#queer book reccs

[batmanschmatman]

Book Rec: Coming Out Under Fire, by Allan Bérubé

Occasionally I see some discourse on Tumblr from folks in the HBO War fandom or different historical/history adjacent fandoms about how there weren’t that many members of the queer community involved in WWII, and I’d really like to point them and everyone else with an interest in queer history to this wonderful book. Originally published in 1990, Coming Out Under Fire gets into all the different ways queer folks DID participate in the war. It’s from an American perspective, so if you’re looking for other Allied experiences, unfortunately there won’t be much here for you, but it’s exceptionally well researched, and crucially a lot of the content comes from interviews with surviving servicemembers. There’s also a documentary based on the book, which came out a few years later and includes video interviews with some of the folks included in the text.

One of Bérubé’s main points in his introduction – and for writing the book in the first place – is the American government, history textbooks, Hollywood, etc. is able to paint the WWII-era military as an almost entirely straight military force because many queer people who participated in the war effort were silenced during their lifetimes, and were unable or unwilling to reveal their true identities. Some of this was from societal pressure – the post war period saw a huge surge in homophobic rhetoric and persecution in the name of fighting Communism, not to mention the ever present heteronormative pressure to get married and have kids – but also because so many queer veterans died during the AIDS epidemic. Bérubé was inspired to preserve the voices of those who were still with us and shed a light on some of the folks we lost. (Note that this was also an intensely personal issue for Bérubé, who lost friends and his partner to AIDS and thus saw first hand how devastating this was to the community in terms of robbing us of our loved ones, friends, elders, and history itself.)

In the book, Bérubé makes the point over and over again that queer people were involved at basically every level in the American military during the war. There’s stories about guys lying when asked “Do you like girls?” during enlistment, lesbians in the Women’s Army Corps being brought to trial for fraternizing, drag shows in POW camps and in reserve, front line combat veterans discussing losing romantic partners to enemy fire or coming out to foxhole buddies, who were supportive allies rather than hateful. One of my favorite stories that’s always stuck out to me is a guy who came home and decided to come out to his elderly mother, who was fully accepting and supportive of her son’s sexuality. I see so many people speaking in absolutes that there’s NO WAY you could come out to your family and be accepted in the past, and while that was certainly true for so many people, it’s also not an absolute truth.

Please note I am NOT giving blanket permission to make assumptions about real-life people’s sexualities or identities, nor am I saying Band of Brothers fics where half the company is dating each other are historically accurate, but it’s really sad to see folks on here (unknowingly, hopefully) perpetuating the myth that there really weren’t that many queer folks in the military during WWII. We were there, we just couldn’t be out the way we might have liked to be. After the war, the Red Scare, societal pressure, and a literal epidemic silenced countless members of the community about their time in the service. There’s no way to know how many people who fought on Guadalcanal or worked at stateside bases or sorted mail in France were queer, but it’s a lot more than you were led to believe.

As a member of the community and a historian (brief resume: MA in Public History, BA in American History, have published stuff and created exhibits for dozens of museums), I just want to remind folks that we have always been here, and our lives weren’t always miserable and tragic when we came out to people or decided to live as authentically as we could get away with. It’s not completely historically inaccurate to write fic or original fiction where your queer characters can come out to their families and not be shunned, or live with their partners and not be immediately murdered. Being queer wasn’t invented at Stonewall.

#hbo war #hbowar #band of brothers #the pacific #queer history #book reccs #lgbtq history

[queer-ragnelle]

favorite queer retellings/interpretations of arthurian legend

hello anon!

this simple question has a complicated answer if only bc some authors seem to have created queer stories unintentionally! & i like them! i'll include quotes from my suggestions below a cut as there will be some mild spoilers but that may help you decide what stories suit your tastes as they vary a lot. you can also just go ahead & assume kay & agravaine are always queer (bc they are, not accepting crit) which makes narrowing down the list difficult for me.

TL;DR: Camelot 3000 Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland, Exiled From Camelot/Trial of Sir Kay/Hunt for Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry, Spear Nicola Griffith, Guinevere/Morgan/Morgawse by Lavinia Collins, The Queen's Knight by Marvin Borowsky, Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger, The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf.

Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland: reincarnation story with transman sir tristan coming to terms with his gender & sexuality so he can accept isolde's love for him & reciprocate. it's really beautifully written imo plus the art is so 80s & my exact cup of tea. it's dated in some of its handling of the subject matter but i think it was done thoughtfully for the time.

Exiled From Camelot, The Trial of Sir Kay, The Hunt for The Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry: the way baldry writes is overall my favorite ever but her kay is unparalleled he is everything to me. unequivocally disinterested in women (without misogyny, very important note). codependent on gawain if not fully in love with him the crown style. lots of hurt/comfort, kissing, holding & worrying over each other. they exchange a ring for god's sake. in exiled it says ragnelle was the only woman for gawain (based) but after she passed he's all kay's basically so this checks all my boxes. love wins.

Spear by Nicola Griffith: butch perceval pulling bitches chapter after chapter it's glorious. ends up settling down with nimue. bonus throuple arthur/guin/lance with a very sweet moment with lance talking to percy about them both. no homophobia (external nor internal) to be found its very enjoyable. beautiful prose. audiobook was wonderfully narrated by the author, which is how i read it, thus i've written out a quote here:

"Secrets may prove a burden. So...Lance, my mother is indeed Merlin's sister but I am not Merlin's sister's son." Lance frowned. "I don't understand..." "I am not his sister's son." His eyes stretched wide. He reassessed the line of her jaw, the size of her hands. She nodded. Then he reassessed how she and Nimue sat with one another. This time, Nimue nodded.

Guinevere, Morgan, & Morgawse by Lavinia Collins: these aren't my favorite (did gawain really dirty, deal breaker) but the fact is they have multiple explicitly queer characters including: kay, lancelot, morgawse, agravaine, isolde, dinadan, etc. plus there were several poly scenes including one with guin/lance/kay, another morgawse/lot/visiting king/queen swinging. wild all around everyone is sleeping with everyone no character is unaccounted for. be warned these books are extremely graphic in every conceivable way. queer solidarity in the face of homophobia is a theme throughout. kay punches phobic urien & agravaine "saw nothing." shh its fine urien sucks. this hilarious convo between agravaine & morgawse kills me.

The Queen's Knight by Marvin Borowsky: an interesting retelling in which mordred is a grown up warlord right from the outset. he also happens to be queer. mind this came out in the 50s & contains pederasty, but mordred does later have a loving tragic relationship with fellow knight calogrenant (yay crackships<3), which others were aware of & helped conceal (kay, for example). agravaine is also queer, he only joins arthur's forces bc lancelot asks him to & continues to fixate on him for the whole book. typical.

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger: so this book is super homophobic. but it's so homophobic that it circles back around to being pretty queer bc berger saw queerness everywhere, apparently. but the green knight is purposefully queer, so the kissing game's gender-role-reversal/bisexuality....escalates. david lowery wishes. both gawain & arthur are pretty homoromantic with lancelot to the point the narrative calls attention to it & then no-homos their closeness. agravaine appears to be queer too. he's the only unmarried brother (claims to be in love with guinevere but i don't buy it), he wants lancelot so bad he gets all tongue tied & stupid around him...wrecked.

The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf: what's this? agravaine again? so in this version, lancelot is named bedwyr (inspired by mary stewart's quadrilogy) but he's lance in all but name. anyway agravaine constantly beefs with guinevere for his attention...& loses. plus it's implied agravaine slept with lamorak before his mother which is hysterical. (my fave crackship is thriving<3) agravaine topples the empire for a much older straight man. it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. let's give it up for problematic jealous slutty queers.

these are just the retellings i have read & liked. there are more on my retellings list but those were suggestions from others i haven't gotten to yet with the exception of dishonorable mention to the winter knight by jes battis. it has gay gawain & his bestie transgirl bi kay in that but the writing style was unbearable to me unfortunately i'm so sorry i just didn't like it. anyway thanks for the ask!

