We should celebrate LGBTQIA+ authors and characters all year long, but here are 3 books that you should check out now.

1. Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

This book was one of the most unique stories I have ever read. It forces the reader to let go of the Western hetero-normative reality many of us, including myself, use to view the world. Instead Drayden offers readers an Afro-futuristic matriarchal society where family have multiple wives and husband’s, where women are the strong ones and men the stay at home spouse. This story is set in space and set inside the belly of a space beast — it’s wild. However, at the end of the day, it is also a coming of age story and certainly a first love story.

This book does what fantasy and science fiction is supposed to do: it bends reality, while providing something tangible and humanly familiar. Bravo!

Synopsis: “Escaping Exodus is a story of a young woman named Seske Kaleigh, heir to the command of a biological, city-size starship carved up from the insides of a spacefaring beast. Her clan has just now culled their latest ship and the workers are busy stripping down the bonework for building materials, rerouting the circulatory system for mass transit, and preparing the cavernous creature for the onslaught of the general populous still in stasis. It’s all a part of the cycle her clan had instituted centuries ago—excavate the new beast, expand into its barely-living carcass, extinguish its resources over the course of a decade, then escape in a highly coordinated exodus back into stasis until they cull the next beast from the diminishing herd.

And of course there wouldn’t be much of a story if things didn’t go terribly, terribly wrong.”

Goodreads. Amazon. Bookshop.org.

2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

I read this book last summer after having only previously seen the movie many years ago. The story blew me away. I love how the book is formatted in the form of letters; I love epistolary novels!!! I love how Celie grows into a strong woman, discovers who she truly is, and overcomes terrible trauma. 

Synopsis: “A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker’s epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.”

Amazon. Bookshop. Goodreads.

3. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

This was such a fun and heart warming graphic novel! There is a witch who lives in Snapdragon’s town, at least that is what the rumors say. . .

This graphic novel is a coming of age/discovery tale, which features:
~a precocious and unique girl
~diversity in genders and ethnicities
~a LGBTQ+ romance
~magic
and more.

I loved the story, read it all in one sitting, and cannot think of any changes I would want made to it.

Synopsis: “Kat Leyh’s Snapdragon is a magical realist graphic novel about a young girl who befriends her town’s witch and discovers the strange magic within herself.

Snap’s town had a witch.

At least, that’s how the rumor goes. But in reality, Jacks is just a Crocs-wearing, internet-savvy old lady who sells roadkill skeletons online. It’s creepy, sure, but Snap thinks it’s kind of cool, too.

Snap needs a favor from this old woman, though, so she begins helping Jacks with her strange work. Snap gets to know her and realizes that Jacks may in fact have real magic–and an unlikely connection to Snap’s family’s past.”

Bookshop. Amazon. Goodreads.

Please share a book by an LGBTQA+ author or one with LGBTQIA+ rep that you love below!

Interested in listening to these books as audiobooks? Check out Libro.fm or Audible.

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