the infuriating thing is that there is genuinely so much good queer literature out there, contemporary and not, but there is also a sizeable chunk of readers who think that a book only "counts" as good queer literature if it's a) unproblematic, b) contains romance as its central focus, and c) has the characters state their orientation and/or gender identity directly to the audience using socially acceptable 21st-century terms (as opposed to resorting to cowardly tactics such as Subtext and Themes)
also i'm aware this will make me sound like an utter snob but i'm frankly tired of all these rec lists for "gay books" that completely ignore classic literature and most adult fiction in favour of either YA fantasy or cookie-cutter romance novels. and half the time they don't even tell you what the book is about it's just a list of Tropes and Identities ("grumpy/sunshine enemies to lovers featuring a biracial pansexual MC!") as if the only reason anyone would want to read it is as a box-ticking exercise
@tamiscolaris
hello! there sadly aren't a lot of options out there but here's a few that i read and enjoyed:
the left hand of darkness by ursula k leguin (you know this one i never shut up about it)
nettleblack by nat reeve
paul takes the form of a mortal girl by andrea lawson (in many ways a modern reinterpretation of orlando)
how to be both by ali smith
what moves the dead by tj kingfisher
tipping the velvet by sarah water
cuckoo by gretchen felker-martin (ensemble cast)
stone butch blues by leslie feinberg (autobiographical)
and here are some i haven't read yet, but that i hear are good:
ancillary justice by ann leckie
she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan
an unkindness of ghosts by rivers solomon
the "culture" series by iain m banks'
middlesex by jeffrey eugenides
