts nuts and awesome.

For the first time, people are watching Beau’s back instead of throwing things at it. Nice. Novel. And also necessary, when you’re dealing with parents splitting up, crushes, first love, and coming out...

The first—and only—rule of Hurt Patrol:

We are never going to win—but if you’re outcast elsewhere,
...you’ll do just fine here."

"Beau, Lee, The Bomb, & Me" by Mary McKinley

"When Beau transferred to our school. I thought: Good; fresh meat. Because I knew he would be tormented the entire time he was at Baboon High. Like I am. All day…every day."

Meet Rusty, a junior at Baboon High, school year 2012-13. She's questioning everything and sure of nothing- except the fact you're doing it wrong.

In high school, there are few worse crimes than being smart or fat. So of course, Rusty's both. But when Beau blows into town, it takes the tools at their lame-ass Seattle school about two minutes to figure out he’s gay, and of course that makes him an even larger target. Have you ever heard the saying: ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’?

There’s something to that.

Rusty Summer by Mary McKinley

"With graduation a month away, I'm hitting the road with my best friends Beau, Leonie, and Leonie's awesome rescue dog, The Bomb. We've all got something on our minds. Beau is schooling our school for ignoring brutal bullying. Beautiful, crazy Leonie is striving to become a model. And I m drilling to join a local roller derby team The Rat City Roller Girls where my bulk is actually a benefit. But first, somewhere between finals and graduation, I need some answers. I need to see my dad. Face to face.
Unless he's moved without telling me, my dad is out in the wilds of Alaska somewhere remote, beautiful, and amazing, where there will be wild animals, and hot guys, and adventures and lies and heartbreaks. It's further from home than any of us have ever been. Sometimes that's how far you need to go to figure out exactly where you want to be."

Add your review of "The Hurt Patrol," "Beau, Lee, The Bomb, & Me" and/or "Rusty Summer" in comments! 

And check out this beautiful note from the author on the true-life inspiration for Beau.

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek and Girl at the Bottom of the Sea - Magical Realism YA with a lesbian, gender non-conforming mentor

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea, illustrated by Jason Polan

Everyone in the broken-down town of Chelsea, Massachusetts, has a story too worn to repeat--from the girls who play the pass-out game just to feel like they're somewhere else, to the packs of aimless teenage boys, to the old women from far away who left everything behind. But there's one story they all still tell: the oldest and saddest but most hopeful story, the one about the girl who will be able to take their twisted world and straighten it out. The girl who will bring the magic.

Could Sophie Swankowski be that girl? With her tangled hair and grubby clothes, her weird habits and her visions of a filthy, swearing mermaid who comes to her when she's unconscious, Sophie could be the one to uncover the power flowing beneath Chelsea's potholed streets and sludge-filled rivers, and the one to fight the evil that flows there, too. Sophie might discover her destiny, and maybe even in time to save them all.

Girl at the Bottom of the Sea by Michelle Tea, illustrated by Amanda Verwey

Sophie Swankowski is the hero from the stories she's been hearing all her life: she's the girl who will save the world. Or so she's been told. Now she and her unlikely guardian–the gruff, filthy mermaid Syrena–must travel the pitch-black seas from broken-down Chelsea, Massachusetts, to Syrena's homeland in Poland. Along the way, Syrena will reveal the terrible truth about her past, and teach Sophie about the ages-old source of her newly discovered power.
But left behind in Chelsea, without Sophie to protect them from the dark magic she's awakened, what will become of Sophie's friends and family?

There's a great review of these first two books in the author's planned trilogy here at Hidden Gems of Queer Lit. Add your review of "Mermaid in Chelsea Creek" and/or "Girl at the Bottom of the Sea" in comments!

Dumplin' - A body-positive, lesbian-inclusive, disabled-inclusive, drag queen-coached romp through a beauty pageant

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

Dubbed "Dumplin'" by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked...until Will takes a job at Harpy's, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn't surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant--along with several other unlikely candidates--to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any girl does. Along the way, she'll shock the hell out of Clover City--and maybe herself most of all.

My thanks to Karol for the recommendation. Add your review of Dumplin' in comments!

"Tag Along" - It's Junior Prom, and 4 Strangers are Thrown Together...

"Tag Along" by Tom Ryan

"It's junior prom night. Andrea is grounded for getting her older brother to buy booze for her, Paul is having panic attacks, Roemi has been stood up by his Internet date, and Candace is busy tagging a building (before she gets collared by a particularly tenacious cop). By happenstance, the four near-strangers end up together, getting into more trouble, arguing and ultimately helping each other out over the course of eight madcap hours."

