LGBTQ characters in YA fiction & LGBTQ YA Authors
The Ultimate Gay Reading List
Note: All listings are alphabetical by author’s last name within their section.
We are still building our list! Send title suggestions to victoria@gayya.org or tweet them to us on Twitter!
LESBIAN CHARACTERS AND PAIRINGS
Gravel Queen by Tea Benduhn
How Beautiful the Ordinary edited by Michael Cart
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer
Down to the Bone by Mayra Dole
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
Good Moon Rising Nancy Garden
Sister Mischief by Laura Goode
Perfect by Ellen Hopkins
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner
The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
Torn by Amber Lehman
Gravity by Leanne Lieberman
Ash by Malinda Lo
Huntress by Malinda Lo
My Tiki Girl by Jennifer McMahon
Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle
Tripping to Somewhere by Kris Reisz
The End by Nora Olsen
Between Mom and Jo by Julie Anne Peters
Far From Xanandu by Julie Anne Peters
Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters
Rage by Julie Anne Peters
She Loves You, She Loves You Not by Julie Anne Peters
Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Grl2Grl by Julie Anne Peters
The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
Empress of the World by Sarah Ryan
The Rules for Hearts by Sarah Ryan
Inferno by Robin Stevenson
The Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan
Please Don’t Kill The Freshmen by Zoe Trope
Pink by Lili Wilkson
Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger
Love & Lies by Ellen Wittlinger
GAY CHARACTERS AND PAIRINGS
Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman
Baby Be-Bop by Francesca Lia Block
The Value of X by Poppy Z. Brite
The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron
How Beautiful the Ordinary edited by Michael Cart
Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers
With or Without You by Brian Farrey
The Screwed-up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson
My Heartbeat by Garrett Freymanm-Weyr
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
Jumping off the Planet by David Gerrold
Bouncing off the Moon by David Gerrold
Leaping to the Stars by David Gerrold
Two Parties, One Tux, and A Very Short Film About the Grapes of Wrath by Steven Goldman
Mariposa Club by Rigoberto Gonzalez
Last Exit to Normal by Michael B. Harmon
Geography Club my Brent Hartinger
The Order of the Poison Oak by Brent Hartinger
Jack by A.M. Homes
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Totally Joe by James Howe
Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin
Freak Show by James St. James
Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg
The Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey
Absolutely Positively Not by David LaRochelle
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Leviathan
Boy Meets Boy by David Leviathan
Wide Awake by David Leviathan
Love is the Higher Law by David Leviathan
Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne
Dramarama by E. Lockhart
The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy
Twelve Long Months by Brian Malloy
The Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr
The Straight Road to Kylie by Nico Medina
Hero by Perry Moore
Sunblood by Maria Mora
Shine by Lauren Myracle
Exiled to Iowa. Send Help. And Couture. by Chris O’Guinn
Sprout by Dale Peck
Blood Hound by Tamora Pierce
Do You Know That I Love You by Mark A. Roeder
Obscura Burning by Suzanne van Rooyen
In Mike We Trust by P.E. Ryan
Saints of Augustine by P. E. Ryan
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz
The Rainbow Boys Trilogy by Alex Sanchez
So Hard To Say by Alex Sanchez
Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai
A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan
Stick by Andrew Smith
Big Guy by Robin H. Stevenson
The Blue Lawn by William Taylor
Please Don’t Kill THe Freshmen by Zoe Trope
Peter by Kate Walker
Dishes by Rich Wallace
My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr
A vigil for Joe Rose by Michael Whatling
Bad Boys by Diana J. Wieler
Teenage Rewrite by Brandon Williams
What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson
Hushed by Kelly York
TRANS, POLY AND QUEER PAIRINGS AND CHARACTERS
I Am J by Chris Beam
Speaking Out– Anthology edited by Steve Berman
Mariposa Club by Rigoberto Gonzalez
Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde
F2M: The Boy Within by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
The End by Nora Olsen
Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Blood Hound by Tamora Pierce
Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
about 2 years ago
FEMALE/FEMALE PAIRINGS
Tripping to Somewhere by Kris Reisz is brilliant.
MALE/MALE PAIRINGS
Mariposa Club by Rigoberto Gonzalez features gay Latino boys (and a transgender character)
Vintage by yours truly
QUEER
Forthcoming anthology Speaking Out (Sept 2011) edited by yours truly offers inspirational and positive stories by many authors.
about 2 years ago
Female/female: Hard Love and it’s sequel Love & Lies by Ellen Wittlinger
Male/Male: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Totally Joe by James Howe
Many books by Brent Hartinger and Alex Sanchez
Trans: Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
For more ideas see the website: I’m Here, I’m Queer, Get Used to It.
about 2 years ago
Female/female pairings (and a thoughtful and deeply affecting book about sexual abuse and cutting) Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
about 2 years ago
Hero by Perry Moore is definitely my favorite ya lgbt novel. [:
about 2 years ago
For your Tarns/Poly/Queer category, I would suggest:
Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde
about 2 years ago
Thank you for all the suggestions everyone! These titles, and others will be added to the list shortly.
