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Every year this list gets longer and my heart grows right along with it. I’m ending 2023 filled to the brim with gratitude for the books that made me feel seen; for who I’ve been, who I am, and who I dream of being. I’m also blown away by the talent exhibited by this year’s debut authors. They have created worlds and bridges. They have dreamed up bittersweet futures. They hope and want and fear and love. Despite the world, despite the bans, despite the voices trying to drown their own: Trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive stories are here to stay, and they’re here to save.
Poetry
Freedom House
By KB Brookins
Deep Vellum Publishing
“In this debut full-length collection, KB Brookins’ formally diverse, music-influenced poetry explores transness, politics of the body, gentrification, sexual violence, climate change, masculinity, and afrofuturism while chronicling their transition and walking readers through different “rooms”. What does freedom look like? What can we learn from nature and our past? How do you reintroduce yourself in a world that refuses queerness?”
Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco
By K. Iver
Milkweed Editions
“Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco, selected by Tyehimba Jess for the 2022 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, is an aching tribute to the power and precarity of queer love. In small-town Mississippi, before the aughts, a child “assigned ‘woman’” and a boy “forced to call / himself a girl” love one another-from afar, behind closed doors, in motels. Years later, the boy–the eponymous beloved, Missy–dies by suicide, kicking up a riptide of memory. This is where K. Iver writes, at the confluence of love poem and elegy.”
Hood Vacations
By Michal “MJ” Jones
Black Lawrence Press, Inc.
“Michal “MJ” Jones’ debut Hood Vacations is a rhythmic & quiet rumbling – an unflinching recollection of Blackness, queerness, gender, and violence through lenses of family lineage and confessional narrative. The speaker of Hood Vacations tells of magic: of praying mantises, bathtub octopuses, Black ghosts, & bringing back “rainbow soap colors”. It is a book of passing – as, through, and on.”
GHOST :: SEEDS
By Sebastian Merrill
Texas Review Press
“Set on a remote island on the Maine coast, GHOST:: SEEDS incorporates elements of magical realism and myth to explore and trouble conceptions of gender and identity. The central tension of this book-length poem is a dialogue between a trans speaker and his “ghost,” the “girl-ghost” of the self that he left behind to become the man he is today.”
Binded
By H Warren
Boreal Books
“H Warren’s debut collection, Binded, discloses their reality of living nonbinary in the rural context of Alaska. With breasts bound by compression, these poems explore the space that binds the body into itself, stuck in unrelenting forces of binary politics and violence. Each poem is a stitching and restitching of the self—an examination of trans-survival. This is a courageous collection—an anthem of Queer resilience and a reminder of the healing powers of community care.”
More Sure
By A. Light Zachary
Arsenal Pulp Press
“In their stunning debut collection, A. Light Zachary draws power from a vision of life―especially queer and neurodivergent life―as a journey of continuous self-realization. These poems record the experience of locating oneself over and over again, within gender, language, family, labour, sexuality, fear, and love.”
Graphic Fiction & Non-fiction
The Chromatic Fantasy
By H.a.
Silver Sprocket
“Jules is a trans man trapped in his life as a nun. The devil that the convent guards against offers him a deal to escape: an illicit tryst and lifelong possession. Jules takes the deal, and begins his new life as a criminal who’s impervious to harm. He soon meets Casper, another trans man and a poetic thief, and together they steal, lie, and cheat their way through bewildering adventures, and develop feelings for each other along the way. But as Jules and Casper’s relationship deepens, so does the devil’s jealous grasp.”
In Limbo: A Graphic Memoir
By Deb JJ Lee
First Second
“Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Korea to the United States, she’s felt her otherness. For a while, her English wasn’t perfect. Her teachers can’t pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes—especially her eyes—feel wrong. Caught in limbo, with nowhere safe to go, Deb finds her mental health plummeting, resulting in a suicide attempt. But Deb is resilient and slowly heals with the help of art and self-care, guiding her to a deeper understanding of her heritage and herself. A debut YA graphic memoir about a Korean-American girl’s coming-of-age story—and a coming home story.”
