The Best Pride Month Reads in Every Genre

Bloomsbury Academic

From zines and basement shows, queercore cut, pasted, and screamed its way across borders. This is the story of the artists and networks who pushed back—and reshaped punk on their own terms.

Puck by Samantha Allen

Just in time for Pride Month, Samantha Allen’s queer retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream hit shelves on June 2nd. In this version, rather than being a trickster fairy, Puck is a non-binary reality TV producer who cleverly manipulates relationships for entertainment. So when Puck is invited to their college best friend’s wedding, they see an ideal opportunity to use their producing skills to meddle with all of their friends’ relationships, including the bride and groom.

Hold Me Like a Grudge by Celine Ong

For fans of Heated Rivalry, this is an enemies-to-lovers sports romance you’re sure to fall in love with. In the ring, Asher Ross is the baby-faced hero and Caleb Knight is the villain. But when Asher and Caleb are not in front of screaming fans, their rivalry gradually turns into romance. The world of wrestling hasn’t always been the most supportive of queer relationships, however, so Asher and Caleb are forced to keep their feelings a secret.

Woodworking by Emily St. James

Emily St. James’ heartwarming debut novel follows Erica Skyberg, a thirty-five-year-old high school teacher who has recently realized she is trans. Living in a small town in South Dakota, Erica isn’t quite ready to come out to her friends and colleagues. But Abigail Hawkes, the only trans student at Mitchell High, becomes a sort of trans “guide” for Erica. Erica pretends she’s helping Abigail prep for college, and the two form an unlikely friendship, becoming a support for one another when it feels impossible to lean on friends and family.

Afternoon Hours of a Hermit by Patrick Cottrell

This sharply funny existential noir novel is about trans Korean adoptee and writing teacher Dan Moran. Five years after his brother dies by suicide, Dan receives a strange envelope in the mail that contains a picture of his brother. So Dan returns to his family home, despite his strained relationship with his parents, to investigate the meaning of the photograph and his brother’s death.

Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran

Spoiled Milk is a sapphic gothic horror novel set in an English girls’ boarding school in 1928. When one of the school’s star students, Violet Kirsch, mysteriously falls to her death on her eighteenth birthday, her classmate Emily Locke knows who must be responsible. But she needs proof. Emily holds a séance with her classmates to get answers, but instead, Violet issues them a warning. Her death was only the beginning. And many more dangers are yet to come.

Chlorine by Jade Song

Ren Yu is a Chinese American competitive swimmer who is convinced she’s actually a mermaid. Feeling disconnected from the trappings of human life, Ren longs for a life underwater. She imagines how wonderful it would be to become one of those creatures she read about in so many stories, the ones that would lure sailors to their deaths. She will stop at nothing to have the life of her dreams, even if that means bloodshed. This is a gripping and unsettling coming-of-age sapphic horror novel.

Ignore All Previous Instructions by Ada Hoffman

In a future world on Jupiter’s moon, a massive conglomerate called Inspiration controls what stories can be told legally. As a script supervisor for Inspiration, Kelli Reynolds “can use her autism to her advantage” to create precise content that follows corporate standards. But when Kelli’s trans ex-boyfriend Rowan comes back into the picture, Kelli’s life is thrown into chaos. Rowan is working with a group of space pirates who are smuggling human-written stories, and he needs Kelli to help him pull off a heist.

The Obake Code by Makana Yamamoto

Speaking of heists! In this queer cyberpunk novel, Malia is a former hacker who now lives a quiet life at the Kepler space station. When boredom takes over, Malia is tempted back into her former life. But her schemes are uncovered by a group of gangsters who give her an ultimatum. Either she helps them take down a politician, or they will kill her. Malia is without any other options, and so she agrees to help. Of course, no heist story is complete without a team, and Malia calls upon a skilled group of friends to come to her aid: a master thief, a street racing wheelman, and a femme fatale grifter.

Black as Diamond by U.M. Agoawike

This new queer epic fantasy follows Asaru, a winged warrior who journeys to the human realm to find his brother. After he commits a crime, Asaru becomes bound by a magical curse to Wren, a former healer. Now they must work together to find The Chronicler, the only person who has the answers to break the curse. But in their journey to free themselves, they uncover truths that could end human civilization.

Devil of the Deep by Falencia Jean-Francois

In this Haitian mythology-inspired epic pirate fantasy, Pearl is a mute mermaid who is running away from a religious cult known as the Fleet. But the Fleet aren’t the only ones pursuing Pearl. Pearl has fled with an important artifact, and Lieutenant “Lu” Ortega has been tasked with hunting it down. Unfortunately for Lu, Pearl is under the protection of her former lover, Nnenna Delahaye, also known as “the Devil of the Deep.”

My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer Nineties and Beyond by Hugh Ryan

Award-winning author and historian Hugh Ryan delivers his most personal book to date with this history of the 1990s. Through his own experiences, the author explores how queer life changed during the decade. This book covers it all, from queer communities found in AOL chat rooms to the AIDS crisis to queer films like To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Ryan also shares his own journey from his Irish-Catholic childhood to queer nightclubs in Manhattan and Berlin.

A Black Queer History of the United States by C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost

This is the first-ever Black history book to focus on queer experiences, tracing Black queer, trans, and gender non-conforming Americans’ history in America from slavery to the current day. Snorton and Bost examine the ways the struggle against racial injustice has always been connected to sexual and gender injustice, and how Black voices have always played a significant role in the LGBTQ rights movement.

Red and the Wolves by Cherry Zong

A sapphic apocalyptic reimagining of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Red is a skilled hunter who lives in a cabin in the middle of a dangerous, plague-ridden forest filled with monsters, where she must protect her witch grandmother. Aside from her grandmother, Red is all alone. Until she meets a wolf girl named Sil while out hunting monsters. Sil has been injured by a bear trap, and against her better judgment, Red takes her into her home to help her heal. But as Red and Sil develop a friendship, Red learns secrets about the world that put into question everything she’s ever known.

Just Between Us by Adeline Kon

Lydia Chen is a Chinese-American figure skater who is a prodigy on the ice, but she’s lost her passion for the sport. Then Elaine Yee starts training at the same rink. Elaine is Lydia’s main competition. Where Lydia is all precision and skill on the ice, Elaine is full of fire and artful emotion. As they both compete for the same spot in the Olympics, the two skaters’ mutual respect for one another blossoms into romance. This manga-inspired sapphic sports debut is perfect for fans of Yuri on Ice.