#arthurian legend #arthuriana #arthurian legends #queer #lgbtq #book recommendations #book reccs #sir tristan #queen isolde #sir lancelot #sir kay #sir gawain #sir bertilak #the green knight #sir agravaine #sir mordred #sir bedwyr #sir calogrenant #sir dinadan #queen guinevere #sir perceval #sir percival #nimue #lady of the lake #king arthur #queen morgause #ask #anonymous

[thatstonerfriend]

I’m not sure if anyone who follows me is big on reading, but I’m just getting back into it (I’m terrible at feeding my hobbies). Anyways, I’m a HUGE lover of young adult books. It’s one of my top favorite genres, I just think the writing in Y.A. is unmatched and transformative.

I just read Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White. When I tell you I devoured this book. The plot, the characters, everything was perfection. The education and insight it gives into the LGBTQ+ world, especially for young adults; it’s amazing. I wish I’d had a book like this growing up. One that made me realize the differences and fluidity in sexuality and gender and how beautiful every aspect of our community can be.

I highly recommend this book if you like Y.A. Fiction with a post apocalyptic feel. Normally I’m not an apocalyptic girly but everything about this from the religious turmoil and family trauma, to the romance and community is utter perfection.

#hell followed with us #andrew joseph white #young adult #fiction #young adult fiction #bookaddict #book of the month #transgender #trans community #lgbtq+ #lgbt #queer #queer books #lgbtq books #book review #book reccs #book recommendations #bookworm

[ineedtoventaboutbooks]

One Last Stop is so good??? Like everyone is talking about RWRB which is good but y’all are sleeping on their other works. It’s got sapphic love and basically all the flavors of queer and time travel and mysteries and it’s so cute and good. 10/10 tbh

#one last stop #rwrb #casey mcquiston #lesbians #books #lgbt books #queer books #book reccs

[hussyknee]

Gave up on Cat Sebastian after seven books (I'll go back and try her 20th century period novels later since I'm told they might be better) and started reading KJ Charles's new Death in the Spires instead. Instantly grabbed by the heart, mind and balls (or whatever the female anatomy equivalent would be). No plodding, skimming or patience necessary. Already blown through 75 pages. If I had this much chemistry on every date with another human being I might actually marry them, and my jaded and divorced ass does not say that lightly.

It's a bit of a departure this time because it's a murder mystery set in the Edwardian era (which includes the 1890s for me personally bc if there's cars around Victoria is as good as dead) rather than yet another 19th century romance. The protagonist is queer and the vibe is def Be Gay Do Crimes but Charles has taken care to plaster everywhere that this is NOT a guaranteed HEA. Idk whether that means we're going to be left with an uneasy, reeling Agatha Christie ending or it just went without saying because why would a murder mystery have a HEA?

I'm really interested to see whether Charles can pull it off though. She's the kind of confident and intelligent plotter that makes you think could write clever whodunits, so this feels like putting her money where her mouth gave the impression it might be. The Christie vibes are hella strong in this one so far and the pacing is, as ever, a study in excellence.

Edit: what do you mean St. Anselm's is a fictional Oxford college?? There's entire fantasy franchises with less involved world building than what KJC gave this place??

#kj charles #death in the spires #historical fiction #queer historical fiction #historical mystery #historical murder mystery #queer media #book recommendations #book reccs #knee of huss

[bnrusso]

lgbtq+ book recs for every genre 📚

bookish.bailee on insta

#lgbtq positivity #lgbt books #queer books #sapphic books #bi books #gay books #book recs #book rec list #book recs 2023 #book reccs #lgbtq community

[lord--of--trash]

If you like queer fiction and are into post-apocalyptic stories then PLEASE check out this book. I recently discovered it and it's my new favourite thing but it is not nearly well known enough. Its like the walking dead but without the zombies and more gay pining 🤣

It's funny, heart-warming, emotional and very gay. I literally devoured it in 2 days, even with a full time job. It really spoke to me in a way I can't communicate, It was like a book I didn't know I needed. I only wish I never had to finish it.

I think it's a crime that more people haven't had the pleasure of this book, so if you can, I cannot reccomend reading it enough.

