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Note: These are primarily realistic contemporary and historical novels erring on the side of literary fiction. Titles published before the year 2000 are located here.

• For crime fiction, including mysteries and thrillers, click here.
• For short story collections, click here.
• For Romance, click here.
• For SFF, click here.

Contemporary

Queer Female Protagonists

• Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed
• Swan Song by Lisa Alther – B
• The New Town Librarian by Kathy Anderson
• Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress – B
• Right After the Weather by Carol Anshaw
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (Horror)
• Private Rites by Julia Armfield (Horror)
• Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
• With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
• Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
• Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
• Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
• We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin
• *Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily Austin
• I Make My Own Fun by Hannah Beer
• Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn
• The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman
• Trust & Safety by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman
• *They All Fall in Love at the End by Haili Blassingame – Polyam
• The Evolution of Love by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
• Pages for You by Sylvia Brownrigg
• My Education by Susan Choi – B
• It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian – B
• Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke
• House of Beth by Kelly Cullen
• But How Are You, Really? by Ella Dawson – B+
• In at the Deep End by Kate Davies
• Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis
• Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst
• Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado
• This is the Only Kingdom by Jaquira Diaz
• All Inclusive by Farzana Doctor – B
• Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan – B
• Stir-Fry by Emma Donoghue
• Vagablonde by Anna Dorn
• Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn
• Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
• Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekyuwasi
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• Temper by Layne Fargo – B
• They Never Learn by Layne Fargo – B
• *Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman
• Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
• Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman 
• Palm Meridian by Glace Flahive (Speculative)
• Cottonmouths by Kelly J. Ford
  
• Real Bad Things by Kelly Ford
• City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter
• Girlcrush by Florence Given – B
• Jawbone by Meghan Greeley
• *Now That I Know You By Heart by Amy Hagstrom
• A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle
• How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris
• The Work Wife by Alison B. Hart
• April May June July by Alison B. Hart
• We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart
• A Good Happy Girl by Marissa Higgins
• Sweetener by Marissa Higgins
• *Headfirst by Genevieve Hudson
• Getting Clean with Stevie Green by Swan Huntley
• Old Enough by Haley Jakobson – B
• Antiquity by Hanna Johannsson
• Vow of Celibacy by Erin Judge – B
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July – B
• Upended by Amanda Kabak
• The Mathematics of Change by Amanda Kabak – B
• The Split by Laura Kay
• *Long Island Girls by Gabrielle Korn
• Exhibit by R.O. Kwon
• Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
• How it Works Out by Myriam LaCroix
• The Lost House by Melissa Larsen
• Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey
• So Happy For You by Celia Laskey
• *Sheer by Vanessa Lawrence
• How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unmitigated Disaster by Muriel Leung (Speculative)
• The IHOP Papers by Ali Liebegott
• Fiebre Tropical by Juliana Delgado Lopera
• They Call Me Mad Dog!: A Story for Bitter, Lonely People by Erika Lopez
• Lush Lives by J. Vanessa Lyon
• Sugar Run by Mesha Maren
• Shae by Mesha Maren
  
• All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Matthews
• Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist
• The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie
• Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie
• The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore
• Jericho by Ann McMan
• All This Can Be True by Jen Michalski
• Kept Animals by Kate Milliken
• Oye by Melissa Mogollon
• Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
• In Case of Emergency by Courtney Moreno
• Young God by Katherine Faw Morris
• Art is Everything by Yxta Maya Murray
• Cool for You by Eileen Myles
• The Italy Letters by Vi Khi Nao
• The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North
• Body Grammar by Jules Ohman
• All Are Welcome by Liz Parker
• We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons
• *Motor City Baby by Lisa Peers
• Work Nights by Erica Peplin
• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters – T
• That’s What She Said by Eleanor Pilcher
• To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – B
• Florida Woman by Deb Rogers
• Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney – B
• Herself When She’s Missing by Sarah Terez Rosenblum
• Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski
• Please Stop Trying to Leave Me by Alana Saab
• Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman
• After Delores by Sarah Schulman
• Maggie Terry by Sarah Schulman
• Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor
• She of the Mountains by Vivek Shraya
• Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin
• We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman – B
• The Thornchapel series by Sierra Simone – B
• Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu
• Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Sneed
• Chlorine by Jade Song
• *All Girls Be Mine Alone by Sophie Strohmeyer
• Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
• Valencia by Michelle Tea
• The Other Wife by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
• The Treehouse by Randi Triant
• What Night Brings by Carla Trujillo
• *TBD by Nita Tyndall
• *The New People by Andrea Uptmor
• *The Long Con by Jenna Voris
• Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward
• The Spectacular by Zoe Whittall
• The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
• The Passion by Jeannette Winterson
• Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
• *When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi

Queer Male Protagonists

• Call Me By Your Name and Find Me by André Aciman – B
• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella
• Hornito by Mike Albo
• I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel Aleman
• A Minor Chorus by Billy Ray Belcourt
• A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen
• Henry Henry by Allen Bratton
• *The Disappointment by Scott Broker
• The Secret Life of Albert Entwhistle by Matt Cain
• Becoming Ted by Matt Cain
• Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
• *Other People’s Husbands by Alexander Chee
• *George Falls Through Time by Ryan Collett
• Day by Michael Cunningham
• Doubting Thomas by Matthew Clark Davison
• Burn it All Down by Nicolas DiDomizio
• The Gay Best Friend by Nicolas DiDomizio
• Bellies by Nicola Dinan
• Greenland by David Santos Donaldson
• Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
• Masquerade by Mike Fu
• The Bright Lands by John Fram
• Confidence by Rafael Frumkin
• First Time for Everything by Henry Fry
• Countries of Origin by Javier Fuentes
• Isaac by Curtis Garner
• In Tongues by Thomas Grattan
• What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
• Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
• Less by Andrew Sean Greer
• Going Dutch by James Gregor
• The Spring Before Obergefell by Ben Grossberg
• Guapa by Saleem Haddad
• Nuclear Family by Joseph Han
• How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris
• Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
• The Book of Luke by Lovell Holder
• Dancer From the Dance by Andrew Holleran
• Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson
• I’m the Guy You Hate by Isa K.
• The Bump by Sidney Karger
• *Cage Free by Bill Konigsberg
• Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane
• Broken People by Sam Lansky
• Ways and Means by Daniel Lefferts
• Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan and Jens Lekman
• A Simple Scale by David Llewellyn
• History of Violence by Édouard Louis
• The Boy with a Bird in His Chest by Emme Lund
• Perpetual West by Mesha Maren
• Reprieve by James Han Mattson
• Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
• Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna
• Probation by Tom Mendicino
• Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah
• *Cat Burglars of Paris by Tim Murphy
• The Magnificent Sons by Justin Myers
• God in Pink by Hasan Namir
• Some Hell by Patrick Nathan
• When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris
• Just By Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell
• How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica
• After the Parade by Lori Ostlun
• Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
• It’s Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
• Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel
• Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
• Seeing Strangers by Sebastian Plata
• After the Blue Hour by John Rechy
• Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly
• The Snow Garden by Christopher Rice
• *That’s What Friends are For by Wade Rouse
• Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
• The Guncle and The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
• The Dogs of Venice by Steven Rowley
• *Take Me With You by Steven Rowley
• What is Wrong With You? by Paul Rudnick
• Three Parties by Ziyad Saadi
• Let’s Get Back to the Party by Zak Salih
• Hombrecito by Santiago Jose Sanchez
• Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal
• *No God But Us by Babuq Sayed
• Town & Country by Brian Schaefer
• I Make Envy on Your Disco by Eric Schnall
• Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
• *Wasp’s Nest by Kat Stoddard
• *John of John by Douglas Stuart
• The City of Devi by Manil Suri
• Infidels by Abdellah Taïa
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor
• The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
• Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor
• Little F by Michelle Tea
• Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson
• The Knockout Queen by Rupi Thorpe
• We the Animals by Justin Torres
• The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Valeja
• Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela
• Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• This Cleaving and This Burning by J.A. Wainwright
• Memorial by Bryan Washington
• Family Meal by Bryan Washington
• Palaver by Bryan Washington
• The Married Man by Edmund White
• A Previous Life by Edmund White – B
• The Humble Lover by Edmund White
• How to Survive a Summer by Nick White
• Providence by Craig Willse
• The History of Living Forever by Jake Wolff