Blackward
By Lawrence Lindell
Drawn & Quarterly
“Tired of feeling like you don’t belong? Join the club. It’s called the Section. You’d think a spot to chill, chat, and find community would be much easier to come by for nerdy, queer punks. But when four longtime, bookish BFFs–Lika, Amor, Lala, and Tony–can’t find what they need, they take matters into their own hands and create a space where they can be a hundred percent who they are: Black, queer, and weird.”
Enlightened Transsexual Comix
By Sam Szabo
Silver Sprocket
“The year is 2023. The astral plane has entered a tailspin. Fortunately, an ancient cosmological entity is on a mission to spread her fluidity across the galaxy. Our raw, uncut heroine roams the wasteland in defense of trans rights and trans wrongs. Will the Enlightened Transsexual convince humanity to chill out at last? Or will the planet choke on her filthy gags?”
Adult Fiction
The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher
By EM Anderson
Hansen House
“No one understands why 83-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, destined to save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction. After all, Edna has never handled a magical weapon, faced down a dragon, or cast a spell. Still, Edna leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. But as Edna learns about the abuse in the ranks and the sorcerer’s history as a Knight, she questions if it’s really the sorcerer that needs stopping—or the Knights she’s trying to save.”
Shoot the Moon
By Isa Arsén
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
“When intelligent but isolated recent physics graduate Annie Fisk finally lands a job as a NASA secretary during the Apollo 11 mission, the work is everything she dreamed. While she feels a budding attraction to one of the engineers, she can’t get distracted. Not now. When her inability to ignore mistaken calculations propels her into a new position, Annie finds herself torn between her ambition, her heart, and a mysterious discovery that upends everything she knows to be scientifically true. Can she overcome her doubts and reach beyond the limits of time and space?”
Board to Death
By CJ Connor
Kenzington Cozies
“Once, Ben Rosencrantz was a happily married English professor in Seattle. Now he’s a divorced caregiver figuring out the rules of retail management. At least the flower shop owner, Ezra McCaslin, enjoys flirting with him. When a local toy and game collector named Clive offers him a winning strategy-to purchase a turn-of-the-twentieth-century edition of The Landlord’s Game at a tenth of the rare edition’s true value. Suspicious of Clive’s shady, low-priced deal, Ben turns the offer down. Then Clive turns up dead and a backpack full of $100 bills appears on Ben’s doorstep. Now Ben is the #1 suspect in Clive’s death, and unless he and Ezra can prove his innocence and find the real killer, he’ll go to jail for murder.”
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
By Marissa (Mac) Crane
Catapult
“In a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second shadow as a reminder of their crime. Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world.”
The First Bright Thing
By J.R. Dawson
Tor Books
“Ringmaster—Rin, to those who know her best—can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks. With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top. But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.”
Bellies
By Nicola Dinan
Hanover Square Press
“While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition. From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their relationship. Each must answer the essential question: Is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?”
OKPsyche
By Anya Johanna Dinero
Small Beer Press
“In this playful and aching short novel, an unnamed trans woman is on an epic journey to find the place where she belongs. As she navigates her many realities, she must wrestle with anxieties and fears about the world. Her son and her ex live in another state. Environmental disasters are being outsourced to the Midwest. She can’t decide whether or not to unbox the companion automaton under her bed. And some of her friends may not just be ghosting her, they might not even be real.”
Pony Boy
By Eliot Duncan
W.W. Norton & Company
“Ponyboy unravels in his Paris apartment. Cut to the bar. Cut to the back room. Ponyboy is strung out and struggling. He is falling into the widening chasm between who he is—trans, electrically so—and the blank canvas his girlfriend, Baby, wants him to be. In precise, atmospheric prose, Eliot Duncan’s debut novel lays bare the innate splendor, joy, and ache of becoming one’s self.”
