Bisexual
2024 curated booklist
The Quiet at the End of the World
Lauren James
A sci-fi mystery adventure about the last surviving members of the human race.
How would it feel to be the last remaining human?
Lowrie and Shen are the youngest people in the world after a virus caused global infertility. When the virus mutates to become even more deadly, the pair face a future entirely alone unless they can find a cure. But how can two teenagers succeed where the great scientists have failed? It feels as though there is no hope for humanity until they discover a secret that turns their entire world upside-down.
Category: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Mystery
Representation: Bisexual, transgender
Content Warnings: Bullying, character death, violence
ISBN: 9781406375510
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Leah on the Offbeat
Becky Albertalli
Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.
When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.
So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.
Category: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Bisexual, lesbian, gay
Content Warnings: Fatphobia, homophobia
ISBN: 9780062643803
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
They Both Die at the End
Adam Silvera
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
Category: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Representation: Bisexual, gay
Content Warnings: Character death, violence, suicide, mental illness, homophobia
ISBN: 9780062457790
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Only Mostly Devastated
Sophie Gonzales
Summer love…gone so fast.
Will Tavares is the dream summer fling―he’s fun, affectionate, kind―but just when Ollie thinks he’s found his Happily Ever After, summer vacation ends and Will stops texting Ollie back. Now Ollie is one prince short of his fairy tale ending, and to complicate the fairy tale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country. Which he minds a little less when he realizes it’s the same school Will goes to…except Ollie finds that the sweet, comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted―and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn’t ready for a relationship, especially since this new, bro-y jock version of Will seems to go from hot to cold every other week. But then Will starts “coincidentally” popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, and Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again.
Right? Right.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Bisexual, gay
Content Warnings: Discrimination, character death, substance use/abuse
ISBN: 9781250787439
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
We Are Ok
Nina LaCour
You go through life thinking there’s so much you need. . . . Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother. Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Bisexual, gay
Content Warnings: Discrimination, character death, substance use/abuse
ISBN: 9781250787439
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
One Last Stop
Casey McQuiston
Twenty-three-year old August doesn’t believe in much. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that.
But then, there’s Jane. Beautiful, impossible Jane. All hard edges with a soft smile and swoopy hair and saving August’s day when she needed it most. The person August looks forward to seeing on the train every day. The one who makes her forget about the cities she lived in that never seemed to fit, and her fear of what happens when she finally graduates, and even her cold-case obsessed mother who won’t quite let her go. And when August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one-namely, displaced in time from the 1970s-she thinks maybe it’s time to start believing.
Category: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender
Content Warnings: Discrimination, racism, sexual activity, homophobia, police violence/brutality
ISBN: 9781250244499
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating
Adiba Jaigirdar
Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan–she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate–Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.
Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Bisexual, lesbian, BIPOC
Content Warnings: Racism, homophobia, religion, substance use/abuse, bullying, islamaphobia
ISBN: 9781645672579
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Imogen, Obviously
Becky Albertalli
Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.
She’s never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There’s Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen’s biases in check. And then there’s Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.
Imogen’s thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she’s finally visiting Lili on campus, she’s bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen’s all in.
Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.
Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: She’s told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.
Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . . .
Category: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Bisexual, pansexual, lesbian
Content Warnings: Homophobia, sexual activity, substance use/abuse, mental illness
ISBN: 9780063045873
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
If This gets Out
Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich
Ruben and Zach are two members of Saturday, one of the world’s biggest boy bands. Teen hearththrobs in front of the camera, they’re also best friends backstage. But management’s pressure on Ruben to stay in the closet is taking its toll. Zach is the only one he can confide in. As Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more during a whirlwind tour of Europe, their close friendship evolves into romance. If this gets out, will their fans ever truly give them the support they need? And how can they hold tight to each other if their whole world is coming apart?
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Bisexual, gay
Content Warnings: substance use/abuse, abuse, discrimination
ISBN: 9781250861818
Find it in your local library (WordCat)
The Ship we Built
Rowan has too many secrets to write down in the pages of a diary. And if he did, he wouldn’t want anyone he knows to discover them. He understands who he is and what he likes, but it’s not safe for others to know. Now, the kids at school say he’s too different to spend time with. He’s not the “right kind” of girl, and he’s not the “right kind” of boy. His mom ignores him. And at night, his dad hurts him in ways he’s not ready to talk about yet.
But Rowan discovers another way to share his secrets: letters. Letters he attaches to balloons and releases into the universe, hoping someone new will read them and understand. But when he befriends a classmate who knows what it’s like to be lonely and scared, even at home, Rowan realizes that there might already be a person he can trust right by his side.
Tender and wise, The Ship We Built is about the bravery it takes to stand up for yourself–even to those you love–and the power of finding someone who treasures you for everything you are.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Bisexual, transgender
Content Warnings: Transphobia, sexual violence, bullying, racism, substance use/abuse, homophobia
ISBN: 9780525554837
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)