Five LGBTQ+ Summer Book Recs

I am once again asking: Fellas, is it gay to read? Studies say it is! There’s one-ish week of Pride Month left, and while we can and should read LGBTQ+ authors year round, June is a great time to remind ourselves just how much awesome queer lit is out there. If you’re in need of a good gay read for the beach, the park, or your sweaty subway commute, look no further than these five books, guaranteed to shock and entertain you all summer long.

1. Little Rot, by Akwaeke Emezi

Hot off the presses, Little Rot is the eighth book by queer Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi. (They’ve written three novels, romance, YA books, poetry, a memoir… all queer and all amazing!) It’s a fast-paced crime thriller in which a party-gone-awry sends a cast of characters spiraling through a Nigerian city’s dangerous and alluring underground. It’s absolute chaos, and so so good. 

2. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, by Andrea Lawlor

An oldie but a goodie, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is the perfect pick for your gay beach weekend — part of the book takes place in Provincetown, a storied gaycation spot! In PTTFOAMG, gender-bending, shape-shifting queer bartender Paul embarks on a rowdy and sometimes disastrous romp across the country, from Iowa and Michigan to Provincetown and San Francisco. If you don’t believe me, check out the blurbs: “Hot” (Maggie Nelson), “Tight” (Eileen Myles), “Deep” (Michelle Tea). 

3. Blackouts, by Justin Torres

For those looking to get in on the past year’s literary zeitgeist, Justin Torres’s novel Blackouts recently took home the National Book Award for Fiction! In this gorgeous blend of narrative and history, an aging gay man asks his younger friend to recover the work of an influential-yet-censored gay journalist, whose work has been co-opted by homophobic medical researchers and lost to time. The result is a stunning look at time, memory, and love. 

4. You Exist Too Much, by Zaina Arafat

Another good pick for the “queer chaos” fans is Zaina Arafat’s You Exist Too Much, a novel about a young, bisexual Palestinian-American woman who, after blowing up her relationship and her life, checks herself into a rehab center for love addiction. It’s got sex. It’s got drama. It’s got a fraught mother-daughter relationship. It’s got a main character who makes decisions that will make you tear your hair out. What’s not to love? 

5. Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo

Forbidden romance blooms as McCarthyism looms overhead in this queer, historical YA book by author Malinda Lo. The year is 1954. The is San Francisco, Chinese-American teenager Lily Hu is just beginning to question her sexuality in an era when sapphic love is under more scrutiny than ever. Still, she and another girl, Kathleen, “risk everything to let their love see the light of day.”  

BONUS: Mostly Dead Things, by Kristen Arnett

You think it’s hot where you are? Try Central Florida, where lesbian taxidermist Jessa-lynn grapples with family chaos, lost love, and her mother’s insistence on arranging the shop’s display animals in shocking and disturbing poses in the front-facing windows. But what is one to do? Read the book to find out!