The 17 Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2023

The mind behind Wolfsong is moving from werewolves to robots. This science-fiction novel introduces you to a robot family, helmed by the android patriarch Gio, that includes human Victor Lawson. When Vic discovers a dark secret about his family’s past, he embarks on an adventure where he is given the ultimate test: love or family?

Release date: April 25

Perhaps one of the most daring romances of the year, Ander & Santi Were Here, incorporates subtle elements of racism, homophobia, and politics into a tender love story between a nonbinary Mexican American teenager and the new waiter at their family’s restaurant. Both poignant and vulnerable, this romance asks readers: What does home really mean? Is it a place, person, or both?

Release date: May 2

This novel just gets it right. Maybe it’s the vivid storytelling or the intersectional approach to queerness, but it speaks to queer people of color who often feel isolated, stretched between two communities. Tembe Denton-Hurst balances a critique on white feminism through the lenses of a young, unapologetically Black, queer writer who’s searching for her identity outside the bounds of her career, family, and long-term relationship.

Release date: May 2

This memoir follows Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health-columnist-turned-author Zachary Zane and his adventures from drug-fueled threesomes to college Grindr hookups. While equal parts humorous and light-hearted, Boy Slut is also a cultural take on society’s sex shaming, with Zane’s personal experience added.

Release date: May 9

Brandon Taylor reimagines the classic friend getaway with queer characters in this novel. A group of gay twenty-somethings take a trip to a cabin to say goodbye to their past selves and transition to whatever path life has for them. Contemporary readers will love this provocative but intimate novel about friendships, ambition, and community.

Release date: May 23

Another personal narrative-turned-cultural critique to add to your TBR list. Similar to Boy Slut, The Male Gazed is a hilarious and provocative collection of essays, designed to both entertain and educate readers on queer men and their relationships with sex and masculinity.

Release date: May 30

You can add author to Hayley Kiyoko’s name, because sis is debuting her first-ever novel, which is inspired by her breakthrough song. Like the viral music video, the book is a coming-of-age story of two teenage girls who struggle to love each, You can expect allll the feels in this, but it’ll be worth it, trust.

Release date: May 30

Another highly anticipated release this year. You might have read a story or two about Elliot Page, but in this book he shares experience in his own words. Pageboy is more than a memoir, though. It’s also an interrogation of gender, love, and mental health through the framework of Hollywood, a place where the deviation from the norm isn't so widely accepted (or acknowledged).

Release date: June 6

If you’re looking for a horror read that has a touch (or two) of satire, then you’ll like this poignant story by award-winning cartoonist Mattie Lubchanskly. The protagonist is a trans artist assistant named Sammie who goes to a macho men’s bachelor party in El Campo. The homophobic and transphobic comments are hard enough to deal with, but now there’s a mysterious cult dismembering guests and sacrificing hotel staff for religious rituals. Poor old Sammie can’t get a damn break.

Release date: June 6

If the name Christian Cooper sounds familiar, that’s because he’s the birdwatcher from the viral 2020 NYC Karen moment. You know, the one where a white woman began harassing a birdwatcher (Cooper) and threatened to call the police? Yep, that’s it. Though this racist incident isn’t the focal point of his memoir, rather his existence as a queer Black male birdwatcher and birding expeditions in Africa, Australia, and the Americas.

Release date: June 13

Who doesn’t love a WLW love story? Especially one that uses the friends-to-lovers trope? Can’t Let Her Go is exactly that: a romance between two members of the same friend group. It has the heart-warming and warm, fuzzy feels you can expect in a romance novel, but also the steam and kink you’d find in erotica. But most of all, it has the boldness, emotional depth, and laughter you’ll need for a romantic love story.

Release date: June 20

Equal parts funny and romantic, this author’s debut book follows a college-aged bisexual woman named Sav who struggles between choosing the new community she’s found abroad and her loyalty towards her old life. It’s a provocative work of art about a young woman who struggles to accept the pain and trauma of the past while looking forward to brighter days in the future.

Release date: June 20

The author of Cinderella is Dead ditches the ball gowns and glass slippers for a stereotypical slasher summer camp. In You’re Not Suppose to Die Tonight, our main lead Charity is recreating a classic horror film with her camp friends when things go awry. Charity’s co-workers are disappearing, one is found dead, and now the film’s recreation feels a little too real. Will Charity and her girlfriend Bezi survive the night? Or will they become the murderer’s next victim?

Release date: June 20

You’ll probably sob while reading this raw and deep collection of essays about the intersection of queerness and Blackness. This novel weaves hard-hitting themes such as homophobia, racism, empathy—or the lack thereof—on a macro and micro level, asking readers to go outside of themselves and rethink how love and acceptance should be expressed in the throws of such societal pain and despair.

Release date: June 27

It’s rare when an author can make an unreliable narrator work. There are a few exceptions of course, like Gone Girl, American Psycho, and the upcoming queer mystery, All-Night Pharmacy. Ruth Madievsky's debut novel takes you through the perspective of an unnamed narrator who follows her older sister Debbie into a drug-infested dive bar in Los Angeles, where the patrons consist of Hollywood’s misfits, cult-like witches, and other strange mystic healers. All is fine until Debbie disappears and our unnamed protagonist find out what the hell happened to her.

Release date: July 11