some books written by asian authors that you should support because they’re really really good and overshadowed by their white counterparts:
🏳️🌈 means there is queer rep
- the poppy war series (extremely popular. fantasy based off the Song Dynasty, amoral/morally grey brown asian girl protagonist. i haven’t read this yet but all of my poc mutuals have this as their favorite book of all time. pls read tw warnings. no romance only faint subtext)
- jade city series (another favorite of the poc that i haven’t read. no romance)
- the bone shard daughter trilogy 🏳️🌈 (set on a strand of fantasy islands based on imperial china but has a healthy mix of various asian representation - south asian, southeast asian. queernormative and no patriarchy. main lesbians. one of my favs)
- these violent delights duology 🏳️🌈 (a side mlm couple, 1920s gangster shanghai, romeo and juliet retelling. one of my favs)
- warcross duology 🏳️🌈 (set in futuristic tokyo. ft. a side mlm couple, sci fi. one of my favs)
- not your sidekick triology 🏳️🌈 (sapphic superheroes and sidekicks. vietnamese bisexual protag, sci fi)
- girls of paper and fire triology 🏳️🌈 (extremely popular, chinese lesbian protag but other asian rep as well, fantasy)
- parachutes 🏳️🌈 (side sapphic couple, read tw warnings, contemporary).
- huntress 🏳️🌈 (east asian sapphics)
- last night at the telegraph club 🏳️🌈 (chinese lesbian protag. 1900s fiction)
- forest of a thousand laterns (morally grey angry chinese female protag)
- the space between worlds 🏳️🌈 (main southeast asian and east asian sapphics, sci fi dystopian. read tw)
- everything i never told you 🏳️🌈 (mlm rep. 1900s biracial family deals with the death of their daughter)
- the gilded wolves 🏳️🌈 (be gay do crime, indian love interest. historical fantasy)
- the weight of our sky (set in 1960s malaysia. historical fiction)
- spin the dawn (fantasy)
- descendant of the crane (fantasy)
- she who became the sun 🏳️🌈 (one of my most anticipated releases. genderqueer sapphic protag with a sapphic love interest, mlm main characters. set in the ming dynasty of china. the official advertisement is the song of achilles meets the untamed meets mulan)
- jade fire and gold 🏳️🌈 (the pitch was “what if katara was the dark avatar and zuko was chasing her down?” main sapphics)
- the ones we’re meant to find (i literally don’t know what this is about but the cover is gorgeous)
- counting down with you 🏳️🌈 (fake dating romcom b/w a south asian brown girl and the bad boy who is a himbo. ft. diverse girl gang so im interpreting that as lgbtq)
- the jasmine throne 🏳️🌈 (morally grey lesbians tearing an emperor from his throne/washing each other’s hair/holding sharp-edged knives to each other’s ribs. set in india)
- gearbreakers 🏳️🌈 (cyberpunk japanese sapphics. there is a tender tattooing scene)
- six crimson cranes (fantasy)
- black water sister 🏳️🌈 (sapphic malaysian protag, fantasy/sci-fi)
- how we fall apart (dark academia murder mystery thriller but make it asian american)
- you’ve reached sam (contemporary)
- love and other natural disasters 🏳️🌈 (sapphic fake dating b/w japanese girls)
- the chosen and the beautiful 🏳️🌈 (queer sapphic retelling of the great gatsby)
- hani and ishu’s guide to fake dating 🏳️🌈 (south asian sapphics)
one last thing, i realize that a lot of these are east asian, so if you have more to add on, please do!
izzy806
amandla
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
germansingergirl
gummygunk
