It’s Pride Month, Story Questers! And there are so many fantastic books and comics to feature, with new marvelous reads releasing each week. Honestly, I could fill a whole book shop with just LGBTQ+ 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ books alone!
If I did create a pop-up in one of the empty storefronts in town, I’d call it Contra-banned. We’d offer Queer books and those by authors likely to be banned in OTHER states. And we’d definitely sell these 10 fantastic indie books by authors I met at the Bay Area Book Fest & my fellow creatives from around the Bay!
1) Design of Darkness
The Tides That Reign Book 1
by R.D. Pires
Queer Genre: Achillean Fantasy, Queer Fantasy
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Horror, Mythological Fantasy, Myths & Legends, Sword & Sorcery
Awards: Indie Fantasy Club’s Hidden Gem Award 2025
2) How to Swindle a Scoundrel
Chaos Dragon Adventures Book 1
by Dalila Caryn
Queer Genre: Sapphic Romantasy, Demisexual Romantasy
Genres: Romantasy, RomCom, Enemies-to-lovers Romance, Grumpy/Sunshine Romance, Opposites Attract Romance, Fantasy Adventure, Action Adventure, BIPOC Representation
🖤BIPOC Author
3) Be the Sea
by Clara Ward
Queer Genre: Non-binary SciFi, Demisexual SciFi, Queer SciFi
Genres: Solarpunk, SciFi, Science Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery, Cozy SciFi
4) Raised
by Eva Adderley
Queer Genre: Sapphic Romantasy
Genres: Contemporary Fantasy, Romantasy, Myths & Legends, Illustrated Novels, strong female characters
5) I’d Find You In The Dark
by Arielle Bitetti
Queer Genre: Achillean Romance
Genres: Detective Romance, Dark Romance, Contemporary Erotic Romance, Suspense & Thrillers, Forbidden Romance, Age-Gap Romance, Forced-proximity Romance, Slow-burn Romance
6) Fate’s Bane
by C. L. Clark
Queer Genre: Sapphic Fantasy
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure, Enemies-to-lovers Romance, Sword & Sorcery, Mythological Fantasy, Myths & Legends, strong female characters, BIPOC Representation
Awards: Ignyte Award Winner
🖤BIPOC Author
7) The Dreamer
The Black Stone Cycle Book 1
by Linda Patricia Cleary
Queer Genre: Queer SciFi
Genres: Young adult SciFi, Space Opera, Coming-of-Age SciFi, Dystopian SciFi, SciFi Adventure, Action Adventure, Space Survival
Awards: First Horizon Award Winner, Eric Hoffer Book Awards Montaigne Medal Finalist, BookFest First Place Award Winner for YA Science Fiction, Literary Titan Silver Award Winner, International Impact Book Award Winner
8) The Ice Moves for No One
The Duskingr Saga Book 1
by Arlo Z. Graves
Queer Genre: Sapphic Fantasy
Genres: Gaslamp Fantasy, Coming-of-age Fantasy, Norse Fantasy, Fae Fantasy, Disability Representation, strong female characters
Awards: IBPA Award Finalist 2026
9) The Reluctant Incubus
Alvin Alonso’s Secret Files Book 1
by Alex Woolfson
Queer Genre: Achillean Fantasy
Genres: New Adult Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, Action Adventure, Monster Fantasy
10) Gender Queer: A Memoir
The Annotated Edition
by Maia Kobabe (with contributions from Phoebe Kobabe, Ashley R. Guillory, Dr. Sandra Cox, Matthew Noe, Hal Schrieve and more)
Queer Genre: Nonbinary & Asexual Memoir
Genres: Narrative Non-fiction, Memoir, Coming-of-age Non-fiction, Contemporary, Censorship & Politics, Graphic Novels & Comics
Awards: Stonewall Honor Book 2020, ALA Alex Award Winner 2020, Israel Fishman Non-fiction Honor Book 2020, ALA Rainbow Project Book List 2020, YALSA Best Books List 2020, New York Public Library’s 50 Best Books for Teens 2019, SLJ Best Graphic Novel List 2019, The Advocate’s Best LGBTQ Graphic Novels List 2019
*Most banned book in America
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