I really wanted my Pride Month books for this year to be in one post, but in just over a month I read 40 books and that would be a damn long post. My commitment to keeping everything within the 5 image rows on Goodreads meant that I went a couple days into July. Still would have been 37 books if I didn’t. I absolutely loved this month. The reads were great, I never felt fatigue with it as I do with some reading challenges I set myself. It was a damn good time. Here are books 1-20 of my June 2023.
Afterlove by Tanya Byrne
This is sapphic YA about two girls who meet at a school trip and get together, it’s all cute and set in Brighton so I like know the settings of their dates which makes it even cuter to me. Until one of them dies and becomes a grim reaper. I have mentioned this book so many times on here already and I’m going to keep mentioning it because I love it so much and it brought me so much joy. I planned on starting my Pride Month reads with this novel since I bought it in like November and it was the best choice I could have made. What a way to kick it off.
The Love of Good Women by Isabel Miller
Gertrude, a housewife and loving mother, meets Milly and begins to question her life choices. I read an Isabel Miller last year and loved it, so I’m not surprised that this book was as compelling. I really enjoyed reading their relationship and Gertrude’s confliction of Milly or her husband. And I love Women’s Press novels.
All That’s Left in the World by Erik J. Brown
This is mlm ya about two boys who meet while surviving an apocalyptic virus and it’s about how they continued to survive together and the people they came across while also like becoming boyfriends. The second post covid virus novel I’ve read recently but another that was different to the life we’ve lived because like everyone died. The virus was bad and society very much crumbled. I hadn’t read a lot of man loving man YA before this month and this was a good toe in for me. The romance was damn cute, I love them together and how that plot panned out, but it was also really well offcut with the bleak aspects. So good.
Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister by Anne Choma and Sally Wainwright
Aside from a podcast episode, I really didn’t know anything about Anne Lister before reading this. I was waiting to read this before seeing the show for some reason. In retrospect I probably should have watched it first. She was cool, Conservative politics aside. She knew who she was, she did what she wanted and was a major trailblazer. She was also kind of slutty and I love that. Like a real player, and iconic for that.
A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr
Does what it says on the tin, a widespread history of sapphics from Sappho herself to modern times. Most of the books here are fiction and it was important to me to make sure there was some non-fiction in here so this was perfect. It’s educating but there’s also a lot of anecdotes and humour in here that makes it less dense. Like it’s a useful, easy read. I will probably read this every Pride Month until I have it memorised.
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
I looooved this one. It’s gay YA about two boys who meet over the summer and have a summer fling, until it turns out that they now go to the same school. One boy is out, the other is not. Drama ensues. I love this Grease reminiscent summer fling trope, so fun. And aside from the main boy’s aunt having terminal cancer, this is a very fun book and very cute. The kind where you’re like grinning and cheesing the whole time.
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
The first of a gay-lite novel. The main character is a lesbian but she doesn’t really do a ton of lesbian action. The novel is about Cassandra unravelling at the wedding of her twin sister. My brain was not working as much for this one so I don’t remember it as well I won’t lie. It has also been like a few weeks since I read it. So I can’t comment on any deeper layers here but Cassandra really goes through it, maybe if she did some gay things she would have enjoyed her weekend more.
Choices by Nancy Toder
A lesbian novel about two women who meet at college and their long lasting relationship. It’s also about them coming to terms with being gay. It’s good, I like it. It was first published in the 80s and you can tell but it’s still a good time. There are heavy sex scenes and reading those on the train was… interesting. I need to make sure I read lesbian fiction from different decades to see how it differs and when things started to be represented differently.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Getting some gender novels up in here. Felix Ever After is about Felix a trans man, living in New York City going to art school with his best friend. He starts receiving both in person and online transphobia, in an attempt to narrow down who it is he starts catfishing a mean boy in his class who may be nicer than he seems. He also may have a different relationship with his best friend than he thought. Gay stuff all around here, and Felix really goes through it at parts. But it makes for a very good novel and interrogation of sex and gender.
Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean
Archie’s life is rocked when he finds out that his dad is gay and that that’s the reason for his parents divorce a few months before. He finds a rainbow flyer in his dad’s things and goes to London to find the solution. It’s the only Middle Grade novel here and it’s very different to the other novels in that the gay aspects are entirely seen through someone else’s perspective. It’s also so interesting to see this kind of perspective about gay people from a child. I had seen gay people on tv since I was like 7 and Archie here did not have that experience.