@Dressa: What category would Hero by Perry Moore fit into?
about 2 years ago
M/M pairing, told from the POV of a female best friend: Twelve Long Months, by Brian Malloy
F/F: A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend, by Emily Horner
And of course, a classic M/M: The Last Herald Mage trilogy, by Mercedes Lackey
about 2 years ago
Add Malinda Lo’s Huntress to the F/F list as well!
about 2 years ago
For M/M, the Rainbow Boys trilogy.
about 2 years ago
For M/M, ‘Boy Meets Boy’ by David Levithan is good.
Also, ‘Empress of the World’ by Sarah Ryan features a F/F romance but the protagonist IDs as queer (I think) rather than ‘simply’ gay.
about 2 years ago
Freak Show by James St. James
about 2 years ago
The End by Nora Olsen has lesbian, bisexual and lesbian to transgendered pairings. And I don’t see it on the list.
about 2 years ago
For M/M: ‘My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park’ by Steve Kluger
(I recommend this to students who tell me they like Glee.)
about 2 years ago
The following are all fantasy books, with M/M pairings and/or male gay characters:
A great fantasy series with a main gay couple is the Black Magician Trilogy. But it’s only at the end of the 2nd book that the relationship developes, but still, both characters are wonderfully written. My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough romance between them overall in the series, they deserved more!!
Robin Hobb’s Rain Wilds Chronicles has several gay characters too, including one main POV gay character.
Sarah Rees Brennan’s (she’s Irish!!) The Demon’s Lexicon series has a loveable main gay character, he’s hilarious!!
The Moorehawk Trilogy by Celine Kernan (Another Irish lady!) has a gay couple in the 2nd book.
These were all books I really enjoyed, so I highly reccommend them to all!
about 2 years ago
F/F
Grl2Grl: Short Fictions – Julie Anne Peters
Kissing the Witch – Emma Donoghue
Kissing Kate – Lauren Myracle
Dare Truth or Promise – Paula Boock
Wildthorn – Jane Eagland
Rosemary and Juliet – Judy MacLean
Finding H.F. – Juliat Watts
about 2 years ago
Holly Black’s Ironside has one of my favorite M/M pairings. It’s the last book of a series though, but all three books are great. Also, of course, Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series.
about 2 years ago
Great project and great site!
I’d add, also by David Levithan, Wide Awake, which is primarily about a gay boy, but there are lesbian characters and couples and sort of a utopia of queer diversity.
Some of my favorite coming of age books were not especially marketed to young adults, but I think very appropriate for them. For example, Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy follows a gay male tween through adolescence (partially memoir), and Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia is about a bisexual Pakistani immigrant teen. It’s just plain wonderful and funny.
about 2 years ago
I think you should add Tricks and Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. They both have gay characters in them.
about 2 years ago
Trans:
I Am J- Cris Beam
about 1 year ago
M/M pairing
The Screwed-up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson. Not only gay y.a., but one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
about 1 year ago
M/M pairing
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU – Brian Farrey
about 1 year ago
Amazing Science Fiction series is
The Starstrider trilogy by David Gerrold
Jumping off the Planet -
Bouncing off the Moon –
Leaping to the Stars –
The lead characters brother is gay and has a relationship through out the series. Set in a future where students can get financial assistance for school if they allow their sexual orientation to be changed in order to control the population.
Also “The Man Who Folded Himself” by David Gerrold
The main character is given a time machine and in some instances meets himself for some bizarre encounters.
about 1 year ago
Lesbian: “The Dark Wife” by Sarah Diemer (a lesbian retelling of the Persephone/Hades myth)
about 1 year ago
Hollowstone by yours truly.
Features a bisexual co-protagonist and a few gay supporting characters.
about 1 year ago
I haven’t been able to read it yet but my friend loved it – Unnatural (Archangel Academy #1) by Micheal Griffo
Paranormal/urban fantasy, romance
M/M
In the town of Eden in northwestern England stands the exclusive boarding school known as Archangel Academy. Ancient and imposing, it’s a place filled with secrets. Just like its students…
For Michael Howard, being plucked from his Nebraska hometown and sent thousands of miles away is as close as he’s ever come to a miracle. In Weeping Water, he felt trapped, alone. At Archangel Academy, Michael belongs. And in Ciaran, Penry, and especially Ciaran’s enigmatic half-brother Ronan, Michael finds friendship deeper than he’s ever known.
But Michael’s only beginning to understand what makes the Academy so special. Ronan is a vampire—part of a hybrid clan who are outcasts even among other vampires. Within the Academy’s confines exists a ruthless world of deadly rivalries and shifting alliances, of clandestine love and forbidden temptations. And soon Michael will confront the destiny that brought him here—and a danger more powerful than he can imagine…
about 1 year ago
M/M Pairing
Eight Seconds by Jean Ferris