#all that's left in the world #the walking dead #telltales walking dead #life is strange #song of achilles #queer fiction #LGBT #gay #lgbt books #books #post apocalypse #post apocalyptic #erik j. brown #book recommendations #romance #zombies run #book reccs #the last of us #tlou #left behind #the gays #gays #bi #bisexual

[earlgreycoffee5]

reading one last stop again and watching Jane and August fall in love again for like the 900th time literally never gets old. like they call pancake billy's magic? the entire book is magic goddamn and i am here for it every single time

#one last stop #casey mcquiston #queer #queer love #wlw #lesbian #booklr #book reccs #ugh #love #true love #obsessed #i have an unhealthy attachment to this book #books #reread #i will be buried with this book thank you #lgbtq

[m-kyunie]

quick CaPri art bc I’ve been missing them...

#captive prince trilogy #CaPri #damianos of akielos #Laurent of Vere #lamen #was not feeling drawing the faces or coloring but i needed to draw them #oh i dont know hwo to tag anything anymore #anyws any queer books refs wld be great!! #doesnt have to be similar in plot/setting. but i like the dynamic n writing #n pref not a series but if u love it recc it anyws

[poppletonink]

Review: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

★★★★★ - 5 stars

"If violet-eyed men are a gift from God, violet-eyed women are an unfortunate side effect."

Andrew Joseph White's sophomore novel, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a Victorian-based, queer, fantasy-horror piece that divulges details about real-world issues, and tells a powerful tale of gore, ghosts and friendship. In a world where the veil between the living and the dead has thinned, we meet Silas Bell. We follow him as he attempts to escape an arranged marriage; is diagnosed with the mysterious 'Veil sickness' (that only effects people of violet eyes) and is shipped off to Braxton's Boarding School, where the ghosts of missing students plea for his help. All the while, Silas undergoes a powerful journey about identity, the power we weild and the importance of finding friendships with those who are of a similar mind to us. Throughout, White uses beautifully poetic writing to express profound ideas about the world we live in, such as Silas' feelings about his identity and the fear of death many are akin to. Even so, it remains a painfully sorrowful tale, and its depictions of medical gore are graphic, detailed and horrifying; it is certainly not for the faint of heart. The diversity in this book is outstanding with an autistic, transgender (female to male), bisexual main character and a transhet (t4t) relationship at its heart. The characters are authentic, multifaceted constructs that express feelings that many will relate to, and open your eyes to a completely new world-view. As this is a historically accurate Victorian novel, sexism, abelism and transphobia runs rife within the society we are presented with, and yet, Silas questions and denies these ideas perfectly and in a way that we can all learn from. Ghosts, boarding schools and missing girls in a terribly twisted society - The Spirit Bares Its Teeth has it all. An exceptional and spellbeing piece of literature: this is the perfect book for every horror lover out there to pick up from their local bookshop and to spiral down a rabbithole of reading.

#books #booklr #book blog #book reccs #readblr #book recommendations #books and reading #bookblr #bookaddict #bookworm #transgender #transmasc #transfem #t4t #transhet #lgbt #bisexual #queer #lgbtq #lgbtqia #historical fiction #fantasy #ghosts #spirits #paranormal #supernatural #the spirit bares its teeth #andrew joseph white #silas bell #daphne luckenbill

[black-academia]

Hello! I just wanted to share some potential reads for Session II of the Black Academia Book Club! We will be discussing Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla on our first meeting on November 5th, 2022 at 5PM EST. The sign-up form is still open here, and you don't have to commit to every meeting; just show up for as many meetings as you would like! After signing up, there will be a welcome email sent to you with information for voting on books we will actually read together... but feel free to send an ask, or DM me, if you have any questions!

Sincerely, Sai 🖤

#black academia #dark academia #queer book club #book club #book reccs #book list #book recs #queer lit #queer literature

[acexactly]

If you are asexual and like fantasy books, READ THIS BOOK!!! I have never identified so much with a protagonist!! And it has meaningful discussions about being ace, romantic vs. platonic, and many of the major topics of going through life on the ace spectrum.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Royal Rescue by A. Alex Logan

#asexual #book recommendations #ace spec #queer lit #book reccs #aroace #fantasy books #aromantic #aro spec

[magicinkjasp]

The Spirit Bares it's Teeth- Quotes

As soon as you were born with a womb, you were fucked. - The Spirit Bares it's Teeth, Andrew Joseph White.

