Literary Fiction

Gore Vidal's 1948 novel is a landmark of gay literature—and a book that's easier to admire than enjoy. Jim Willard is a groundbreaking protagonist, but his obsessive fixation left me more disturbed than moved. Essential history, impeccable prose, and an ending that still haunts me (not in a good way).

Harriet Tubman is back from the dead and she's making a hip-hop album. It sounds ridiculous—and it kind of is—but Bob the Drag Queen makes it work through sheer force of voice and genuine reverence for his subject. Part history lesson, part story of personal reinvention, Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert is funny, educational, and surprisingly moving. The audiobook is a must.

Ellis and Michael meet as boys in Oxford and become something more—until life, marriage, and the weight of the 1980s pull them apart. Sarah Winman's Tin Man is spare, poetic, and atmospherically devastating.

The Prettiest Star is about AIDS, yes—but also about family, forgiveness, and the gap between the lives we imagined and the ones we got. A must-read.

The Sunflower Boys is a study in contrasts—innocence and devastation, first love and survival, the warmth of a Ukrainian childhood and the horror of watching it destroyed. Sam Wachman's debut is spare, devastating, and essential. An instant A+.

Gaunt and Ellwood love each other—but saying it might ruin everything. In Memoriam is a brutal, beautiful WWI novel about the cost of silence, the weight of war, and what it means to love someone you can't openly claim. Push through the first quarter; what's waiting is extraordinary.

A structurally brilliant novel that follows one unforgettable man through decades of love, loss, and resilience. Isaac Dahl is warm, funny, and achingly real—and this book will stay with you long after you finish it.

Dream Boy is devastating, lyrical, and deeply felt—a story about survival, desire, and the fraught intimacy between two boys with nowhere else to turn. The prose is stunning, the characters achingly real. But a supernatural turn and one scene that crosses into exploitation left me uncertain. Still, this is a book that lingers. A conflicted A-.

Fifteen-year-old Theron meets Jake in rural New Hampshire, and over the next two decades, they drift together and apart through music, drugs, and a complicated love that defies easy categories. August Thompson's debut is an atmospheric, beautifully written meditation on desire, identity, and the people who shape us. It's devastating, precise, and completely unputdownable.

V.E. Schwab wrote a vampire book that cares more about longing than blood. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil follows three queer women across centuries making fascinating mistakes. A gorgeous slow burn with beautiful prose and characters who feel achingly real.

Carys Davies' "Clear" delivers an achingly beautiful gay love story set against 1843 Scotland's Highland Clearances. A minister sent to evict a man falls for him instead—stunning prose, earned intimacy, perfect ending.

Five powerful novels that capture the gay male experience across generations. Essential stories of love, loss, courage, and what it means to live authentically.

In 1950s Paris, American expatriate David finds himself torn between his fiancée Hella and his passionate relationship with Giovanni. Baldwin's luminous prose captures a man struggling with desire, shame, and the cost of living authentically.

This Booker-winning novel has gorgeous prose and vital AIDS themes, but Nick Guest never comes alive. A respectful B-.

The South by Tash Aw isn't a will-they-won't-they story—it's about the texture of desire and what happens when private longing collides with public crisis. Though set during Malaysia's 1997 financial collapse, for Jay, the real revolution is internal. The way he and Chuan move around each other—the dialogue, the small decisions, the moments of connection—all of it rang completely true.

John Boyne's A Ladder to the Sky: A brilliant, unsettling literary thriller about morally bankrupt characters in the publishing world. Disturbing, compelling, and impossible to put down.

Wild Dark Shore is a beautifully written book that achieves what it sets out to do, even if what it sets out to do occasionally feels a bit too earnest for its own good. Worth reading, but maybe temper those sky-high expectations.

A masterfully paced novel that transforms personal survival into political awakening—essential reading.

Vuong's poetic restraint creates something beautiful and authentic—but that same restraint might keep you at arm's length from the emotional core you're craving.satisfying ways.

A raw, lyrical elegy to love, memory, and the fragile beauty of growing into yourself when the world never gave you a map—Vuong’s novel doesn’t just break your heart, it teaches you how to listen for its echo.