Queer Book Tag 🏳️‍🌈

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was tagged for this by Madeline over at The Bookish Mutant. I really wanted to do it, but life was a lot at the time (and continued to be a lot for a good while after), and I was barely keeping up with my weekly reading roundups… so, it languished in my to-do tabs. But I never forgot, and I’m so excited to finally sit down and do this. As someone who mostly reads romance – and straight romance at that – tags like this are a fun way to highlight the queer stories I am reading, and it’s also a good barometer for how diverse my reading list is. For some of these questions, I had to look back a ways or really parse my book list to find a qualifying answer. For others, I knew immediately because it was fresh on my brain. So, it’s a good way for me to recognize the gaps in my reading and be more intentional about filling those. That said, I love every book mentioned below, and if you haven’t read them yet, I hope you will too.

QUEER FAVES: What’s your favorite queer book that you’ve read this year?

I reread Good Omens this year, and truly, it’s just so much fun and holds up really well. Crowley and Aziraphale forever! But I also want to shout out my other favorite of this year, a historical fiction novel called The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes. The history and the sapphic love story at the heart of this book really drew me in, and I highly recommend it.

LESBIAN: What’s your favorite f/f book?

Worth a Fortune by Sam Ledel and A Memory Called Empire (and its sequel) by Arkady Martine are both favorites. The former is a much more intimate story and a true romance, while the latter has romance in the midst of larger (truly galaxy-sized) plots, but both couples are fully realized, complex, and incredibly dear.

MLM: What’s your favorite achillean/mlm book?

Forces of Nature by Suzanne Brockmann – and all her Troubleshooters books featuring Robin and Jules, one of my top ships. While they’re story begins early and continues later, this is the big book for them.

BISEXUAL: What’s your favorite book with a bisexual main character?

Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles. Will Darling is another favorite character – he’s such a fun combination of laid back, hot head, and occasionally-violent sweetheart, ha. Honorable mention to Aral Vorkosigan, another great bi character from the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Oh! and Dani Brown from Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert, of course.

TRANSGENDER: What’s your favorite book with a trans main character?

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. This is such a strange book to describe, with its aliens and demons and donut shops, but it’s such love, and a lot of that is about the found family with a transgender teen at the center. If you haven’t read this book, please, please, do. You’ll fall in love too.

QUEER: What’s your favorite #ownvoices queer book?

Light from Uncommon Stars again!

ARO-ACE: What’s your favorite book with an aro-ace main character?

I’m not sure if it was intentional, but the heroine of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett felt like she was ace or at least demisexual. Although she’s been in romantic relationship before and a romance is brewing by the end of the book, she’s largely unconcerned by sex or attraction but appreciates people for their minds.

PANSEXUAL: What’s your favorite book with a pansexual main character?

Here is one of my gaps because I realized I’ve read hardly any books with truly pan characters, so I’m going with a supporting character from Emily Wilde. Wendell Bambleby was easily my favorite part of the book because he’s such a chaotic, amoral character who clearly just goes along with human ethics because fairy ethics upset his human friend. He’s also part house fairy, which is endearing and occasionally hilarious.

QPOC: What’s your favorite book with a QPOC main character?

Take a Hint, Dani Brown again! I love all the Brown sisters books, but Dani is definitely a favorite.

What queer books are you looking forward to for the rest of this year and/or the next year?

I’m a big mood reader, so we’ll see what catches my fancy! That said, this tag has me considering a couple of rereads… I wouldn’t mind revisiting this stories.

As usual, I’m not tagging but leaving it open to you. If you enjoyed this tag and want to have a go at it, be my guest! And send me a link, so I can see your answers and add to my reading list.

–b