College is about discovering who you are, and I discovered a lot about myself—and specifically my sexuality—through reading books. Reading books with LGBTQIA+ content let me see myself on the page. For me, reading has always been a way to better understand myself, and the world around me. Even if you know who you are, or are questioning who you are, I hope you will pick up one of these amazing books and read it. You might not find yourself in the pages as I did, but that doesn’t take away the magic that these books hold. Each of these books is loud and proud.
- Crier’s War by Nina Varela
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This is a book about a human girl and a “made,” or Automae, girl falling in love in a world where humans are second class citizens to the Automae. The main character, Ayla, is a human who dreams of getting revenge on the Automae royal family. This plan falls apart when she begins to fall in love with the Automae princess, Crier. Their love could be the end of everything—or it could be the start of a revolution.
- Once & Future By Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy
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Once is a super queer King Arthur retelling set in space, with all the LGBTQIA+ rep we need. It is about the 42nd reincarnation of King Arthur, aka Ari, and a teenage Merlin. Ari is a teenage girl who needs to save the universe from an evil curse. Merlin is a wizard that keeps on aging backward and needs to make sure this version of King Arthur does not die. They join together to try to finally bring together all of humanity for the 42nd time because this is the last chance humanity has.
- Reverie By Ryan La Sala
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When high school junior Kane wakes up, he doesn’t know what to believe. His parents and the police tell him he stole his dad’s car, crashed into a building, and burned it down. They tell him that he wanted to hurt himself. Kane knew he would never want to do that, but he also isn’t sure what happened. He lost all of the memories of what happened that night. But soon enough he meets a drag queen sorceress that knows more than she is telling him, and some of his classmates are keeping what really happened a secret from him. With the prose and voice of this book, you will be dragged into the mystery of what really happened that night.
- Tell Me How You Really Feel By Aminah Mae Safi
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When Rachel is asked out by Sana, she said no because she thought it was a prank. Rachel believed that you couldn’t trust cheerleaders—most importantly pretty cheerleaders. Because Rachel thought it was a prank, she spent the first few years of high school hating Sana. But right before she graduates she is forced to have Sana in her movie. If Sana isn’t in it, Rachel won’t be able to graduate. After being forced together, Rachel might finally realize Sana wasn’t pulling a prank at all.
- What If It’s Us By Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
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When Ben goes to the post office to mail a box of his exes stuff, he doesn’t expect to run into a cute boy in the middle of a flashmob. He also does not expect to find said cute boy on Craigslist and go on multiple first dates with him. Ben doesn’t believe in fate, but to cute boy Arthur, this is the New York City meet-cute of his dream.
Now these are just some of the LGBTQA+ books that I love, if you want more LGBTQA+ books I highly recommend that you check out https://lgbtqreads.com/ and ProblemsOfaBookNerd on youtube. They both are amazing sources for LGBTQA+ book recs.