Trans Female Protagonists

• The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine
• Nevada by Imogen Binnie
• Bellies by Nicola Dinan
• Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan
• Best Woman by Rose Dommu
• *The Dinner Party by Cat Fitzpatrick
• By Way of Sorrow by Robyn Gigl
• Miss Klaus by J.R. Hart
• *Your Thoughts Are Important to Us by Mike Heppner
• The Default World by Naomi Kanakia
• Tiny Pieces of Skull by Roz Kaveney
• I’ve Got a Time Bomb by Sybil Lamb (Speculative)
• *Swans by Claire Luchette
• Love Story by Afsana Mousavi
• Hot Girls With Balls by Benedict Nguyen
• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
• Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
• Little Fish by Casey Plett
• Woodworking by Emily St. James
• *Beth March Returns from the Dead by Emily St. James
• Terry Dactyl by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
• Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom
• Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton
• A/S/L? by Jeanne Thornton
• Small Beauty by jia qin wilson-yang

Trans Male Protagonists

• Ponyboy by Duncan Eliot
• The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar
• Future Feeling by Joss Lake (Speculative)
• Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky (Futuristic GN)
• Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore (Speculative)
• The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill (Speculative)
• *The House of Now and Then by Edward Underhill (Speculative)
• Bad Boy by Elliot Wake

Non-Binary Protagonists

• Behrouz Gets Lucky by Avery Cassell (Genderqueer)
• All the Things We Don’t Talk About by Amy Feltman
• Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly (Genderqueer)
• *Canon by Paige Lewis
• Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky (Transfemme, GN)
• Model Home by Rivers Solomon (Supernatural Thriller)
• Vanishing Monuments by John Elizabeth Stintzi (Non-Binary)
• Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead (Two-Spirit)

Intersex Protagonists

• Arcadia by Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon
• Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin

Other/Unknown Protagonists

• Open Throat by Henry Hoke
• Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela (Polyam)

Realistic Historical

For organization by time period, see here.

Female Protagonists

• Shoot the Moon by Isa Arsén (1960s, DC) – B
• The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf by Isa Arsén (1956)
• The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton (1970s, Wales)
• The Last Nude by Ellis Avery (1927, Paris)
• Bittersweet by Nevada Barr (19th c. US)
• Naamah by Sarah Blake (Biblical times)
• The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore (1855, New Hampshire)
• A Thin Bright Line by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (1960s, US)
• Alcestis by Katharine Beutner (Ancient Greece)
• White Houses by Amy Bloom (1930s, US)
• The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco (1887, US)
• The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (early 1800s, Jamaica and London)
• The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver (1940s, Washington DC)
• Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (1877, Midwest US)
• The Western Alienation Merit Badge by Nancy Cullen (1982, West Calgary)
• Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth (1902 + modern, US)
• Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel (1600s, Algonquin Territory)
• Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis (1977, Uruguay)
• Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane (Ancient Greece) – T
• Life Mask by Emma Donoghue (18th c. London)
• Willa & Hesper by Amy Feltman (19th c. Brooklyn and Eastern Europe)
• Hild by Nicola Griffith (7th c. Britain)
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (1617, Norway)
• *The Drowned Coast by Sarah L. Hawthorn
• The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
• Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair by Jen Hinst-White (1980s, Long Island)
• All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman (1910-46, Vienna)
• Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth (1990s, Ireland)
• *Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth (1960s, Ireland)
• Stray City by Chelsey Johnson (1990s, Portland)
• Devotion by Hannah Kent (1836, Prussia)
• Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (1960s, NYC and Buenos Aires)
• The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Lebuskes (1933, Berlin)
• The Wife in the Attic by Rose Lerner (Regency England)
• Undiscovered Country by Kelly O’Connor McNees (1930s NYC/DC/WV)(Amz)
• The Cherokee Rose by Tiya Miles (early 19th c. US)
• Patience & Sarah by Isabel Miller (1816-17, NE US)
• Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles (1960s-70s)
• Outlawed by Anna North (1894, West US) (Amz)
• Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (1960s, Nigeria)
• The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (Cold War, USSR)
• Nettleblack by Nat Reeve (1893, Wales)
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Southland by Nina Revoyr (20th century LA)
• *Fire Sword & Sea by Vanessa Riley (1675, Caribbean)
• Semi-Detached by Elizabeth Ruth (1944 and 2013, Toronto)
• Belladonna by Anbara Salam (1950s, CT)
• The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert (WWII, Paris)
• After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (early 20th c.) (Amz)
• Secret Identity by Alex Segura (1975, NYC)
• Mademoiselle Revolution by Zoe Sivak (Haitian and French Revolutions)
• Sketchtasy by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (1995, Boston)
• Counting Lost Stars by Kim Van Alkemade (1940s Holland/1960s NYC)
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (1960s, Netherlands)
• Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Victorian England)
• Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters (Victorian England)
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (1922, London)
• The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (1940s/WWII)
• Swearing Off Stars by Danielle Wong (1920s, Oxford)(Amz)
• Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Turn of 20th c., NYC)
• She Rises by Kate Worsley (1740)
• Paper is White by Hilary Zaid (1990s, San Francisco)
• Mislaid by Nell Zink (1960s, Virginia)