Wild Geese
By Soula Emmanuel
Feminist Press
“Phoebe Forde has a new home, a new name, and is newly thirty. An Irish transplant and PhD candidate, she’s overeducated and underpaid, but finally settling into her new life in Copenhagen. Almost three years into her gender transition, Phoebe has learned to move through the world carefully, savoring small moments of joy. After all, a woman without a past can be anyone she wants. But an unexpected visit from her ex-girlfriend Grace brings back memories of Dublin and the life she thought she’d left behind.”
The Infinite Miles
By Hannah Fergesen
Blackstone Publishing
“Three years after her best friend Peggy went missing, Harper Starling is lost. Lost in her dead-end job, lost in her grief. All she has are regrets and reruns of her favorite science fiction show, Infinite Odyssey. Then Peggy returns and demands to be taken to the Argonaut, the fictional main character of Infinite Odyssey. But the Argonaut is just that … fictional. Until the TV hero himself appears and explains that Peggy used to travel with him but is now under the thrall of an alien enemy known as the Incarnate–one that has destroyed countless solar systems. Then he leaves Harper in 1971, where she must find a way to end the Incarnate’s thrall.”
World Running Down
By Al Hess
Angry Robot
“Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City – a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition is free, the food is plentiful, and folk are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream, until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric, a powerful AI forced into an android body against his will.”
Endpapers
By Jennifer Savran Kelly
Algonquin Books
“Dawn Levit is a bookbinder and spends all day repairing old books. Although she doesn’t have a word for it yet, Dawn is genderqueer, and with a partner who wishes she were a man and a society that wants her to be a woman, she’s struggling to feel safe expressing herself. One day at work, Dawn discovers something hidden under the endpapers of an old book: the torn-off cover of a lesbian pulp novel from the 1950s, with an illustration of a woman looking into a mirror and seeing a man’s face. Even more intriguing is the queer love letter written on the back. Dawn becomes obsessed with tracking down the author of the letter, convinced the mysterious writer can help her find her place in the world.”
The Free People’s Village
By Sim Kern
Levine Querido
“English teacher by day, Maddie Ryan spends her nights and weekends as the rhythm guitarist of Bunny Bloodlust, a queer punk band living in a warehouse-turned-venue called “The Lab” in Houston’s Eighth Ward. When Maddie learns that the Eighth Ward is to be sacrificed for a new electromagnetic hyperway out to the wealthy, white suburbs, she joins “Save the Eighth,” a Black-led organizing movement fighting for the neighborhood. It forces Maddie to reckon with the harm she has already done to the neighborhood–both as a resident of the gentrifying Lab and as a white teacher in a predominantly Black school.”
A Case of Madness
By Yvonne Knop
Improbable Press
“I just got sacked. I’m permanently drunk. I have cancer. I’m inescapably gay. I was hit by a bus. And, incidentally, I’ve fallen in love with a stranger whose life I saved. My name is Andrew Thomas, newly-unemployed Sherlock Holmes scholar, and I don’t know how to do any of this. I know only Holmes can help me untangle this madness, and he isn’t real. Except he absolutely appeared in my house, told me I’m in love with a man I just met, and then in a fit of pique I sent him away.”
The Death I Gave Him
By Em X. Liu
Solaris
“Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer.”
Our Hideous Progeny
By C.E. McGill
Harper
“Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Arctic, but she doesn’t know why or how. When Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle’s past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing her and husband’s scientific and financial future. Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland; to Henry’s intriguing but reclusive sister, Maisie; and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret.”
Heading North
By Holly M. Wendt
Braddock Avenue Books
“A young, talented Viktor Myrnikov is on the brink of realizing his lifelong dream of playing for the National Hockey League when a catastrophic plane crash kills all of his former Russian teammates, including his secret boyfriend, Nikolai, shattering his plans—and his heart. In this skillfully plotted debut, readers follow Viktor as he navigates cultural and sexual divides, the gamesmanship of damaged relationships, and the dark corners of professional sports.”
