Favorite LGBTQIAP+ Books that Don’t Feature AlloCis M/M Relationships

I originally wanted to post this for T5W this week but I didn’t manage to find time for it until now. I still couldn’t pass an opportunity to talk about queer books that aren’t what most people read.

It’s perfectly okay to read a lot of m/m and I completely understand that it’s easier to get into for reasons I’m not going to talk about now because I think they deserve their own discussion post. But if you keep only reading about allocis m/m, that’s not enough. I think we’re at a point where there are so many diverse queer books that reading exclusively m/m doesn’t give you the right to claim you read diverse, or that you support the LGBT+ community. If you only support the G in the acronym you need to take a step back and realize that you’re not being a good ally.

For brevity’s sake, this was T5W’s prompt:

Favorite LGBTQ+ Books That Don’t Feature [Allo]Cis M/M Relationships.
In honor of Pride being this month, I wanted to have a topic to celebrate LGBTQ+ books. But, the book community tends to, when given the chance, lift up [allo]cis m/m pairings the most. And while those books are still important and valued, I wanted to shine the spotlight on some of those lesser known, recognized, and celebrated books. 

I took the liberty to add that [allo], which wasn’t there in the original T5W prompt, because there are books with a cis M/M relationship where one or both characters aren’t allo (meaning they’re aromantic and/or asexual) and I don’t think it’s right to erase those types of books.

 

🏳️‍🌈 Not M/M:

• The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie: pirate girlfriends fight sea monsters and badass female villain. Rep: f/f relationship; Chinese lesbian MC, lesbian LI

• Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan: PJO but diverse and with the Norse gods. Rep: m/genderfluid relationship; unlabeled, (probably) pansexual MC, Mexican genderfluid (she/he) LI

• A&B by J.C. Lillis: musical competition rivals get together and deal with a viral video and watch an idol fall from her pedestal. Rep: f/f relationship; bi MC, black lesbian LI

• The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed: a modern intersectional feminist manifesto & girls fighting rape culture in America. Rep: f/f relationship; Latina sapphic MC and sapphic LI

• All Out: the No-Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by Various: it’s exactly what the title says, there’s plenty of f/f and some noncis m/m

• Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden: girls fall in love in the Eighties; the book itself got censored and burned in front of schools because it’s gay. Rep: f/f relationship, lesbian MC and LI

• The Pros of Cons by Allison Cherry, Lindsay Ribar and Michelle Schusterman: three girls attending different conventions become friends, plot revenges and improvise a podcast. Rep: f/nb relationship; Mexican-Irish homoflexible (=mostly likes girls) MC, enby sapphic LI

• Rock and Riot by Chelsey Furedi: queer Grease with every type of sexuality (including non-allo ones) and genders. Read here!

• Always Human by Ari Walkingnorth: girls in distant-future Australia fall in love and deal with life together. Rep: f/f relationship, sapphic MC and LI. Read here!

 

 

🌈 M/M but not allocis:

• The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic: morally questionable underdog team of made-up sport find their family in each other while MC is on the run from criminal family. Rep: m/m relationship feat. demisexual MC

• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman: focus on fandom, academic life and platonic relationships. Rep: side m/m relationship feat. ace-spec character

• Peter Darling by Austin Chant: trans Peter Pan retelling where Peter and Hook get together. Rep: m/m feat. trans MC

• Syncopation by Anna Zabo: band of queer rockstars do music together. Rep: m/m feat. pansexual aromantic MC

 

 

🏳️‍🌈 M/F but one of them is queer:

• Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody: proper young lady finds herself in a city of sins and magic and the only person who can help her is a street lord and con man. Rep: black bisexual MC (the guy)

• The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert: Scandinavian prince gets fake engaged to protect a woman’s life and they fall in love for real. Rep: black fat MC (she), bisexual MC (he)

Have you read any of these? What are your favorite queer books that aren’t all about an allocis M/M romance?

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

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