I don’t want to say “no,” because I really do have a rule of “I try to give representation to everyone who needs it.” But I also don’t want to say “yes,” because right now, the cast list is pretty full, at least so far as central characters goes, and until I get rid of one (or more) of them, bringing in anyone else would be either “they get to be background” or…
Well, no. It would be “they get to be background.” I can only juggle so many central characters at any given time, and I have a solid cast for the moment. This may change–probably will change–as the series goes on, but I am really not comfortable saying “yes” when I can’t give a firm idea of when. Word of God is not representation.
I will say, though, that reading your Ask makes me wonder if you’ve read any of my other work? Toby Daye, the main character of the October Daye books, has severe depression, and has cycled in and out of dark patches over the course of the series. I have depression myself, so I’m very much writing from a place of experience, here. And one of the main characters of Into the Drowning Deep, Olivia, is autistic, and kicks a lot of ass as she tries not to get eaten by killer mermaids.
When I say I will provide rep for anyone who tells me they need it to exist, I don’t mean in just one series; I mean spread out across my body of work. I think you might find what you’re looking for if you go digging through the rest of my bibliography.
yeah bitches i’m back and I have some God Dang Thoughts. all of them are about sapphic novels I’ve read this year and have seen nothing about on this platform!! sapphic fiction is getting its day in the sun and y’all have not yet NOTICED and it’s time to fix that
Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake [May 2018!!] – this is about a bi girl working to figure out both her brother’s role in a rape of her best friend and her own trauma, especially in how it affected her relationship with her ex, Charlie [who’s nb!] Charlie and Mara are my literal otp of the year and this book is one of the most quality ya books I have ever read. I cried and laughed and connected so much.
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli – this is the only one I haven’t read, but if you wanted Leah to end up with Abby after watching Love, Simon, maybe read the sequel where she actually does?
Final Draft by Riley Redgate [May 2018!!] – this book is about being an ambitious and depressed and biracial and pan as hell seventeen year old and it is so funny. what gets me about this one is that the characters are so real – Laila’s inner narrative especially is so incredibly well-done, I feel like I both know her and am her and love her. also, Hannah and Laila sailing was the most important moment of this year so far. a goddamn callout of a book
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – the best heterobait of 2017. I spent five extended hours of my life crying over Evelyn and Celia and I plan to spend more. very Literary Historical Fiction that reads like your typical pulpy mystery but is so much better. literally perfect. thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
Black Iris by Elliot Wake – ooooooh my god. if you’ve ever wanted to read about Murder Gays who Kill Shitty Men this is your book and you should read it [tw for sexual assault and homophobic bullying] ooooooooo hh m yg od
The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson – the voice of god references that name game meme from two years ago. I do not kid. seriously, though, this book is so effortlessly weird and cool and quintessentially millennial. i would die for Elena’s flawed bad-at-decision-making sarcastic vulnerable latina bi ass. [oh, and her girlfriend is amazing].
Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore – sometimes a family can be five sisters all in love with the same genderqueer girl. no but seriously, this killed me. i cried for five hours. i cry a lot. this book is a literary masterpiece and belongs in every class on post-colonial writing and queer studies, but it also doesn’t Feel like annoying literary fiction but also you will probably feel really deep after reading it?
Nevernight and Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff – invented enemies-to-lovers. another heterobait. they’re all assassins and the writing is overdramatic to the point of satire [yes, it’s intentional]. kind of hilarious for a book about murder. a walking meme that will make you sad
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant – it’s like Jaws but with bisexuals and mermaids. i k n o w it sounds really wild but i read this book in like one night and it was so goddamn entertaining but also so deep and yeah i’ll die if a sequel gets released
Bright We Burn by Kiersten White [July 2018!!] – sometimes a family can be a useless gay, his competent lesbian wife, her girlfriend, and his boyfriend. LISTEN UP, BITCHES. this trilogy is now completed [!!!] and it is the most addicting trilogy on the market right now. it’s about becoming at home with yourself and finding religion in love [most of the leads are Muslim] and the power of the forgotten in history and i can’t believe kiersten white killed the bury-your-gays trope, personally. Nazira and Fatima don’t narrate, but they are such an important part of this book and I adore them both. love these four platonically married gays
anyway read my fucking weird gay books you’re welcome
i went to a q&a for becky albertalli (author of simon vs) today and she said she was writing leah on the offbeat at the same time love simon was being filmed, and that she spoke with katherine langford and alexandra shipp about leah and abbys future romance and they applied it to their acting choices. so basically everytime we saw a moment that looked gay between leah and abby it wasn’t in our heads it was intentional happy 20gayteen folks
(asterisks mark books that are part of a longer series that either I haven’t read all of or doesn’t have prominent WLW characters in other installments)
Series:
Mangoverse, Shira Glassman, fluffy Jewish fantasy ft. lesbian queen and her chosen family
Nemesis, April Daniels, trans lesbian superhero YA
Alpennia, Heather Rose Jones, romantic fantasy ft. court intrigue, swordplay, magic, and lots of f/f romance
Not Otherwise Specified, Hannah Moskowitz, friendship between a black bi girl and the straight white Christian girl she meets in her ED therapy group
It’s Not Like It’s A Secret, Misa Sugiura, this one is billed as a sweet YA romance but it’s also about racism, including racism directed from one POC group to another, which can be a difficult read.