Bang Bang Bodhisattva
By Aubrey Wood
Solaris
“It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she’s out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep–hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing. Two crimes, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit…”
Adult Non-fiction
We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film
By Tre’vell Anderson
Andscape Books
“We See Each Other is a personal history of trans visibility since the beginning of moving images. A literary reckoning, it unearths a transcestry that’s long existed in plain sight and in the shadows of history’s annals, and further contextualizes our present moment of increased representation.”
Transitional: In One Way or Another, We All Transition
By Munroe Bergdorf
HarperOne
“In Transitional, activist and writer Munroe Bergdorf draws on her own experience and theory from key experts, change-makers and activists to reveal just how deeply ingrained transitioning is in human experience. This is a book to help bring us closer to a shared consciousness: a powerful guide to how our differences can be harnessed as a tool to heal, build community, and construct a better society.”
Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant
By Curtis Chin
Little Brown and Company
“Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone–from the city’s first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples–could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city’s spiraling misfortunes; and where he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself.”
Tar Hollow Trans: Essays
By Stacy Jane Grover
University Press of Kentucky
“In Tar Hollow Trans, Grover explores her transgender experience through common Appalachian cultural traditions. Her essays write transgender experience into broader cultural narratives beyond transition and interrogate the failures of concepts such as memory, metaphor, heritage, and tradition. The collection investigates the ways the labels of transgender and Appalachian have been created and understood and reckons with the ways the ever-becoming transgender self, like a stigmatized region, can find new spaces of growth.”
Hijab Butch Blues
By Lamya H
Dial Press
“Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one’s own life.”
Am I Trans Enough?: How to Overcome Your Doubts and Find Your Authentic Self
By Alo Johnston
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
“Born out of thousands of hours of research and conversations with hundreds of trans people, Am I Trans Enough? digs deep into internalized transphobia and the historical narratives that fuel it. It unveils what happens after you come out, or begin questioning living as a trans person, in a world that works against you.”
All the Things They Said We Couldn’t Have: Stories of Trans Joy
By T.C. Oakes-Monger
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
“Through a series of uplifting, generous and beautifully crafted vignettes, T. C. Oakes-Monger gently leads you through the cycle of the seasons – beginning in Autumn and the shedding of leaves and identity, moving through the darkness of Winter, its cold days, and the reality of daily life, into Spring, newness, and change, and ending with the joy of long Summer days and being out and proud – and invites you to find similar moments of joy in your life.”
Pageboy: A Memoir
By Elliot Page
Flatiron Books
“Full of intimate stories, from chasing down secret love affairs to battling body image and struggling with familial strife, Pageboy is a love letter to the power of being seen. With this evocative and lyrical debut, Oscar-nominated star Elliot Page captures the universal human experience of searching for ourselves and our place in this complicated world.”
Horse Barbie
By Geena Rocero
Dial Press
“As a young femme in 1990s Manila, Geena Rocero found her place in trans pageants, the Philippines’ informal national sport. Later, Geena moved to the United States where she could change her name and gender marker on her documents. But legal recognition didn’t mean safety. In order to survive, Geena went stealth and hid her trans identity, gaining one type of freedom at the expense of another. A dazzling testimony from an icon who sits at the center of transgender history and activism, Horse Barbie is a celebratory and universal story of survival, love, and pure joy.”
Finding the Fool: A Tarot Journey to Radical Transformation
By Meg Jones Wall
Weiser Books
“Finding the Fool is a tarot resource and study guide that goes beyond standardized, traditional interpretations, opening the door for readers of all genders, identities, and experience levels to build a unique and personal relationship with the cards.”
