The 30 Best Queer Books of the Summer, According to All the Lists

The best and most-anticipated books of the summer lists are popping up all over the place, and as is my wont, I’ve been combing them for queer books. I looked through the Atlantic, AV Club, Goodreads, Kirkus Reviews, LA Times, Lit Hub, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Town and Country, USA Today, and Vulture lists and found 30 queer titles mentioned.

As always, I’ve likely missed some—I don’t yet have a 100% accurate book gaydar. Still, I’m pretty happy with the number of titles I spotted. 12 were mentioned on multiple lists, while 18 only appeared on one. Shout out to the Goodreads list for including 16 queer titles, a full 20% of their total list. (Now go buy them from a queer-owned indie bookstore.)

Unfortunately, there are very few queer books by authors of color that made it onto any of these lists. While queer books have an uphill battle in getting published and then getting sufficient marketing, that’s exponentially more true for queer books by authors of color. A few of the ones that did appear on these lists are Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan, Hot Girls With Balls by Benedict Nguyễn, Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, and Walk Like a Girl by Prabal Gurung.

Here are the 30 best queer books of the summer, according to all the lists.

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