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
A classic gay novel about David who meets Giovanni and they quickly develop a deep relationship, until his girlfriend returns. It’s a short one but so deep and full of so much love. It’s a classic for a reason, it’s so good. I need to read more James Baldwin, but this one was a great place to start.
The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
Cal wants to be a journalist but is dragged away from his life and career in New York when his dad gets a job as an astronaut. His career is further affected by the rules of the people his dad gets a job with. The gay aspect is in his relationship with another son of an astronaut who guides him through his new life and helps him when shit goes down. It’s very interesting and a really unique idea and very cute.
They: A Sequence of Unease by Kay Dick
First of all, I do need to re-read this. I did not give this the attention it deserves and I hate that. I lent my copy to my sister so I will do it in a while but I will do it. It’s a short story or novella that starts with light censorship in libraries and ends with writers on the run, and it goes through that devolution and continuing censorship through a horror lens. I think I explained that well. It’s a very good text, and one that is especially important right now I think.
Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin
This novel is about Max an intersex teenager just living his life, until he is raped by his childhood best friend. The aftermath of which informs the rest of the novel. I kind of hate how sad parts of this are because I’ve never read a happy intersex novel, or one where they don’t have to deal with a load of shit but the sequence of events is so interesting. I especially like the role of adults in his life and how the choices his parents made affected him. The perspective switches which is also great. There are moments where like a doctor’s meeting is told through multiple perspectives, so we are shown the medical opinion, the lived one and then his parents. It’s fascinating. It’s a heavy one, trigger warnings for rape, poor medical practice and forced pregnancy.
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
I’ve been meaning to read this for so long, because the film version with Millie Bobby Brown is coming and I needed to read it before the film comes out. This YA novel is set during a bank heist wherein the main character (Millie Bobby Brown’s character) is stuck in a bank with her girlfriend and ex boyfriend. Flashbacks show her life growing up and the events that led to where she is now. I love the minimum setting here, it’s going to make suuuch a good film. I’m so interested in seeing how it plays out in that form because it is perfect for it. It was a great novel. I devoured it, like could not put it down.
Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain
I really was hoarding books for this and so excited to read them all but this one was not as good as I thought it would be. Set in the mid 1800s, this novel follows Jane and her dilemma over whether to choose the safe boring male doctor and the exciting woman. That’s it, that’s the novel. I think that I don’t love novels like this. And that’s okay. I have nothing else to say. I really thought this was dull and it has no reason to be dull.
Girlcrush by Florence Given
Eartha is a regular girl, who becomes internet famous after her boyfriend does her dirty. The novel is about her time at the top and how fickle internet fame is. Which sounds preachy and annoying but there’s a sci-fi aspect to it that takes it away from real life. Plus Florence Given actually knows what she’s talking about when it comes to the internet aspect, like it’s not like a crime writer writing an 800 page book whining about how people are mean to her on Twitter because she sucks. Anyway, this is really interesting. The main character is bi and aside from the start she mainly is with women, like with women there are sex scenes this is not YA. Truly if this was more real I think I’d hate it but it’s removed from our reality enough to make aspects relatable but not real.
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
I was so excited to read this for so long, and saving it for this June but it underwhelmed me. It’s about 2 boys in post WW2 Switzerland and how they meet and get together, spanning to the early 21st century. I love the time span of it, the relationship really develops and goes through all the stages and that’s great. But it lost me at times and I didn’t care as much as I thought I would.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
I have owned my copy of this novel longer than 95% of the books I own and had not read it yet. Which was a dire mistake because this was so so good. It’s about Jeanette who grows up in a very Christian family, with super strict parents. When she realises she likes women she gets out with her girlfriend and has to confront the two aspects of her. It’s so good, I love the secular aspect and the mix of that with lesbianism. I read this while listening to Ethel Cain and it was really a good time. I am a Jeanette Winterson convert, there are more of her novels to come.
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
Hani and Ishu seem to be opposites. Hani is a bi girl who’s really sucky friends invalidate her bi-ness when she comes out to them as she has only dated and been interested in boys before. She lies to them and tells them that she is dating Ishu, an academic overachiever who wants to be voted as headgirl and needs to seem less obnoxious. I love a fake dating moment but only if they’re gay. I also really like the bisexual aspects of this novel, and that motivation to fake date. Also they’re both women of colour which is great. Sapphic YA really is great with the representation god bless.
Part 2 coming in a few weeks.
Georgia
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Yellow Rose Road 