The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation
By Raquel Willis
St. Martin’s Press
“A passionate, powerful memoir by a trailblazing Black transgender activist, tracing her life of transformation and her work towards collective liberation. In The Risk It Takes to Bloom, Raquel Willis recounts with passion and candor her experiences straddling the Obama and Trump eras, the possibility of transformation after tragedy, and how complex moments can push us all to take necessary risks and bloom toward collective liberation.”
Young Adult Fiction
Breakup, Makeup
By Stacey Anthony
Running Press Kids
“Eli Peterson is a self-taught, up-and-coming makeup artist in the cosplay scene who is barely making ends meet. While they might be slaying it with their breathtaking looks, they’re also trying to save enough money for top surgery and convince their parents that their artistic dream is worthwhile. During a convention, Eli hears about Makeup Wars, a competition that could change everything.”
If I Can Give You That
By Michael Gray Bulla
Quill Tree Books
“Seventeen-year-old Gael is used to keeping to himself. Though his best friend convinces him to attend a meeting of Plus, a support group for LGBTQIA+ teens, Gael doesn’t plan on sharing much. But after meeting easygoing Declan, Gael is welcomed into a new circle of friends who make him want to open up. As Gael’s friendship with Declan develops into something more, he finds himself caught between his mother’s worsening mental health and his father’s attempts to reconnect.”
Saint Juniper’s Folly
By Alex Crespo
Peachtree Teen
“For Jaime, returning to Saint Juniper means returning to a past he’s spent eight years trying to forget. But every gossip in town already knows his business, so he seeks out solitude into the nearby woods—Saint Juniper’s Folly—and does not return. For Theo, Saint Juniper means being stuck. That is until he wanders into the Folly and stumbles on a haunted house with an acerbic yet handsome boy trapped—as in physically trapped—inside. Alex Crespo’s queer haunted house mystery is equal parts spine-tingling thrills, a celebration of found family, and must-read for paranormal romance fans.”
Alondra
By Gina Femia
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
“Alonda loves professional wrestling, so when she meets a group of teens with aspirations of wrestling fame in her Coney Island neighborhood, she couldn’t be happier. As the ragtag team works to put on a show to remember, Alonda sheds her old self behind and becomes Alondra—the Fearless One. But with her conflicting feelings for King, the handsome leader of their group, and Lexi, the girl with the beautiful smile, Alonda has to ask herself: can she be as fearless outside of the ring as she is inside it?”
Ravensong
By Cayla Fay
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
“Neve has spent lifetimes defending the mortal world against the legions of hell with her two sisters. Unfortunately for Neve, in this lifetime, she is the only one of the Morrigan–a triad of Irish war gods–still stuck in high school and still without her full power. She’s been counting down the days until her eighteenth birthday, when she finally gets to shed the pretenses of humanity and grow into her divine power. But then she meets Alexandria, who is as determined to force Neve into some semblance of teenage normalcy as she is haunted by her own demons–both figurative and literal.”
The Wicked Bargain
By Gabe Cole Novoa
Random House Books for Young Readers
“On Mar León de la Rosa’s sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn’t enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father, and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar’s father and the entire crew of their ship.”
A Hundred Vicious Turns
By Lee Paige O’Brien
Harry N Abrams
“Rat Evans, nonbinary heir to one of the oldest magical bloodlines in New York, doesn’t cast spells anymore. For as long as Rat can remember, they’ve been surrounded by doorways no one else sees and corridors that aren’t on any map. Then one day, they opened a passage and found a broken tower in a field of weeds–and something followed them back.”
The Borrow a Boyfriend Club
By Page Powars
Delacorte Press
“Noah Byrd is the perfect boy. At least, that’s what he needs to convince his new classmates of to prove his gender. His plan? Join the school’s illustrious (and secret) Borrow a Boyfriend Club, whose members rent themselves out for dates. But Noah’s interview is a flop. Desperate, he strikes a deal with the club’s prickly but attractive president, Asher. Noah will help them win an annual talent show–and in return, he’ll get a second shot to demonstrate his boyfriend skills in a series of tests that include romancing Asher himself.”
