Heroes Like Us
by Elayna Mae Darcy
Content warning: discussions of fatphobia, homophobia, depression, and anxiety
As a kid, I devoured books and fell in love with stories, even though the heroes never looked like me.
Fat kids were goofy sidekicks, if they were there at all. Fat teens were never much more than punchlines to cruel jokes. Fat adults were cautionary tales, faceless bodies on TV warning about obesity. No one of my size was ever allowed to fill up a storybook page or a screen with their body, and if by chance they did, they were certainly never allowed to be the hero.
Realizing that I was bisexual was a journey much the same. There was so much loneliness and longing from a distance, as I watched the few and far between queer characters get killed off. I spent years identifying with every queer character I could find, all while staying firmly in the closet until I reached the end of college. And as for realizing I am non-binary, that is something that at 30, I am still only just beginning to figure out.
These intersecting identities within me, with the added weight of having both chronic depression and an anxiety disorder, made trying to exist in reality feel like wading through polluted waters. I often shrank myself down so as to not take up space, because I didn’t believe there was anywhere that I belonged. I learned to detach and dissociate myself into something so formless, I may as well have been invisible. My only solace was escaping into stories, even though those heroes never looked like me.
It’s taken me years of therapy and shadow work to unlearn those toxic behaviors, and I still often fall short. Learning to love oneself after experiencing a lifetime of trauma is a complicated odyssey. But as someone whose heart was shaped by stories, I know first hand that seeing characters like me conquering their own demons was one of the most powerful and personal parts of my journey. Ever since I began harnessing that feeling by writing characters like me—fat, queer, mentally ill—I’ve discovered a kind of healing that I never imagined I might find.
This feeling of self love is all I want for the teens today. I want you to know that you belong everywhere that you are, and that your differences are the very things that create the unique magic of you. I want your shelves to overflow with books that remind you that you deserve the universe.
So my characters I write are queer and complex and joyful. They are fat and fearful and fearless. Their dimensions and multitudes are not limited to the size of their body. They exist in worlds with people who love them for all they are, no questions asked. I leave my fingerprints all over my books by writing fat, queer teens into starry adventures and sending them on quests to save their worlds. I make heroes out of young adults who struggle to see their own worth, even though they, like you, are absolutely priceless.
It’s my hope that through these characters, maybe you can come to understand yourself sooner, treat yourselves kinder, and love yourselves harder than I ever could. It’s my dream for your world to be full of heroes like you.
—
To learn more about Elayna’s debut YA fantasy novel, visit www.stillthestars.com.
Elayna Mae Darcy (she/they) is a queer poet, YA author, and filmmaker. They actively serve as a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo and have been a participant in the annual event for the last sixteen years. A former podcast producer and social media specialist at MuggleNet.com, one of Elayna’s favorite things in life is engaging with fandom communities and speaking on panels at conventions across the country. They are the author of the sci-fi short story CONTINUUM (2017), and the poetry collections UNRAVELING LIGHT (2018) and DARKNESS UNDONE (2020).
LGBTQIAP+ YA Books by Asian Authors 2021
by Kaitlin Mitchell
Rom-coms and historical fiction and sci-fi and graphic novels–these Asian YA authors have got all of your queer reading needs covered! This list includes recent and upcoming LGBTQIAP+ young adult books written by Asian writers, so get your wallets and library cards ready!
Available Now:
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.
When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.
Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.
Felix Ever After meets Becky Albertalli in this swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare.
“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.
America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Storm the Earth (Shatter the Sky #2) by Rebecca Kim Wells
Maren and her girlfriend Kaia set out to rescue Sev and free the dragons from the corrupt emperor in the explosive finale to the journey that began with the thrilling Shatter the Sky.
Let them burn.
Maren’s world was shattered when her girlfriend, Kaia, was abducted by the Aurati. After a daring rescue, they’ve finally been reunited, but Maren’s life is still in pieces: Kaia seems more like a stranger than the lover Maren knew back home; Naava, the mother of all dragons, has retreated into seclusion to recover from her wounds, leaving Maren at a loss on how to set the rest of the dragons free; and worst of all, her friend Sev has been captured by the emperor’s Talons.
