7 Must-Read New LGBTQ Books Out This Week

There are a few different sapphic takes on the unhinged mothers subgenre out today. If you like messiness, you have to pick up this one and All Fours by Miranda July. In this one, we follow Kit, a young mother who is still reeling from the death of her sister several years ago. A vacation with her best friend after his boyfriend broke up with him was supposed to be an escape for them both, but now she’s finding it hard to go back to her old routine and is fantasizing about blowing up her life — like maybe having a threesome with her kid’s gymnastic teacher and one of the Cool Moms. Soon she’s losing her grip on what’s real — including whether her sister is really gone.

Speaking of doubts about what’s real and sisters, Baroness Sylvie Devereux used to be a fake spirit medium. When her disowned sister Charlotte shows up, she demands Sylvie’s help getting the money to take care of their sick father. Which means…one last con. But as they trick a family of aristocrats about a haunting, they start to experience horrors they can’t explain. This is being comped to Sarah Waters, so I will definitely be picking it up!

Sapphic gothic and spirit mediums, take two: Roos is isolated and poor, but she finds comfort in Ruth, her spirit companion that no one else can see. But then Agnes walks into the backroom where she holds séances and changes Roos’s life forever. Their connection leads to Agnes inviting her to live with her in her crumbling estate, where she has lived since her husband died. But when someone is murdered, Roos is the #1 suspect and will have to find a way to clear her name. One blurb calls this a “sapphic séance of preternatural proportion”!

I’ve been counting down to this release since the book was first announced. Set in an apocalyptic wasteland, Jin-Lu works the risky job of a magebike courier. Her latest job is delivering love letters from the prince to Yi-Nereen, a princess engaged to someone else and trapped in an abusive family. When Yi-Nereen asks for Jin’s help, she can’t refuse…because she’s in love with both her and the prince. So now the two of them are trying to escape to the prince while being pursued and while a deadly storm brews overhead.

This is another one I’ve been eagerly awaiting! Ever since I read Legends and Lattes, I’ve been in love with cozy fantasy — specifically, cozy sapphic fantasy. I already described this in the Biggest New LGBTQ Releases of May, so I’ll quote myself: Marigold Claude has been trained by her grandmother to be the Honey Witch of Innisfree. It comes with powerful magic, but the trade off is that she can no longer experience true love. Then Lottie shows up at her door, who doesn’t believe in magic or curses. Marigold is determined to prove her wrong. As they grow closer, dark magic threatens Innisfree, putting everything they’ve built at risk.

Blake is starting college in the fall, and she has one goal: to join the exclusive Serena Society with her girlfriend, Ella. Ella is the daughter of a Serena alum, but Blake will have to fight to get considered. Soon, she finds something that makes her more confident and sociable, a shortcut to getting accepted by the most influential people…getting drunk. But even as she successfully passes through layers of pledging, Blake’s coping mechanism threatens to lose her everything.

Indu was found on the moon by his adoptive mother as child. When they move from the space station to New Earth, Indu is overwhelmed by the transition, especially because he feels like he doesn’t fit in because he’s trans. When delegates of the moon offer to bring him back there at the end of the semester, he accepts — but as the day comes closer and he gets used to New Earth — including getting a queer pen pal, he begins to regret his decision.