Strictly No Heroics
By B.L. Radley
Feiwel & Friends
“The world is run by those with the Super gene, and Riley Jones doesn’t have it. She’s just a Normie, ducking her way around the hero vs. villain battles that constantly demolish Sunnylake City, working at a crappy diner to save up money for therapy, and trying to figure out how to tell her family that she’s queer. But when Riley retaliates against a handsy superhero at work, she finds herself in desperate need of employment, and the only people who that will hire her are henchmen: masked cronies who take villains’ coffee orders, vacuum their secret lairs, and posture in the background while they fight.”
The Wrong Kind of Weird
By James Ramos
Inkyard Press
“Cameron Carson, member of the Geeks and Nerds United (GANU) club, has been secretly hooking up with student council president, cheerleader, theater enthusiast, and all-around queen bee Karla Ortega since the summer. The one problem–what was meant to be a summer fling has now evolved into a clandestine senior-year entanglement. Enter Mackenzie Briggs, who isn’t afraid to be herself or wear her heart on her sleeve. When Cameron finds himself unexpectedly bonding with Mackenzie and repeatedly snubbed in public by Karla, he starts to wonder who he can truly consider a friend and who might have the potential to become more…”
A Prayer for Vengeance
By Leanne Schwartz
Page Street YA
“Centuries after a miracle vanquished Tresttato’s monsters and turned the soldiers fighting them to stone, Milo lovingly tends to the statues of those who protected the city. Raised with devout templars and scholars, autistic temple ward Milo wants nothing more than to be accepted into their ranks. When his prayers admiring her heroic sacrifice accidentally free Gia from stone, she wakes with a fury to kill the man Milo owes his life to, Primo Sanct Ennio. Gia wants revenge, even if she has to kill his followers to do it. Even if she must kill the boy who woke her.”
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me
By Jamison Shea
Henry Holt & Company
“Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is—monstrous heart and all.”
She is a Haunting
By Trang Thanh Tran
Bloomsbury YA
“Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough—at least for this summer with her estranged father in Vietnam. Just five weeks of ignoring the quietly decaying French colonial house he’s fixing up, then college and freedom are hers. But soon Jade begins waking up every morning certain that something has clawed down her throat …from the inside. Then the ghost of a beautiful bride visits her with a cryptic warning: DON’T EAT. The house is hungry. And it’s determined to never be abandoned again…”
Always the Almost
By Edward Underhill
Wednesday Books
“Sixteen-year-old trans boy Miles Jacobson has two New Year’s resolutions: 1) win back his ex-boyfriend (and star of the football team) and 2) finally beat his slimy arch-nemesis at the Midwest’s biggest classical piano competition. Then Miles meets the new boy in town, Eric Mendez, a proudly queer cartoonist from Seattle who asks his pronouns, cares about art as much as he does—and makes his stomach flutter. This was definitely not in the plan.”
The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay
By Dale Walls
Levine Querido
“Queer Love. Something Dawn wants, desperately, but does not have. But maybe, if she can capture it, film it, interview the people who have it, queer love will be hers someday. Or, at least, she’ll have made a documentary about it. A documentary that, hopefully, will win Dawn a scholarship to film school. Many obstacles stand in the way of completing her film, but her best friends Edie and Georgia are there to help her reach her goal, no matter what it takes.”
Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything
By Justine Pucella Winans
Clarion Books
“Sixteen-year-old Bianca Torre is an avid birder undergoing a gender identity crisis and grappling with an ever-growing list of fears. Some, like Fear #6: Initiating Conversation, keep them constrained, forcing them to watch birds from the telescope in their bedroom. And, occasionally, their neighbors. When their gaze wanders to one particular window across the street, Bianca witnesses a creepy plague-masked murderer take their neighbor’s life. Worse, the death is ruled a suicide, forcing Bianca to make a choice—succumb to their long list of fears (including #3 Murder and #55 Breaking into a Dead Guy’s Apartment), or investigate what happened.”
