Following the avalanche of queer books released in June, it’s time for another roundup of hotly anticipated LGBTQ reads heading your way the rest of summer 2024. Below, find over 40 queer books hitting shelves in July and August. As usual, all genres are represented, but there’s a surprising amount of creepy reads in the thriller/horror realm coming out the rest of summer.

Find something that isn’t on our radar yet? Let us know in the comments! And if you ended up reading any of June’s releases, let us know that, too!

July 2

Together We Fall Apart by Sophie Matthiesson (Literary Fiction)

A novel about familial dysfunction, Together We Fall Apart is about partners and mothers of a young son Miriam and Clare. Clare’s life unravels when she goes home to care for her ailing father and contends with her brother’s addiction.

The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani (Thriller)

According to the publisher, this thriller novel is “Kill Bill meets The Handmaiden meets Thelma and Louise,” and well, I’m sold. It’s set in Tokyo in 1979 and tells the story of outcast Yoriko Shindo, who becomes the body guard and driver for Shoko Naiki, the 18-year-old daughter of a local gang’s kingpin.

Misrecognition by Madison Newbound (Literary Fiction)

A debut novel advertised as an “unflinchingly sharp and funny debut novel” for fans of Patricia Lockwood. After her formative and exhilarating relationship with a couple who were also her bosses, lovers, and cultural guideposts ends, a depressed Elsa finds solace in her online obsession with a young actor recently featured in a gay romance movie. Then the actor shows up in her hometown for a theater festival, and Elsa is forced to confront her sexuality and her relationship patterns as she’s drawn to his enigmatic companion, Sam.

Making It by Laura Kay (Romance)

Isobel loves making art, her pet chinchilla Abigail, and making art of her pet chinchilla Abigail. Famous artist and reality TV star Elizabeth Staggs takes notice of the chinchilla art and gives Isobel a suddenly massive following and platform. A queer rom-com set in the art world, Making It also looks at what it looks like to live with depression.

July 9

More, Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing, and the Lust for Enough by Emma Specter (Memoir, Essays)

Blending personal writing with in-depth reportage, Vogue writer Emma Specter writes on binge-eating disorder, fatphobia, diet culture, food, and more, bringing in voices like Virginia Sole-Smith, Virgie Tovar, and Aiyana Ishmael for sharp cultural commentary. Stay tuned for an Autostraddle interview with Emma all about the book!

Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema by Willow Maclay and Caden Gardner (Nonfiction)

Two trans film critics trace the history of transgender representation in cinema — from the silent era to musicals to body horror, the experimental avant garde and mainstream movies like the Matrix franchise.

A Map of My Want by Faylita Hicks (Poetry)

Fayita Hicks builds on the work of Audre Lorde’s iconic essay “Uses of the Erotic,” creating a nonbinary and queer map of desire that chronicles sexual liberation after escaping a religious cult.

Daughters of Chaos by Jen Fawkes (Historical Fiction)

Set in Nashville in 1862, this historical novel follows a secret society of women and is inspired by Lysistrata. Fawkes injects fabulism into this sprawling tale of feminist mythology.

The Second Son by Adrienne Tooley (Fantasy)

Friends-to-enemies and slow-burn romance tropes are promised in this fantasy followup to The Third Daughter.

July 23

A Rose by Any Other Name by Mary McMyne (Sci-Fi/Fantasy)

Set in England, 1591, this fantasy novel imagines the story and life of the Dark Lady, the mysterious woman described in Shakespeare’s later sonnets.

Exes & Foes by Amanda Woody (Romance, YA)

Ex-best friends/current enemies Emma and Caleb decide to fight for the affection of new girl Juliet…and end up falling for each other in the process. Bisexual chaos, indeed!

Queen B: The Story of Anne Boleyn, Witch Queen by Juno Dawson (Fantasy)

This is the latest installment in the fantasy series Her Majesty’s Royal Coven and is set during the reign of Henry VIII in 1536. It’s a queer reimagining of — yep, you guessed it! — Anne Boleyn.

So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky (Horror, YA)

Advertised as “A queer, feminist spin on Stephen King’s The Mist,”” and “a diverse, queer horror about female friendship, the emotional aftermath of surviving assault, and how to find power in the shadows of your past,” this horror novel begins with what should be a dream spring break on a private Florida island for high school senior Nell and her friends —until Nell’s secrets come to bear, trapping them all in a curse that surrounds the island. Getting out alive will mean putting all of it on the line, and facing memories Nell hoped to leave behind.

Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield (Sci-Fi, YA)

A debut YA speculative romance finds two disabled Jewish teenage girls falling in love while stuck in a time loop.

I Will Never Leave You by Kara A Kennedy (Thriller)

A teenage girl fresh out of high school is haunted by the ghost of her toxic ex-girlfriend, forced to help her ex possess another girl, or go down for her murder.

Markless by CG Malburi (Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy)

An enemies-to-lovers trope makes its appearance in Markless, a fantasy novel set in a world where those with marks have access to magic and those without the mark are deemed powerless and therefore unvalued by society.

July 30

When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader by Susan Stryker, edited by McKenzie Wark (Nonfiction)

This collection of works by Susan Stryker, a foundational figure in trans studies, includes canonical pieces and harder-to-find earlier work from zines and newsletters, tracing her development from the 1990s into the present and grounding her thought in San Francisco’s innovative queer, trans and S/M cultures.

August 6

Gender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative World by Diane Ehrensaft PhD and Michelle Jurkiewicz PsyD (Nonfiction)

Providing clear, expert guidance, Gender Explained aims to separate medical fact from fear-mongering falsehoods, introducing readers to gender creativity while providing accessible introductions to topics like gender-affirming care and gender dysphoria in children.

Mammoth by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches (Literary Fiction)

This is the followup to Baltasar’s Boulder and is about a disenchanted young lesbian living life in chaos mode in an isolated farmhouse.

I Don’t Want to Be Understood by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza (Poetry)

Espinoza’s latest poetry collection promises “a work of resistance against the conventional trans narrative, and a resistance against the idea that trans people should have to make themselves clear and understandable to others in other to deserve human rights.” It chronicles many stages and scopes of trans life.

Failure to Comply by Cavar (Sci-Fi)

An imaginative work that asks questions about autonomy and self-determination, Failure to Comply is set in a a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future where genetic engineering and societal supervision have squashed human desire and disease. Sounds very fitting for fans of The Matrix!

Better Left Buried by Mary E. Roach

Lucy, the daughter of a famous private detective, finds herself colliding with Audrey, a mysterious girl on a motorcycle who happens to be present the night Lucy and her Mom find a body while on their beach vacation. Together, Lucy and Audrey angle to get to the bottom of a mystery in a town where everyone’s got something to hide and people keep turning up dead in an abandoned amusement park.

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (Romance)

Casey McQuiston’s much anticipated upcoming novel has a delicious premise: Two bisexual exes make plans to attend the same European food and wine tour by accident and then challenge each other to a hookup competition. What could possibly go wrong! This sounds like it has all the makings of being the summer’s hottest bisexual book.

This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings (Fantasy)

Vampires in Jazz Age Harlem? Yep, that’s what this first installment in a fantasy duology is about! It’s 1926, and vampires — called reapers here — are on the rise. But a family of reaper-hunters have made it their mission and business to amass power by eliminating the bloodthirsty beings.

Transgenesis by Ava Nathaniel Winter (Poetry)

Ava Nathaniel Winter’s debut touches on queerness, transness, Jewish identity, history, beauty, and survival.

Queering Reproductive Justice by Candace Bond-Theriault (Nonfiction)

As its title suggests, this is a work that applies a queer lens to reproductive justice, intertwining the movements for LGBTQ liberation and bodily autonomy. Bond-Theriault combines interviews with activists and academics, legislative history, reproductive theory, queer theory, and more in this book with an urgent call for organizing and advocacy around queer reproductive justice.

How it All Ends by Emma Hunsinger (Graphic Novel, Middle Grade)

Alice Oseman describes this debut middle-grade graphic novel as a “hilarious, inventive, smart and silly” story that “perfectly captures the overwhelming confusion, anxiety, and joy of a young gay crush.”

August 8

I Spit On Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies by Heidi Honeycutt (Nonfiction)

Honeycutt traces the political and cultural forces that shape how modern horror films are made by women, from short films and documentaries to horror porn, pink films, experimental horror, and beloved horror hits.

August 13

The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis

Psyche, a captivating and rebellious beauty, aches for freedom from societal expectations. Facing a curse from Aphrodite, her family offers her as a sacrifice and she is spirited away to a hidden palace by Eros, the nonbinary deity of desire, who has fallen for her. But their passionate nights face obstacles, as Eros’s identity remains a secret and Psyche is plagued by doubt and urged by her sisters to reject Eros, setting up the heavens for a confrontation that alters everyone’s destinies.