As a prisoner of Zefed, Sev finds himself entangled in a treacherous game of court politics. With more people joining the rebellion, whispers of a rogue dragon mistress spreading, and escape seeming less likely with each passing day, Sev knows that it won’t be long before the emperor decides to make an example of him. If he’s to survive, he’ll have to strike first—or hope Maren reaches him in time.
With the final battle for Zefed looming, Maren must set aside her fears, draw upon all she’s learned about her dragon-touched abilities, and face her destiny once and for all. But when the fighting is over and the smoke clears, who will be left standing?
The world of K-Pop has never met a star like this. Debut author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun, thoughtful rom-com celebrating confidence and body positivity—perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Julie Murphy.
Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.
She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else.
When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho.
But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he’s been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.
Real life isn’t a fairytale.
But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It’s hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn’t even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he’s going through?
Is there a way to tell them he’s gay?
A beautifully illustrated story by Trung Le Nguyen that follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales, an instant classic that shows us how we are all connected. The Magic Fish tackles tough subjects in a way that accessible with readers of all ages, and teaches us that no matter what—we can all have our own happy endings.
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.
Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. For Flora, former starving urchin, the brutal life of a pirate is about survival: don’t trust, don’t stick out, and don’t feel. But on this voyage, as the pirates prepare to sell their unsuspecting passengers into slavery, Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, who is en route to a dreaded arranged marriage with her own casket in tow. Flora doesn’t expect to be taken under Evelyn’s wing, and Evelyn doesn’t expect to find such a deep bond with the pirate Florian.
Soon the unlikely pair set in motion a wild escape that will free a captured mermaid (coveted for her blood, which causes men to have visions and lose memories) and involve the mysterious Pirate Supreme, an opportunistic witch, and the all-encompassing Sea itself.
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram
In this companion to the award-winning Darius the Great Is Not Okay, Darius suddenly has it all: a boyfriend, an internship, a spot on the soccer team. It’s everything he’s ever wanted–but what if he deserves better?
Darius Kellner is having a bit of a year. Since his trip to Iran this past spring, a lot has changed. He’s getting along with his dad, and his best friend Sohrab is only a Skype call away. Between his first boyfriend, Landon, his varsity soccer practices, and his internship at his favorite tea shop, Darius is feeling pretty okay. Like he finally knows what it means to be Darius Kellner.
Then, of course, everything changes. Darius’s grandmothers are in town for a long visit while his dad is gone on business, and Darius isn’t sure whether they even like him. The internship isn’t what Darius thought it would be, and now he doesn’t know about turning tea into his career. He was sure he liked Landon, but when he starts hanging out with Chip–soccer teammate and best friend of Trent Bolger, epic bully–well, he’s just not so sure about Landon anymore, either.
Darius thought he knew exactly who he was and what he wanted, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe he deserves better.
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.
Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.
Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance…until she falls for Reza and they start dating.
Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.
As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart–and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.
Upcoming:
HANI AND ISHU’S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING by Adiba Jaigirdar, out May 25, 2021
Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.
Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.
LOVE & OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS by Misa Sugiura, out June 8, 2021
When Nozomi Nagai pictured the ideal summer romance, a fake one wasn’t what she had in mind.
That was before she met the perfect girl. Willow is gorgeous, glamorous, and…heartbroken? And when she enlists Nozomi to pose as her new girlfriend to make her ex jealous, Nozomi is a willing volunteer.
Because Nozomi has a master plan of her own: one to show Willow she’s better than a stand-in, and turn their fauxmance into something real. But as the lies pile up, it’s not long before Nozomi’s schemes take a turn toward disaster…and maybe a chance at love she didn’t plan for.
GEARBREAKERS by Zoe Hana Mikuta, out June 29, 2021
Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they’re fighting for a common purpose–and falling for each other–in Zoe Hana Mikuta’s high-octane debut Gearbreakers, perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu’s Legend series.