There are lots of things my family shouldn't have done to me. - The Spirit Bares it's Teeth, Andrew Joseph White.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, I believe wholeheartedly, in my soul, that I am a boy. How arrogant of me, to think I could change something so God-given as my sex. - The Spirit Bares it's Teeth, Andrew Joseph White.

"And do you consider yourself strong?" I've had to be. To make it this far, being a person like this. - The Spirit Bares it's Teeth, Andrew Joseph White.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not a monster for trying to ensure the best chance of survival." - The Spirit Bares it's Teeth, Andrew Joseph White.

He needs to stop talking about my eyes right now, the way those men did as I was growing up, the way those men did as they played with my hair. I was ten years old. I was nine. I was eight. I was a child. - The Spirit Bares it's Teeth, Andrew Joseph White.

#book quotes #the spirit bares its teeth #tsbit #ajw #andrew joseph white #deep thoughts #deep quotes #book lover #book reading #book reccs #transgender #neurodivergent #queer books #t4t

[andromedaexists]

high key thinking of starting a directory of some sort (probably just an excel sheet) to track gay books. Every time I try to find queer horror stories that I can really get into and relate to, it ends up being sapphic or some other flavor of not mlm

There's nothing wrong with this! I still love those books! but I want a book where people like me (a trans man that loves men) get to be the star queers. Also horror. I want it to be kinda fucked up.

So yeah, i'm thinking of starting a little list of gay books I find and read and whether they are actually what they're marketed as

Edit: I did it

#book reccs #book recommendations #queer books #gay books #mlm books #andi talks

[luzisahomosexual]

I NEED BOOK RECS PLS🙏

Preferably queer, angsty & with murder or violence…

Finished reading ‘All For The Game’ and I loved it so much that I actually feel ill help I need new books to read😭😭

I’m going insaneeeee

#PLS RECOMEND ME BOOKS I BEG #SUPERNATURAL STUFF IS OKAY TOO #PLS PLS PLS I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER IF U RECOMEND ME GOOD BOOKS #I NEED THEM TO SURVIVE #silly autism makes me get a lil too obsesssd sometimes😒 #gotta love the tism #all for the game #foxhole court #the raven king #the kings men #books and reading #book reccs #book recommendations #ANGSTY queer #books with murder #queer charecters who kill ppls

[hussyknee]

If you're not reading Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, you should be. I'm a 100 pages in and in absolute splits. Top-tier British queer comedy. 💀💀

(I'm also convinced the character the protag is trying to hook up with is autistic as hell.)

“No. God no. My mother’s French.”

“Ah. Lucien, then.” He said it perfectly, too, with the half-swallowed softness of the final syllable, smiling at me—the first full smile I’d seen from him, and shocking in its sweetness. “Vraiment? Vous parlez français?”

There’s really no excuse for what happened next. I think maybe I just wanted him to keep smiling at me. Because for some reason I said, “Oui oui. Un peu.”

And then, to my horror, he rattled off God knew what.

Leaving me to scrape the bottom of the barrel of my GCSE French, for which I’d received a D. “Um…um… Je voudrais aller au cinema avec mes amis? Ou est la salle de bain?”

Utterly perplexed, he pointed. So I was obliged to go the bathroom.

When I slunk back, he immediately confronted me with “You don’t speak French at all, do you?”

“No.” I hung my head. “I mean, my mother used both when I was growing up, but I still turned out stubbornly monolingual.”

“Then why didn’t you just say that?”

“I…don’t know. I guess I assumed you didn’t speak French either?”

“Why on earth would I imply I could speak French, when I couldn’t?”

I stuffed a teetering forkful of pie into my mouth. “You’re right. That would be a deranged thing to do.”

#increasingly feral capslocking screaming meta-essaying liveblog in the notes #with random excerpts of the funniest shit but i really did try not to spoil the important stuff #tbh i don't think anything really can forewarn you of this reading experience #i think it qualifies as 'real literature' whatever that's supposed to be‚ because of how much it interrogates and subverts #lgtbtqia #mlm romance #queer lit #british comedy #book recommendations #book reccs #boyfriend material #alexis hall #nonbinary author #knee of huss