u/queerbookclub-org

Just finished smash or pass by birdie schae and honestly it really got me. Sapphic YA about an autistic girl at beach volleyball camp, pretty base story like, but it’s also doing something genuinely smart about masking and coming out being the same process. The slow burn is SLOW but it earns it, again it’s YA so the spice is tame but wholesome.

Anyone else gotten through this?

Full review https://queerbookclub.org/reviews/smash-or-pass-birdie-sch/

Lots of new and good looking books are coming out before pride month, I've already mentioned John of John by Douglas Stuart, but any other coming out in the next 2 months you're excited about? "The Summer Boy" by Philippe Besson is up there for me, since I fell in love with "Lie with me" by him. Also love a good beach read, "My Bad" feels like a fun easy read looking back at the 90s.

Any pride month releases you're waiting with baited breath for?

https://queerbookclub.org/lists/best-queer-books-may-2026/

I picked this up because of how great (maybe devistating is the right word) Young Mungo was, but honestly was not prepared for how quietly devastating this one is.

It follows a 22-year-old gay guy who runs out of money and has to move back home to this tiny island community in the Outer Hebrides with his deeply religious father. You find this out early on, >!but his dad is also gay. Neither of them ever says it out loud. The whole book is basically these two men circling each other knowing exactly what the other one is and just... not being able to go there.!<

It is slow, like genuinely slow. If you need plot momentum this might not be for you. But if you can get into the rhythm of it there are moments that absolutely wreck you.

The grandmother Ella is also incredible and honestly deserves her own book.

Has anyone else read it? Curious if others found the pace a problem or if I was just impatient!

https://queerbookclub.org/reviews/john-of-john-douglas-stuart/

Not *just* looking for "I cried on the subway" recommendations, I also mean the ones that put a name to something you didn't know you were holding on to. The books that are still living in your chest six months later.

A few that have done that for me:

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (obviously) The devastation isn't some outside force punishing queerness, it's entirely David's own refusal to accept himself. Giovanni pays for his cowardice. That's so much worse somehow.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn wrecked me in a way I wasn't prepared for. Two boys falling in love while fighting for a country that would have arrested them for it. The way Winn uses the school newspaper's honor roll of the dead as a structural device is genuinely one of the most gut-punching choices I've read in recent queer fiction.

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis feels criminally underread. Five queer women in Uruguay under military dictatorship, followed across fifty years. It's about what survives and what doesn't and it hit differently than anything else on this list.

What are yours? The ones that named something for you, not just made you sad.

Our full list is here if you're looking for a sad and queer book club reco
https://queerbookclub.org/lists/beyond-bury-your-gays/

For lesbian awareness week, I’ve been pulling together a curated list of essential books through all the eras! (*non intended t swift reference, but also nod to Betty!)

What books would you add as essential, must reads?

https://queerbookclub.org/lists/ultimate-sapphic-reading-list/