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My Favorite #OwnVoices Queer Books

Happy Pride Month! I know a lot of people are making plans to read more LGBT+ books this month, and while that's great, we also need to make sure we're supporting #ownvoices books instead of just books about queer characters written by allocishet authors. Ava @ Bookishness and Tea wrote a really great Twitter thread about this a few days ago, and it inspired me to make this post of my favorite #ownvoices queer books.

 What is #ownvoices? #ownvoices is a hashtag created by author Corinne Duyvis, and it applies to books where the protagonist and the author share a marginalized identity.
IF I WAS YOUR GIRL by Meredith Russo: This book was so good that I read it in one sitting! Amanda is such a great main character, and I also really liked that she's out at the beginning of the book - I'm pretty sure that all of the other books with trans main characters I've read so far are about coming out.

AS I DESCENDED by Robin Talley: This book was exceptionally creepy. I'm actually a little too scared of it to really commit to rereading it. I was sold from when I first saw the premise: Macbeth, but queer girls in a modern-day boarding school. Nail-biting-ly suspenseful.

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: Okay, so you've probably seen this book everywhere, but it's still worth mentioning! The writing is incredible, the plot is good, and it's a book that I think will appeal to pretty much any YA reader.

EVERYTHING LEADS TO YOU by Nina LaCour: This is such a cute book! It's light and mostly fluffy in a way that queer books don't usually get to be. I talk about how I want more happy queer books literally all the time, and this is one of the ones I pull out as an already-published example. I really need to reread this one.

RAMONA BLUE by Julie Murphy: I just finished this a few week ago, and I'm so happy I read it in time to include it on this list! I know it got a lot of backlash when it was first announced by people worried it would be bad representation, but trust me: it's great. It explores how sexuality can be fluid for some people, and some people start out identifying one way and end up with something different.

WILLFUL MACHINES by Tim Floreen: This is a really good book that I've hardly seen any hype about! It's sci-fi, which I don't read a ton of, but it was a really interesting look at the idea of artificial intelligence.

What are some of your favorite #ownvoices queer books? What are some books on your Pride Month TBRs? Tell me in the comments!
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  1. Faith @ Lattes and LoversJune 6, 2017 at 5:37 PM

    I finished Ari & Dante a few weeks ago and it's probably my favorite read of the year thus far! (It's so good!!!) I've been eyeing Everything Leads to You for a super long time so I'm hoping I can pick that one up soon as well. =D
    Thank you for the recs!<3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ClaraJune 26, 2017 at 10:31 AM

      Ari & Dante is so good! And you should definitely pick up Everything Leads to You. I loved it so much!

      Delete
  2. CillaJune 19, 2017 at 2:18 AM

    Thanks so much for this list, Clara! <3 I admit I haven't read a lot of queer books, so it's good to know where to start!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ClaraJune 26, 2017 at 10:32 AM

      You're so welcome! I'd definitely recommend ALL of these, and I'm always here for more recs if you want them! Another great one that I can't believe I forgot to put on this list is 10 Things I Can See From Here.

      Delete

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