Male Protagonists

• Regeneration by Pat Barker (WWI)
• The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett (1953, England)
• The Wildes: a Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard (1895, England)
• Names for the Dawn by C.L. Beaumont (1991, Alaska)
• The Whale by Mark Beauregard (1850s, New England)
• Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black (1980s, Chicago)
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (1940s+, Ireland)
• Leading Men by Christopher Castellani (1953, Italy)
• Scottish Boy by Alex de Campi (1333, England)
• Young Conquerors: A Novel of Hephaestion and Alexandros by Christopher Cosmos (341 BCE, Greece)
• The New Life by Tom Crewe (1894, London)
• The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (1921, Penang)
• A Tip for the Hangman by Alison Epstein (1585, England)
• Maurice by E.M. Forster (pre-WWI England)
• Mother’s Boy by Patrick Gale (20th c. England)
• Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut (1912)
• The World and All That it Holds by Aleksander Hemon (1914, Europe/Asia)
• The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst (1913, England)
• Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• The Falls of the Wyona by David Brendan Hopes (post-WWII Appalachia)
• Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (1980s, Poland)
• The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
• While England Sleeps by David Leavitt (1930s)
• I Remember Lights by Ben Ladouceur (1967, Montreal)
• Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon (1950s, DC)
• After Francesco by Brian Malloy (1988, NYC/MN)
• The Torqued Man by Peter Mann (1945, Berlin)
• The Paris Affair by Maureen Marshall (1880s, Paris)
• History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason (1907, Amsterdam)
• As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann (1600s, England)
• No Other World by Rahul Mehta (1980s-90s US, India)
• Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez (1950s-2000s, UK)
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (ancient Greece)
• The Lion’s Den by Iris Mwanza (1990s, Zambia)
• The Future Was Color by Patrick Nathan (1950s, LA)
• At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill (1916, Ireland)
• *There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed Newson
• Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira (Jesus)
• Like People in History by Felice Pecano (1950s-90s, US)
• On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl (1956, Western US)
• The Charioteer by Mary Renault (WWII, England)
• Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg (1724, London) – T
• Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style by Paul Rudnick
• Child in the Valley by Gordy Sauer (1849, US)
• The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels (1986, Ohio/NYC)
• What’s Left of the Night by Ersi Sotiropoulos (1897, Paris)
• The Lilac People by Milo Todd (1930s, Berlin) – T
• The Master by Colm Toibin (1895, England)
• The Book of Salt by Monique Truong (1929, Saigon/Paris)
• In Memoriam by Alice Winn (1914, England) (Amz)
• Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Turn of 20th c., NYC)
• All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes (post-WWI, Antarctica) – T
• Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes (Victorian, Arctic)

Group Cast

• The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara (1980, NYC)