I’m tired of reading queer fiction about men.
Don’t get me wrong: I loved how Simon vs. The Homosapien Agenda helped normalize younger gay romances, and Call Me By Your Name will always have a special place in my heart. But when the majority of queer fiction focuses on two men in a relationship, it’s easy for young, queer females (read: middle school me) to feel like there is a lack of good female queer fiction. In my never-ending quest to find and read good LGBTQ+ books, I’ve stumbled across these three that are bound to improve your shelf.
- Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
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Rubyfruit Jungle is probably my favorite book of all time. It follows Molly Bolt, a self-assured, label-defying young woman throughout her life, from her early childhood to her adult years. Although the book may have been a little explicit for eighth-grade me, I wanted nothing more than to be like Molly, and for good reason. She’s intelligent (which nets her a full scholarship at one point), outspoken, and so confident in herself that Rubyfruit’s readers can’t help but come away from the book feeling like the same. It’s definitely a product of its time, however (Rubyfruit was published in 1973), and it has been criticized for its depictions of butch lesbians and the exclusion of transgender stories, among other things. Take care to read it through a historical lens, and I swear you’ll love this book as much as I do.
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
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If you ever read Jane Eyre and wished it was gayer, or if you’re a historical fiction fan in general, Fingersmith is definitely for you. The story is told in multiple parts (with both narrators being women), and focuses on Sue Trinder, an orphan living in a Dickensian house where she learns pickpocketing and similar skills. A friend of the house, who goes by the moniker Gentleman, enlists Sue in an elaborate con of a wealthy young woman, which will eventually end in said young woman being trapped in an asylum with Sue and Gentleman splitting the profits. The story isn’t that simple, however, and every twist and turn is more delicious and captivating than the last.
Bonus: Check out the South Korean film adaptation The Handmaiden.
- The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
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Who doesn’t love a good YA book? They’ve got teen angst, struggles with identity, and grown-ups who just do not understand. The Miseducation of Cameron Post has all of those and a lesbian protagonist to boot. The eponymous character has to grapple with her sexuality in the context of growing up religious in the late 20th-century American Midwest. Cameron’s story is sweet, but at points brutally honest about what it means to try to change something about yourself that is integral to who you are. The book works hard to present a diverse selection of identities and experiences (mostly seen later in the book), which means that there’s bound to be at least one character to which you can relate.
In the end, don’t we all just want a story we can relate to?