We went past praying to deities and started to build them instead…
The shadow of Godolia’s tyrannical rule is spreading, aided by their giant mechanized weapons known as Windups. War and oppression are everyday constants for the people of the Badlands, who live under the thumb of their cruel Godolia overlords.
Eris Shindanai is a Gearbreaker, a brash young rebel who specializes in taking down Windups from the inside. When one of her missions goes awry and she finds herself in a Godolia prison, Eris meets Sona Steelcrest, a cybernetically enhanced Windup pilot. At first Eris sees Sona as her mortal enemy, but Sona has a secret: She has intentionally infiltrated the Windup program to destroy Godolia from within.
As the clock ticks down to their deadliest mission yet, a direct attack to end Godolia’s reign once and for all, Eris and Sona grow closer–as comrades, friends, and perhaps something more…
IRON WIDOW by Xiran Jay Zhao, out September 21, 2021
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
SQUAD by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle, out October 5, 2021
Pretty Little Liars meets Teen Wolf in this fast-paced, sharply funny, and patriarchy-smashing graphic novel from author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and artist Lisa Sterle. When the new girl is invited to join her high school’s most popular clique, she can’t believe her luck—and she can’t believe their secret, either: they’re werewolves. Fans of Mariko Tamaki and Elana K. Arnold will devour the snappy dialogue, vivid artwork, and timely social commentary.
When Becca transfers to a high school in an elite San Francisco suburb, she’s worried she’s not going to fit in. To her surprise, she’s immediately adopted by the most popular girls in school. At first glance, Marley, Arianna, and Mandy are perfect. But at a party under a full moon, Becca learns that they also have a big secret.
Becca’s new friends are werewolves. Their prey? Slimy boys who take advantage of unsuspecting girls. Eager to be accepted, Becca allows her friends to turn her into a werewolf, and finally, for the first time in her life, she feels like she truly belongs.
But things get complicated when Arianna’s predatory boyfriend is killed, and the cops begin searching for a serial killer. As their pack begins to buckle under the pressure—and their moral high ground gets muddier and muddier—Becca realizes that she might have feelings for one of her new best friends.
BRIAR GIRLS by Rebecca Kim Wells, out November 2, 2021
Lena has a secret: the touch of her skin can kill. Cursed by a witch before she was born, Lena has always lived in fear and isolation. But after a devastating mistake, she and her father are forced to flee to a village near the Silence, a mysterious forest with a reputation for luring people into the trees, never to be seen again…
Until the night an enigmatic girl stumbles out of the Silence and into Lena’s sheltered world. Miranda comes from the Gather, a city in the forest brimming with magic. She is on a quest to wake a sleeping princess believed to hold the key to liberating the Gather from its tyrannical ruler—and she offers Lena a bargain. If Lena assists her on her journey, Miranda will help her break the curse.
Mesmerized by Miranda and her promise of a new life, Lena jumps at the chance. But the deeper into the Silence she goes, the more she suspects she’s been lied to—about her family’s history, her curse, and her future. As the shadows close in, Lena must choose who to trust and decide whether it’s more important to have freedom…or power
GIRLS OF FATE AND FURY by Natasha Ngan, out November 2, 2021
New York Times bestselling author Natasha Ngan delivers a stunningly beautiful, heartbreaking finale to the epic Girls of Paper and Fire series.
“Don’t struggle, Lei-zhi. It’s time to take you back to the Hidden Palace. You’re going home.”
The final pages of Girls of Storm and Shadow brought a jaw-dropping conclusion that had the fates of Lei and Wren hanging in uncertainty. But one thing was certain – the Hidden Palace was the last place that Lei would ever consider home. The trauma and tragedy she suffered behind those opulent walls would plague her forever. She could not be trapped there with the sadistic king again, especially without Wren.
The last Lei saw of the girl she loved, Wren was fighting an army of soldiers in a furious battle to the death. With the two girls torn apart and each in terrorizing peril, will they find each other again or have their destinies diverged forever?