Picture Books & Middle Grade
How Are You, Verity?
By Meghan Wilson Duff
Illustrated by Taylor Barron
Magination Press
“A neurodivergent child interacts with their neighbors to discover the true meaning behind greetings and salutations. When people say “How are you?” are they really asking or just saying hello? Verity, who is neurodivergent, plans an experiment to figure this out. Verity is bubbling with excitement about an upcoming school field trip to the aquarium! But when the trip to the aquarium is cancelled, Verity is heartbroken. When people ask “How are you?” what should they say then?”
Skating on Mars
By Caroline Huntoon
Feiwel & Friends
“As if seventh grade isn’t hard enough, Mars is also grappling with the recent death of their father and a realization they never got to share with him: they’re nonbinary. When Mars’ triple toe loop draws the attention of a high school hot shot, he dares them to skate as a boy so the two can compete head-to-head. Unable to back down from a challenge, Mars accepts. But as competition draws near, the struggles of life off the rink start to complicate their performance in the rink, and Mars begins to second guess if there’s a place for them on the ice at all.”
Molly’s Tuxedo
By Vicki Johnson
Little Bee Books
“Molly’s school picture day is coming up, and she wants to have a perfect portrait taken to hang on their wall. Her mom has picked out a nice dress for her, but Molly knows from experience that dresses are trouble. Luckily, she has the perfect thing to save picture day—her brother’s old tuxedo. But mom doesn’t want her to wear a tuxedo in the photo; she thinks Molly looks best in the dress. Can Molly find the courage to follow her heart and get her mom to realize just how awesome she’d look in a tux?”
Don’t Want to Be Your Monster
By Deke Moulton
Tundra Books
“Adam and Victor are brothers who have the usual fights over the remote, which movie to watch and whether or not it’s morally acceptable to eat people. Well, not so much eat…just drink a little blood. They’re vampires, hiding in plain sight with their eclectic yet loving family. Everything changes when bodies start to appear all over town, and it becomes clear that a vampire hunter may be on the lookout for the family. Can Adam and Victor reconcile their differences and work together to stop the killer before it’s too late?”
Jude Saves the World
By Ronnie Riley
Scholastic Press
“Jude struggles with some things: focusing at school, feeling like everything rests on their shoulders, not being able to come out as nonbinary to their old-fashioned grandparents. But Jude doesn’t struggle with Dallas, their best friend in the whole world, or Stevie, a girl ousted from the popular clique at school. Together, they want to create a queer safe space. Jude has the courage and determination it takes to create the first Diversity Club in their community, but will they be able to find the support they need to make it happen?”
Joy, to the World
By Kai Shappley
Clarion Books
“Joy, a twelve-year-old trans girl, just moved to Texas with her mother and older brother. Her family has accepted Joy as the girl she is early in her transition, with little fuss, leaving Joy to explore her love of sports, competition, teamwork, school spirit, and worship. But when she is told she’s off the cheerleading team, Joy wants to fight for her right to cheer. As her battle with the school board picks up momentum, Joy attracts support from kids all around the country.”
The Otherwoods
By Justine Pucella Winans
Bloomsbury Publishing
“Some would call River Rydell a ‘chosen one’: born with the ability to see monsters and travel to a terrifying spirit world called The Otherwoods, they have all the makings of a hero. When River’s only friend (and crush) Avery is kidnapped and dragged into The Otherwoods by monsters, River has no choice but to confront the world they’ve seen only in their nightmares-but reality turns out be more horrifying than they could have ever imagined. With only their cat for protection and a wayward teen spirit as their guide, River must face the monsters of The Otherwoods and their own fears to save Avery and become the hero they were (unfortunately) destined to be.”
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