LGBTQ+ Literature Recommendations

Do forgive me if such a thread already exists (I used the search and didn't find anything though), but I've recently developed an interest in LGBT literature that's developed as of late, reading Capote and Isherwood and Wilde and so on. So I figured I'd make a thread to discuss LGBT literature and ask for recommendations on the subject.

I'm also after some recommendations, things outside of the 'go to' LGBT authors (Isherwood, Wilde etc.) and books. I've heard good things about 'Giovanni's Room', so I may start off with that.

I'm sadly not an expert on the topic, but if you haven't read Brideshead Revisited yet, you probably should. It's not a clear-cut queer work, more a case of subtext (but then, the same could be said for The Picture of Dorian Gray). It's a very good novel in every respect; strongly recommended. The mini-series adaptation is great, too.

edited 8th Nov '12 3:49:28 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

What counts as LGBT literature, exactly? Does a book like Iron Council count? The author is gay, as is the main character, and the central relationship is a triangle between the main character, a bisexual man and a straight woman. The book isn't really "about" those issues though, so I guess it doesn't count.

I guess for a better example I'd say The Left Hand of Darkness if anyone hasn't read it already, though i assume anyone interested in this topic knows about that book.

There's of course Carmilla with enough subtext to make it practicly text. There's the Claudine books though a translation it's a bit hard to come by. Not exactly an accurate interpretation of lesbian life, but considering it was published in 1901? There's also In Search of Lost Time which has a gay or bi main character with some others in the cast. It's not a main focus but it's there. And of course the famous Well of Lonelyness published in 192 which is known for being the first english novel with an explisitly gay couple though it could be trans. Though be prepared for appile of anxt and a Tear Jerker ending Btw, I mostly read very subtext heavy works publishe before 1930 so they tend to be ambigious or at least subjective. Some Roman love poems are interesting if you want an ancient take.

I haven't read much queer lit, but I'd definitely be interested in recommendations. I've only read the first chapter of Dorian Grey thus far. Can't think of anything else I've read that qualifies right now.

There is some interesting homosexual subtext in The Eye by Vladimir Nabokov. Don't go in expecting it to be the focus of the story, but it's a damn good read nevertheless.

If you can take some fairly heavy sexual content—not to a pornographic degree, but certainly not shied away from—then you might find Jean Genet worth your while. He's... gritty, but not in a "hardboiled detective" kind of way.

One of my favorites is Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott. It's a rather light-hearted Cyberpunk adventure about a lesbian hacker who gets caught up in major events. Gender/sexual identity isn't the focus of the story, but it's a fairly major element.

I really should make a page for it, but I'll have to re-read it first.

Thread migrated.

Here's one recommendation and five gay and one lesbian fantasy novels wish-listers, if anyone is still interested. I'm too sleepy to write a review right now for the one two-book series I've read (to be honest I bought and read another one but it was a follow-GRM's-lead and "meh"), and the other six are books on my wishlist that piqued my interest after having read the previews texts available. I plan to look more into LBT side of fantasy novels soon, though there's a bunch of PWP to sort through.

Again, all the recommendations are of the fantasy genre. G stands for Gay. L stands for Lesbian.

The one I've read and definitely recommend:

• Lord of White Hell — Book 1 and 2 by Ginn Hale (G; I highly recommend buying both if you read a preview and like it, since the second is basically a direct continuation of the first, and you might be like me, staying up nights wondering when the second book is going to arrive)

On my wishlist after I read the previews:

• Wicked Gentlemen — Hells Below by Ginn Hale (G; since I loved her Lord of White Hell duology so much)
• Magebound by Katica Locke (G)
• Luck in the Shadows of the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling (G)
• Sword of the Guardian by Mary Shannon (L)
• The Archer's Heart by Astrid Amara (G; considering the whopping price the physical copies sell, probably going to buy Kindle-wise)

• Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow (G; the cover gives me the feeling that it's not my type, but after having read the preview it seemed solid, if a bit adjective-heavy)

If any of the books ring "PWP" or "no characterization/character development or world-building, just an excuse to hook two guys together" or "misogyny, rape, etc. treated as inconsequential or ignored as being something wrong or alarming" warning bells on the wishlist side of things, I'd be grateful to know.

edited 24th Jun '13 8:49:39 AM by HopelessOsakaD

Annnnd, migrated back.

Why is this stickied ? Not a complaint, just curious on the criteria.

I've read the first book of the 'Luck in the Shadows' series. I can't recall anything too problematic in it, but I also didn't find it all that gripping, so I never read the rest of them.

edited 10th Feb '14 1:28:38 AM by LoniJay

I read Light Before Dawn by Christopher Rice. The author and main are gay, and the book has a lot of really good lines (the title comes from a fairly vivid explanation of a crystal meth lab exploding just past the horizon) but the plot's a mess; I'd say "you need a flow chart to figure out what's going on," but I honestly don't think that would help. One of the characters is running so many fake identities that at one point he gets contracted to kill himself, P.G. Wodehouse style. Well-written but poorly plotted; would not recommend, with the footnote that "it's fine as long as you don't mind the whole being less than the sum of it's parts."

Keith Hartman. I've read both his Gunshoe novels (he has another one called Virtual Sky which I haven't read) which are an excellent mixing of noir and Post-Cyberpunk set in a 20 Minutes into the Future Atlanta and are about a gay detective and, among other things how he copes with the culture of the evangelical South.

edited 24th Feb '14 11:55:21 AM by tricksterson

One of Mercedes Lackey's trilogies. Which one was it? The Mage trilogy oooor...

It had an "unambiguously heroic gay protagonist", so there's that.

Unfortunately, his love life ends in bonafide Greek tragedy.

edited 14th Mar '14 6:34:55 AM by God_of_Awesome

Eyeh, although it's largely unrelated to his sexual orientation. The gods just like to mess with him.

I've heard good things about Tales of the Branion Realm although it's basically a utopian "no one cares about that sort of thing" setting when it comes to sex and sexual preference.

I've been reading some of Val Mc Dermid's books recently, the Tony Hill series, and I was reminded that they're pretty good for lesbian representation. There's been a lesbian character or two in most of her books I've read.

I did find one of the Tony Hill ones a bit dodgy with a trans* villain, but there was a recurring transwoman character in the Kate Brannigan books who seemed fine.

The Editor of my novel, Rarity from the Hollow, is Adam Lowe, an activist of LGBT rights in England. Dog Horn Publishing has a title, Queer and Loathing on the Yellow Brick Road that sounds fun but that I have not gotten to yet.

Oh you're a published author? Good for you! How was that work it out?

edited 8th Sep '14 1:05:53 AM by joeyjojo

Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay. One of the major plot points is Sam's (the Clay in 'Kavalier and Clay') sexuality. Worth noting is that the book's timeline spans from the late 1930s-early 1950s.

edited 13th Sep '14 8:35:22 PM by anniemg

Some of the best LGBT literature I've read is the Tales of the City series...

I don't know a lot about literature but as for YA, the book "Hero" by Perry Moore changed my life a little bit

Oh, speaking of YA, Patrick Ness is pretty good on that front. He's got gay main characters in his Chaos Walking series and in his latest novel, More Than This.

Radclyffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" has to be one of the classics of lesbian literature. Being a male heterosexual myself I can't judge exactly how accurate it is in its portrayal of the feelings of women of this orientation, but it was certainly an intriguing read.