Quiz: Based on Your 2022 Reading, Which 2023 Queer Book Should You Preorder?

This powerful, introspective book is set in a version of the United States where, instead of being sent to prison, wrongdoers are given an extra shadow. It’s a complex character study of a grieving widow, a meditation on queer parenthood, and an exploration of state power, surveillance, and liberation.

If you’re looking for an engrossing, thoughtful read, this YA novel has it all: magic, romance, and adventure! Set in London in 1885, it’s a queer, gothic retelling of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde featuring a teenager who’s trying to figure out why his best friend disappeared — and why the mysterious new stranger in town is so familiar.

This collection of interconnected stories features a queer and Latine cast of parents, lovers, and friends, all trying to survive as best they can in New York City and the surrounding suburbs. The stories hone in on the everyday realities of long-term partnership, work, parenthood, racism, alienation, and more. If you’re looking for something that’s as funny as it is sharp, Varela should definitely be at the top of your list.

A journey of gender discovery! Messy queer relationships! Lesbian pulp! This book sounds like queer heaven. Dawn is a bookbinder living in New York in 2003, but she’s stuck: in her relationship, in her work, in her body, in her gender. Then she finds a love letter written on the back of the cover of a 1950s lesbian pulp novel, and her obsession with finding the author of the letter leads her somewhere she doesn’t expect.

It’s time for a queer romcom! This charming romance is about Nar, a bisexual Armenian American woman who grudgingly allows her mother to convince her to attend a series of Armenian cultural events taking place in the city. The intended purpose, of course: to meet a nice man. But she meets a nice woman instead, a woman who makes her feel like she can be her whole self. The only problem: now she just has to tell her mom about it.

This memoir isn’t just about Royster’s journey to motherhood. It’s also about all the ways that queer people and Black people have been making families outside of white, heteronormative expectations for centuries. Royster shares stories of her African American family, her childhood in Chicago, and the winding road she and her partner traveled to become mothers. It’s a beautiful, moving, and insightful book.

In this memoir in essays, Lamya H shares the stories from the Quran that have shaped her understanding of herself as a queer Muslim person. Struggling to understand her identity and desires as a teenager and young adult, she turns to the Quran, and finds a wealth of stories that speak to her — stories about resistance and resilience, and about people who, like her, don’t fit into neat boxes.

In this memoir, Greg Marshall blends a whole lot of hilarity with a poignant coming-of-age story. He writes about growing up gay in the 1990s, claiming his disabled identity as someone with cerebral palsy as a young man, and all the messes that unfold in between. It’s the perfect mix of heartfelt, observant, and just a little bit absurd — because who wants to take life too seriously?