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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!

Comments

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

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  2. 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. 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.

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