What's queer about it? Roemi was dreaming that he and his date would be the first gay couple at prom!

Add your review of "Tag Along" in comments!

Fangirl - a college Freshman juggles hetero real-world romance with her fan-fiction homo romance!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life-and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.
Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

It's a New York Times bestseller... And the framing-story for Carry On, the gay-Harry Potter-esque novel that I loved, which is ostensibly written by Rainbow Rowell's character Cath. This book includes excerpts from Carry On's gay romance, which is why it's included as "Ensemble includes GLBTQ characters/themes." 

Add your review of "Fangirl" in comments!

The Change Series: Stranger, Hostage and Rebel - Post-Apocalyptic YA with an ensemble that includes a Gay Teen

Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.

Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.

Hostage

A team sent by King Voske captures Ross and takes him to Gold Point. There he meets Kerry, Voske’s teenage daughter, who has been trained to be as ruthless as her father. While his friends in Las Anclas desperately try to rescue him, Ross is forced to engage in a battle of wills with the king himself.

Rebel

In this perilous landscape, a schoolboy can create earthquakes, poisonous cloud vipers flock in the desert skies, and the beaches are stalked by giant mind-controlling lobsters.

The tyrant king Voske has been defeated, but all is not peaceful in Las Anclas. Ross’s past comes back to haunt him, Jennie struggles with her new career, Mia faces her fears, Felicite resorts to desperate measures to keep her secrets, Kerry wonders if Las Anclas has really seen the last of her father, and shy Becky Callahan may hold the key to a dangerous mystery.

In Rebel, long-held secrets of past and present are revealed, family ties can strangle as well as sustain, and the greatest peril threatening Las Anclas comes from inside its walls.

A note about this series: When the authors were shopping "Stranger' around, they had interest from an agent who said they would be happy to represent it -- but only if the authors made the one Gay protagonist straight. To their credit, Rachel and Sherwood said no and took the project elsewhere. I'm happy these books found their way to being published in this LGBTQ-content intact way!

Add your review of "Stranger," "Hostage," and/or "Rebel" in comments!

Orphan Blade - a YA Graphic Novel Adventure With LGBTQ Characters

Orphan Blade by M. Nicholas Almand and Jake Myler

Hadashi is a boy with simple dreams, but his life changes when a horrific accident maims his hand. Unable to hold a sword, he's kicked out of his dojo home. But the Orphan Blade is no ordinary sword. When Hadashi comes across the abandoned blade, he finds that not only is he able to wield it--the sword seems to be wielding him! He's not the only one interested in the Orphan Blade, though, and his ownership draws the attention of the Five Fingers of Death--a deadly group of mercenaries who have their own magical and deadly weapons.

Add your review of "Orphan Blade" in comments!

Felix Yz - a gay 13-year old boy is fused with an alien, and the countdown to separate them is on

Felix Yz by Lisa Bunker

"If it wasn't for the fused-with-Zyx thing, I suppose I would just be normal--whatever that means."

When Felix Yz was three years old, a hyperintelligent fourth-dimensional being became fused inside him after one of his father's science experiments went terribly wrong. The creature is friendly, but Felix--now thirteen--won't be able to grow to adulthood while they're still melded together. So a risky Procedure is planned to separate them . . . but it may end up killing them both instead.

This book is Felix's secret blog, a chronicle of the days leading up to the Procedure. Some days it's business as usual--time with his close-knit family, run-ins with a bully at school, anxiety about his crush. But life becomes more out of the ordinary with the arrival of an Estonian chess Grandmaster, the revelation of family secrets, and a train-hopping journey. When it all might be over in a few days, what matters most?

Add your review of "Felix Yz" in comments!

Not Your Sidekick - A Bisexual (And Lesbian And Trans) Superhero Story!

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

Welcome to Andover, where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, whom Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious “M,” who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.

Add your review of "Not Your Sidekick" in comments!

The Melody of the Gears: His Brother's Keeper - Science fiction, Magic, Revolution, and a teen boy's crush on a beautiful stranger who has lost his memory

The Melody of the Gears: His Brother's Keeper by Hazel Blackthorn

Paragon City: The last bastion of humanity on a dying planet. Within its desert embrace unfold the stories of many people: The workers at a famed brothel, the fate of a queen on the run, ladies who will not be used as tools any longer, A doll with a human heart, and a strange young man who can’t remember anything but his name. With his arrival in the unchanging city, everything is about to change.

