Gay
2024 curated booklist
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence. Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante–dreamy, witty Dante–who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once. The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Gay
Content Warnings: Substance use/abuse, mental illness, violence, homophobia, transphobia
ISBN: 9781442408937
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Red, White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
SCategory: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Gay
Content Warnings: sexual activity, homophobia, racism, character death, substance use/abuse, sexual violence, mental illness
ISBN: 9781250316776
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Heartstopper Vol. 1
Alice Oseman
Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more…?
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn’t been too great, but at least he’s not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He’s heard a little about Charlie – the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months – but he’s never had the opportunity to talk to him.
They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner…
Category: Young Adult, Romance, Comic, Series
Representation: Bisexual, gay, diverse genders, diverse sexualities, lesbian, transgender
Content Warnings: Mental illness, disordered eating/eating disorder, self harm
ISBN: 9780063067776
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Extraordinaires
T J Klune
In Nova City, there are extraordinary people, capable of feats that defy the imagination. Shadow Star protects the city and manipulates darkness, and Pyro Storm is determined to bring the city to its knees using his power over fire.
And then there’s Nick who . . . well, being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?
Instead of fighting crime, Nick contends with a new year at school, a father who doesn’t trust him, and a best friend named Seth, who may or may not be the love of Nick’s short, uneventful life.
It should be enough. But after a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without Seth’s reluctant help . . .
Category: Young Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Gay, lesbian
Content Warnings: Character death, violence, police violence/brutality, homophobia, ableism, mental illness
ISBN: 9781473693067
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
All That’s Left in the World
Erik J. Brown
Jamie and Andrew are strangers, and two of the last people on Earth. They don’t know what they’ll find on their perilous journey … but they may just find each other. A queer romance about courage, hope and humanity – this is How I Live Now with the heart of Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda.
When the Superflu wipes out most of the population, Jamie finds himself completely alone in a cabin in the woods – until an injured stranger crosses his path.
Life is dangerous now and, armed with a gun, Jamie goes to pull the trigger. But there’s something about Andrew … something that stops Jamie in his tracks. Jamie takes him in, and as Andrew heals and they eventually step out into the strange new world, their relationship starts to feel like more than just friendship …
But trouble isn’t far behind. As the boys make a perilous journey south, they’ll come face to face with a world torn apart and society in ruins. And who, or what, will they find waiting for them at the end of it all?
Category: Young Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
Representation: Bisexual, gay
Content Warnings: Character death, violence, gore, mental illness, substance use/abuse, racism, religion, suicide, homophobia
ISBN: 9781444960167
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
John Green and David Levithan
Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers are about to cross paths. From that moment on, their world will collide and lives intertwine.
It’s not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chicago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old – including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire – Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most awesome high school musical.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Gay
Content Warnings: discrimination, mental illness
ISBN: 9780142418475
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The House in the Cerulean Sea
TJ Klune
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.
Category: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Representation: Gay, lesbian, diverse sexualities
Content Warnings: abuse, discrimination, mental illness
ISBN: 9781250217318
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
More Happy Than Not
Adam Silvera
Part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, part Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Adam Silvera’s extraordinary debut confronts race, class, and sexuality during one charged near-future summer in the Bronx.
Sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto is struggling to find happiness after a family tragedy leaves him reeling. He’s slowly remembering what happiness might feel like this summer with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, but it’s his new best friend, Thomas, who really gets Aaron to open up about his past and confront his future.
As Thomas and Aaron get closer, Aaron discovers things about himself that threaten to shatter his newfound contentment. A revolutionary memory-alteration procedure, courtesy of the Leteo Institute, might be the way to straighten himself out. But what if it means forgetting who he truly is?
Category: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Representation: Gay
Content Warnings: Discrimination, mental illness, suicide, violence, homophobia, self-harm, abuse, sexual activity
ISBN: 9781616955601
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.
Category: Poetry, Autobiography
Representation: Gay
Content Warnings: Abuse, character death, discrimination, mental illness, sexual violence, substance use/abuse, sexual activity, violence
ISBN: 9781529110685
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Gravity of Us
Phil Stamper
As a successful social media journalist with half a million followers, seventeen-year-old Cal is used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus.
Amidst the chaos, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon, another “Astrokid,” and finds himself falling head over heels—fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection. But when secrets about the program are uncovered, Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.
Expertly capturing the thrill of first love and the self-doubt all teens feel, debut author Phil Stamper is a new talent to watch.
Category: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Gay, bisexual
Content Warnings: Character death, substance use/abuse, mental illness
ISBN: 9781547605682
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)