This Is Where It Ends, Marieke Nijkamp, controversial as heck, set during a school shooting. Spoiler: the lesbian couple survive.
YA (speculative fiction):
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire*, neglected twin girls find themselves in a Hammer Horror inspired secondary world/portal fantasy
The Abyss Surrounds Us, Emily Skrutskie*, enemies-to-lovers romance ft. pirates and genetically engineered sea monsters
Girls Made of Snow and Glass, Melissa Bashardoust, Snow White retelling with alternating POVs between the princess and her stepmother
Labyrinth Lost, Zoraida Cordova*, a blend of urban fantasy and portal fantasy starring a bi latina girl from a family of witches
Sound, Alexandra Duncan*, teen scientist helps rescue the brother of the girl she loves from the interplanetary slave trade
Adult (literary fiction):
A Thin Bright Line, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, novel inspired by the real life of the author’s aunt, a lesbian working in a Cold War-era climate research facility.
Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown, the archetypical semi-autobiographical lesbian coming of age novel, originally published in 1973. Molly Bolt’s narrative voice is incredibly engaging.
Adult (contemporary romance):
Knit One, Girl Two, Shira Glassman, yarn-maker finds inspiration in the work of a local painter, who turns out to be even more intriguing in person
Roller Girl, Vanessa North, former wakeboarder who quit the sport when she transitioned finds a new sport… and a new love.
Treasure, Rebekah Weatherspoon, college freshman dealing with depression and anxiety starts dating a classmate… who happens to also be a stripper who she met at her sister’s bachelorette party
Thaw, Elyse Springer*, mousy ace librarian falls in love with glamorous supermodel
Ester and Artemisia, Rivka Aarons-Hughes, cat-and-mouse game between an art forger and the expert who proves her works are fake
Romancing the Inventor, Gail Carriger*, lesbian mad scientist Genevieve Le Foux (side character in many of Carriger’s other works) meets a parlourmaid with a gift for mathematics
Beauty & Cruelty, Meredith Katz, Sleeping Beauty and the Wicked Fairy work together to save their world from a real world that thinks fairy tales are irrelevant
An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon, brutal dystopian take on the Generation Starship concept
Borderline, Mishell Baker*, urban fantasy about the connections between Hollywood and Faerie
My Real Children, Jo Walton, elderly woman has two competing sets of memories; in one timeline she has children with her female partner
The Drowning Girl, Caitlin R. Kiernan, impossible to describe meditation on art, madness, love, and ghosts
Walking on Knives, Maya Chhabra, Little Mermaid retelling where the Sea Witch’s sister is in love with the mermaid
❤ Soooooo many books to check out here ❤
I put together a book fair in April of a bunch of books with wlw protagonists and I’m not seeing them here, so here’s the link to the fair, where I labelled the books with genre, amount of sex, and price.
The Serpent’s Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1) (2018)
On the morning of her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey … until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents’ fantastical stories-like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this world.
To complicate matters, two crush-worthy princes ring her doorbell, insisting they’ve come to rescue her. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying, talking birds. There she must solve riddles and battle demons all while avoiding the Serpent King of the underworld and the Rakkhoshi Queen in order to find her parents and basically save New Jersey, her entire world, and everything beyond it .
Sayantani DasGupta grew up hearing stories about brave princesses, bloodthirsty rakkhosh and flying pakkhiraj horses. She is a pediatrician by training, but now teaches at Columbia University. When she’s not writing or reading, Sayantani spends time watching cooking shows with her trilingual children and protecting her black Labrador Retriever Khushi from the many things that scare him, including plastic bags. She is a team member of We Need Diverse books, and can be found online at www.sayantanidasgupta.com and on Twitter at @sayantani16.
I saw a sad facebook post from the gay bookstore back in Ann Arbor where I used to live about how they hadn’t sold any books that day so I went on their online store and bought a couple, and while you don’t get #deals like elsewhere online, I’d love it if y’all would consider buying your next gay book from them instead of like, Amazon.
bullshit central 