Leo is the golden boy at Club Wisp: a famed brothel and secret base of operations for the Iron Mutiny. As the people’s resistance against a tyrannical monarchy and their demon allies as well as manning Paragon City’s entertainment industry, the Iron Mutiny has their hands full. Leo’s fate— and that of the endless war they’re fighting— changes forever when a beautiful amnesiac forces him into a magical Contract and out of his comfort zone. The fabric of their reality begins to unravel. Can the Iron Mutiny survive the biggest change of all?

The author shared about the book's LGBT+ elements:
"Leo makes his sexuality clear from the beginning, and struggles with romantic feelings for Julian, the beautiful stranger who has lost his memory from the start. There is also a romance between a FtM trans man (giving the name would be a spoiler!) and a cis man, and hints of a love between Diana and Diamond at the end-- which will be a main plotline in book two! The book also deals with some other walks of life that suffer stigma and oppression in the form of sex workers, people of color, and the poor."

This book was self-published by the author. Add your review of "The Melody of the Gears: His Brother's Keeper" in comments!

Outlander Leander - A Science Fiction/Fantasy series that includes LGBTQ characters (and treats them the same as everyone else!)

Outlander Leander: Vol. 1, Flute of the Wind Queen by Eisah

Leander is an energetic young man who wants to become a treasure hunter. When his dad is deployed he sees it as an opportunity to go on his first adventure; which unfortunately leads him straight into enemy territory. All ambition and no skill or experience, he stumbles his way around enemy camps to find the famous relic the Wind Queen left behind.

Outlander Leander: Vol. 2, Coronation Necklace

Frustrated by the work Ellora has been giving him, Leander is ready to quit when she reveals she knows exactly where the stolen necklace of the late king is. Unfortunately, it's in the hands of black marketers, and Leander quickly learns how violent they can get. A precarious situation forces him to continue pursuing them as he tries to evade both murderers and soldiers.

Outlander Leander: Vol 3, The General's Bust

Ellora has found the location of the remains of an ancient Naggian statue. The only problem? It's in Rhodaren, a country that Nagdecht rarely interacts with because of their location.
The Rhodarens aren't known to be violent like Geuranians are and Leander believes that the hardest part of his trip will be traversing through Geuran in order to get there. However, Rhodarens aren't what he thought they would be, and they have their own motives and goals.
Will Leander make it back? If the Rhodarens don't kill him the weather might.

Add your review of any or all of the self-published books in the "Outlander Leander" series in comments!

Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue: The International Best-Selling Fantasy Series And Its Queer Content

I'm really excited about these...

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill people with her bare hands since she was eight. Katsa lives in the seven kingdoms, where very occasionally, a person is born with an extreme skill called a Grace. Gracelings are feared and exploited in the seven kingdoms, and none moreso than Katsa, who's expected to do the dirty work of torture and punishment for her uncle, King Randa. But then she meets a mysterious stranger named Po, who is also a Graced fighter and the first person ever to challenge her in a fight. The two form a bond, and each discovers truths they never imagined about themselves, each other, and a terrible danger that is spreading slowly through the seven kingdoms.

Fire

Graceling's stand-alone prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.
Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.
Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Bitterblue

This is a companion book to both Graceling and Fire and takes place in the seven kingdoms eight years after Graceling. (Consider yourself warned: there are Graceling spoilers ahead!) Bitterblue, ten years old in Graceling, is now eighteen, and the queen of a kingdom still in recovery from the reign of its previous king, her father. The influence of Bitterblue's father -- a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities -- lives on in Monsea, in ways Bitterblue hasn't yet learned the extent of. Feeling hemmed in by her over-protective and controlling staff, Queen Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle to walk the streets of her own city at night -- and meets two thieves who hold a key to the truth of her father's reign.

And thanks to blog reader Rebecca Rabinowitz, here's the inside scoop about what's queer about this series:

GRACELING: Two men are a couple. This is not 100% explicit: readers sometimes ask about it and sound unsure, and it's able to be ignored or not seen if that's how a reader leans, but many, many readers see them as a couple.

FIRE: In the book's backstory, a woman had a relationship with another woman. Because this woman then falls in love with a man, she's pretty much bi. Yet, as in GRACELING, it's not 100% explicit: the backstory relationship can be seen as a very warm and affectionate and emotional friendship, if a reader insists upon it.

BITTERBLUE: Those two men from GRACELING are now an explicit couple. Also, there's an explicit woman-woman couple, an explicitly bi man who is new to the series, and an explicitly gay man whom readers will remember from GRACELING, though his sexuality didn't come up there.


Add your review of "Graceling," "Fire," and/or "Bitterblue" in comments!