Special Topics in Being a Parent: A Queer and Tender Guide to Things I’ve Learned About Parenting, Mostly the Hard Way by S Bear Bergman, illustrated by Saul Freedman-Lawson (Nonfiction)

This illustrated guide to practical parenting, informed by queer experiences, is a witty collection of child-rearing tips from an advice columnist, educator and queer Dad with fifteen years of parenting behind his belt.

Eat Your Heart Out Vol. 1 by Terry Blas, Matty Newton, illustrated by Lydia Anslow (Graphic Novel)

Blanca runs away to NYC to pursue her lifelong dreams of working in fashion. There, she finds plenty of obstacles but also a new chosen family to help her along the way.

The Italy Letters by Vi Khi Nao (Literary Fiction)

Prolific and often genre-expansive poet and author Vi Khi Nao is back with a slim novel that chronicles an erotic queer love affair set against the backdrop of Las Vegas. The language here is sure to be immersive and delectable, as is always the case for Vi Khi Nao’s work.

The Avian Hourglass by Lindsey Drager (Literary Fiction)

Stars are no longer visible and the birds have all disappeared in this novel whose description alone reads like intense climate horror. Bird gays, this one’s for you.

You’re Embarrassing Yourself: Stories of Love, Lust and Movies by Desiree Akhavan (Memoir, Essays)

Desiree Akhavan, make another film challenge! But for now, we’ll settle for this memoir in essays that contends with the all-important queer theme of shame.

August 16

My Race Is My Gender edited by Stephanie Hsu and Ka-Man Tse (Essays)

This anthology by nonbinary writers of color features photography and visual portraits alongside stories of Black, Indigenous, Latine and Asian lives, offering an intergenerational look at what it means to belong to American marginalized queer communities while feeling solidarity with a global majority.

August 20

Bluff by Danez Smith (Poetry)

Brilliant poet Danez Smith is sooooo back with a collage of poems contending with the violence of capitalism and the American project, the history of Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, art, love, hope, rage, and more.

A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen

In Sài Gòn, Lan, a devoted daughter, hides her passion for food blogging behind her dutiful care for her mother and their bánh mì stall. Vietnamese American Vivi, haunted by her parents’ unspoken past, studies abroad in Vietnam to investigate and to eat everything mentioned on Lan’s blog, A Bánh Mì for Two. They meet and form a pact: Lan will guide Vivi through the city, helping her uncover her family history, while Vivi encourages Lan to restart her blog. As they explore Sài Gòn and their pasts, their bond deepens into love.

Wild Failure: Stories by Zoe Whittall (Literary Fiction)

Bad decisions, tense relationships, and general human failure bind these stories in a short fiction debut from the prolific Whittall, who has written queer novels and poetry through the years, including the recent scammer novel The Fake.

Rise and Divine by Lana Harper (Sci-Fi/Fantasy)

A tale of necromancers, Rise and Divine promises a witchy queer rom-com and adventure. This is an installment in the Witches of Thistle Grove series.

Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Nonfiction)

Sure to be an essential text for any longtime fans and students of Audre Lorde, Survival Is a Promise is the culmination of Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s deep research into Lorde’s manuscript archives.

August 23

Craze by Margaret Vandenburg (Historical Fiction)

A roaring 20s historical fiction lesbian romance, Craze is about Henrietta “Henri” Adams, “art critic by day and lady lover by night.”

August 27

The Crimson Crown by Heather Walter (Fantasy)

The wicked queen of Snow White lore gets to tell her side of the story in this queer reimagining of the classic fairytale.

Don’t Let It Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne (Romance, YA)

Alana and Gray’s romantic relationship comes to an end when Alana comes out as a lesbian, but they still remain best friends, Alana setting him up with girls…which is going great until they both start to have feelings for the same girl. A contemporary YA romance, Don’t Let It Break Your Heart is about friendship and early queer experiences.

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker (Horror, YA)

We’re obsessed with this cheeky title for a queer horror book. It’s a YA tale of teens who accidentally summon a vengeful spirit.

Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldivar (YA)

A queer coming of age story set against the 2017 presidential election in Honduras, Libertad follows Libertad “Libi” Morazán, a high school senior who anonymously writes political poetry on Instagram and has recently kissed a girl she might be falling for. This young queer romance is set against political uprisings, blending the personal and the political.

The Rainbow Age of Television: An Opinionated History of Queer TV by Shayna Maci Warner (Nonfiction)

This work of cultural criticism examines the recent “Rainbow Age” of television as queer characters and stories have proliferated on television, also diving into the history of queer TV. There are interviews with important voices like Lilly Wachowski and Stephanie Beatriz.

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