4 LGBTQ+ reads to pick up this June

Recommending queer fiction: YA, romance, and sci-fi

Image by: Amna Rafiq
Four fabulous additions to your summer reading list!

Pride Month is here, and it’s the perfect time to infuse your summer reading with a little colour. Here are some of my favourite LGBTQ+ reads—plus one on my to-be-read list—that you should pick up this month.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

You’ve probably seen this book on TikTok, but in case you haven’t, here’s your cue to get out from under that rock and hop on the Taylor Jenkins Reid train.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is the first of Reid’s books I read, and it really is incredible. What makes Reid’s novels shine is her ability to create worlds that feel incredibly real.

In this novel, she weaves the setting of the glitzy, glamorous old Hollywood—it had me Googling the characters like they really lived.

Evelyn Hugo, one of the novel’s two main characters, is bisexual. Despite being famous for having seven husbands, her great love story is with fellow actress Celia St. James. Reid intertwines many intersectional experiences, namely being Cuban, being a woman, and being queer.

Overall, this book explores love, sex, and marriage on a spectrum, in all their beautiful complexity, and it’s truly worth the read.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Does this take you back to 2013, or what? I actually read this book really recently and absolutely loved it—turns out, everyone back then was right!

Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a beautiful coming-of-age story about the relationship between two boys, Dante and Ari. It’s slow, and mellow, and really allows you to sit with the characters and watch their relationship grow. We watch as they learn about their sexualities and themselves, and it’s just rather lovely.

It’s worth all the stickers on the cover.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Hank Green! The superior Green brother! I absolutely loved Green’s debut, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It was entertaining, weird, and surprisingly thought provoking. It’s a very odd mix of contemporary and sci-fi, but it works really well.

One of the best things about this book is its protagonist, April. I found her to be unique and interesting: she feels human and flawed in a believable way. It’s especially lovely to read about her relationship with her girlfriend, Maya.

One thing I liked about this book is it’s not a romance book. It’s not about a queer relationship: it just features one that’s part of April’s life. It normalizes queer relationships beautifully, as we watch April and Maya make mistakes and have great moments, just like in any other relationship.

It’s really good! Pick it up!

One Last Stop

Last on my list is Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop. This novel just came out last year, and I haven’t actually read it yet, but it’s on the top of my to-be-read list. McQuiston also wrote Red, White & Royal Blue, if you’ve seen that on TikTok.

I’m in love with this premise: a girl named August moves to New York City and sees this really hot girl, Jane, on the subway. It turns out Jane is a real punk rocker from the 1970s displaced in time, and August tries to help her, and I assume they fall in love. How fun is that?

As might be evident from my obsession with An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, I love fiction books that are infused with a little bit of not-so-real-life, so I’ll be picking this one up soon.

I hope something on this list struck your fancy! Happy reading.

Tags

Fiction, Queer, Reading, romance

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