All posts by Dahlia Adler

Under the Gaydar

Under the Gaydar: Bad Girls Edition

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“Under the Gaydar” features books you might not realize have queer content but should definitely have on your radar. This edition is all about some great “bad girls” in YA who, in addition to loving lying, petty crime, bullying, and more, also quite love the ladies. (Or at least one lady!)

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Winning by Lara Zeises Deloza – Mean Girls meets Election, with multiple POVs, including Sam, best friend to the Regina George-esque lead, who’s easily manipulated into helping her BFF get on top… or is she?  (my convoluted little review here)

Trust Me, I’m Trouble by Mary Elizabeth Summer – The second in a series about a teen girl con artist sees her going from a male love interest in book 1 to a female love interest in book 2, and it does so with zero sexuality angst while also not ignoring that sexual angst about your first time having feelings for someone of another gender can be a Thing. This series is so voice-y and fabulous and these girls are hands-down one of my favorite YA pairings ever. I ship it so hard, and so will you.

Underneath Everything by Marcy Beller Paul – Uggghhhh homoerotic toxic friendship novels are my crack, and Mattie and Jolene in this one are basically, like, “Match, meet gasoline. I think you guys are gonna hit it off super well.” Don’t go in thinking this is a Romance – it isn’t – but when I say “Homoerotic toxic friendship novel” I mean every single one of those words to the max.

Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten – My thoughts on this one are similar to Underneath Everything, but whereas UE is sort of dreamily lyrical and introspective, SNFBG is rife with plot twistiness, and I still think about that ending and wish I were in a book club just so I could discuss it with other people.

Vanished by E.E. Cooper – Kalah isn’t really a bad girl, per se, but she’s gone ahead and fallen for one, who also happens to be one of her best friends…who also happens to be missing. There’s a whole web of lies and twists, and all that’s cool, but the best part of this book is Kalah herself, how she comes into her own sexuality, and finally seeing some intersectional diversity in “cool girl” YA.

Fave Five

Fave Five: Winter YA 2016

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Fave Five will generally be a little less…well, general, but since this is the first edition of it for the site, I’m gonna use it to quickly catch up on what are in my opinion the most noteworthy LGBTQIAP+ YA titles of the year so far!

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate (P, Contemp)

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie (L, Sci-Fi)

This Song is (Not) For You by Laura Nowlin (A, Contemp)

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle (G, Contemp)

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin (GF, Contemp)

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (G, Spec Fic)

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(Yeah, I slipped in a sixth. You gonna fight me? I didn’t think so.)

Backlist Book of the Month

Backlist Book of the Month: Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

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Every month, the site will feature an LGTBQIAP+ read that’s over a year old, as part of a “Backlist Book of the Month” feature. I’m excited to kick it off with one of my personal favorites, Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz (Simon Pulse). Three reasons I love this book:

  1. Intersectionality FTW: Etta is a Black, bisexual ballerina in recovery for an eating disorder
  2. So much bi pride. So much. If you’re sick and tired of seeing bi erasure in lit, this book will make you do a serious fist pump of pride. (And yes, it’s nominated for a Bisexual Book Award.)
  3. The voice. Etta’s voice is killer. If you wanna see just how much that can matter for a book, this is definitely one to pick up.

ed201c_fe71b360b1994cf7859f2c2a7d1d853fEtta is tired of dealing with all of the labels and categories that seem so important to everyone else in her small Nebraska hometown.

Everywhere she turns, someone feels she’s too fringe for the fringe. Not gay enough for the Dykes, her ex-clique, thanks to a recent relationship with a boy; not tiny and white enough for ballet, her first passion; and not sick enough to look anorexic (partially thanks to recovery). Etta doesn’t fit anywhere— until she meets Bianca, the straight, white, Christian, and seriously sick girl in Etta’s therapy group. Both girls are auditioning for Brentwood, a prestigious New York theater academy that is so not Nebraska. Bianca seems like Etta’s salvation, but how can Etta be saved by a girl who needs saving herself? 

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Housekeeping

Welcome!

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Welcome to LGBTQ Reads!

This is a site dedicated to LGBTQ Lit including Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Romance. Whether you’re looking for your personal next read or the best way to support your library, or anything in between, I’m here to help you find it!

If you’re familiar with my personal blog, you may recall that I have a QUILTBAG Compendium, and yes, that will still be updated and operational in its current functions. However, it was getting a bit unwieldy with all I wanted to feature, and there was so much I wanted to do with it for which there was no space, so, ta da! Yes, there is some overlap in content (although it’s organized quite differently here) and they will be similarly curated, but that’s where the similarities end.

The categories you see up top will be monthly features, so each month you’ll meet a new author and get recs for both an older title and a new release, often with some input from those authors as well. Besides that, you can see other themes of recurring posts in the sidebar on the left, and there’ll be guest posts from people involved in LGBTQIAP+ publishing in various ways, information on various queerly bookish things around the internet, and whatever else people throw my way. For more info, check out the FAQ!

Of course, no launch is complete without giveaways, so make sure you’re following LGBTQ Reads on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, because that’s where I’ll be giving away some seriously awesome reads!

There’ll also be an event I’m really psyched for during pride month to raise money for some places near and dear to my rainbow heart. If you’d like to donate an item, please use this form. If you want more information first, just get in touch!

Welcome to LGBTQ Reads – can’t wait to queer up your bookshelves, one rec at a time!

xoxo,

Dahlia