Celebrate Pride: New Adult Fiction

This list of Fiction books for adults feature LGBQTIA+ characters and authors, the books were published during spring 2019.

The Iowa City Pride Fest & Parade is June 15th. This year ICPL is curating lists of LGBQTIA+ books to support Iowa City Pride. This list is a part of that series of recommendations.

Willa & Hesper

Amy Feltman

FICTION Feltman Amy
Fiction, LGBTQ+

A story told from alternating perspectives traces the whirlwind romance of two women who are separated when one returns to her family's home in Tbilisi, Georgia, to uncover her grandfather's story and the other heartbrokenly embarks on a Holocaust tour.

Speak no evil : a novel

Uzodinma Iweala

FICTION Iweala Uzodinma
Fiction, LGBTQ+

An athlete from a private school in Washington, D.C., and his friend, the daughter of government insiders, struggle with the responses to the young man's sexual orientation before finding themselves speeding toward a violent future.

Mostly dead things

Kristen N. Arnett

FICTION Arnett Kristen
Fiction, LGBTQ+

Taking over her family's failing taxidermy shop in the wake of her father's suicide, grief-stricken Jessa-Lynn Morton pursues less-than-legal ways of generating income while struggling to figure out her place among her eccentric loved ones.

Patsy : a novel

Nicole Dennis-Benn

FICTION Dennis-Benn Nicole
Fiction, LGBTQ+

Receiving her long-coveted visa to America, Patsy leaves behind her family in Jamaica, only to discover that life as an undocumented immigrant is not what her best friend had described.

Red, white & royal blue : a novel

Casey McQuiston

FICTION Mcquisto Casey
Fiction, LGBTQ+, Romance

After an international incident affects U.S. and British relations, the president's son Alex and Prince Henry must pretend to be best friends, but as they spend time together, the two begin a secret romance that could derail a presidential campaign.

The editor : a novel

Steven Rowley

FICTION Rowley Steven
Fiction, LGBTQ+

A struggling writer in 1990s New York City gets his big break from his book editor, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but when he finds he cannot finish writing his autobiographical novel, she pushes him to confront the truth about his relationship with his mother.

Lot : stories

Bryan Washington

FICTION Washingt Bryan
Fiction, Short Story, LGBTQ+

Coming of age in his family's Houston restaurant, a mixed-heritage teen navigates bullying, his newly discovered sexual orientation, and the ripple effects of a disadvantaged community.

On earth we're briefly gorgeous : a novel

Ocean Vuong

FICTION Vuong Ocean
Fiction, LGBTQ+

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.

Black leopard, red wolf

Marlon James

SCIENCE FICTION James Marlon
Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Adventure

Hired to find a mysterious boy who disappeared three years before, Tracker joins a search party that follows the boy's trail through ancient cities and into dense forests, and encounter creatures intent on destroying them.

Lie with me : a novel

Philippe Besson

FICTION Besson Philippe
Fiction, LGBTQ+

A man spots a young man that resembles his first love and his memory travels back to 1984 France where in his last year of high school he had a secret affair with another high school boy.