Black History Month Book List 2021
By Kaitlin Mitchell
Happy Black History Month, readers! To start February off, we’ve put together a list of 16 LGBTQIAP+ YA books by Black authors. This list includes both recently released titles from 2020 that you can pick up today as well as upcoming 2021 titles you can mark your calendars for now! From fairy tales reimagined to horror, authors you’ve already fallen in love with to debuts you’ll want more from immediately, this list has some major star power. As always, we hope this list helps readers find their new favorite books well beyond Black History Month–amplification of Black voices in publishing must occur year round. Be sure to also check out our Queer YA Books by Black Authors Spreadsheet, which we update as new book deals are announced! Happy reading!
New Releases:
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
Can a girl who risks her life for books and an alien who loves forbidden pop music work together to save humanity?
Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the deaths of one-third of the world’s population.
Seventeen-year-old Janelle “Ellie” Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. Deemed dangerously volatile because of their initial reaction to the invasion, humanity’s emotional transgressions are now grounds for execution. All art, books and creative expression are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library. When a book goes missing, Ellie is terrified that the Ilori will track it back to her and kill her.
Born in a lab, M0Rr1S (Morris) was raised to be emotionless. When he finds Ellie’s illegal library, he’s duty-bound to deliver her for execution. The trouble is, he finds himself drawn to human music and in desperate need of more. They’re both breaking the rules for love of art—and Ellie inspires the same feelings in him that music does.
Ellie’s—and humanity’s—fate rests in the hands of an alien she should fear. M0Rr1S has a lot of secrets, but also a potential solution—thousands of miles away. The two embark on a wild and dangerous road trip with a bag of books and their favorite albums, all the while making a story and a song of their own that just might save them both.
The Summer of Everything by Julian Winters
Comic book geek Wesley Hudson excels at two things: slacking off at his job and pining after his best friend, Nico. Advice from his friends, ‘90s alt-rock songs, and online dating articles aren’t helping much with his secret crush. And his dream job at Once Upon a Page, the local used bookstore, is threatened when a coffeeshop franchise wants to buy the property. To top it off, his annoying brother needs wedding planning advice. When all three problems converge, Wes comes face-to-face with the one thing he’s been avoiding—adulthood.
Now, confronted with reality, can Wes balance saving the bookstore and his strained sibling relationship? Can he win the heart of his crush, too?
Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
The sequel to Dread Nation is a journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.
After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother.
But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880’s America.
What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears – as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her.
But she won’t be in it alone.
Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by – and that Jane needs her, too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not.
Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive – even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
From Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.
Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.
When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle….
But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve.
Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .
This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.
Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Bluecovers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…
In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.
Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.
And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.
She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.
Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence
Becks is into girls but didn’t come out because she was never in. She lives with her mum, stepdad and eighteen-year-old Silva, her stepdad’s daughter. Becks and Silva are opposites, but bond over their mutual obsession with K-pop.
When Becks’ mum and stepdad go on honeymoon to Japan, Becks and Silva are left alone. Except, Silva disappears. Becks ventures into the forbidden territory of Silva’s room and finds the first of eight clues that help her discover her sister’s secret life.
Upcoming:
YESTERDAY IS HISTORY by Kosoko Jackson, out February 2, 2021
A romantic, heart-felt, and whimsical novel about letting go of the past, figuring out what you want in your future, and staying in the moment before it passes you by.
Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant.
He’s ready for his life to finally begin, until one night, when he passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected…in 1969, where he connects with a magnetic boy named Michael.
And then, just as suddenly as he arrived, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect—the ability to time travel. And they’ve tasked their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift.
Andre splits his time bouncing between the past and future. Between Michael and Blake. Michael is everything Andre wishes he could be, and Blake, still reeling from the death of his brother, Andre’s donor, keeps him at arm’s length despite their obvious attraction to each other.
Torn between two boys, one in the past and one in the present, Andre has to figure out where he belongs—and more importantly who he wants to be—before the consequences of jumping in time catch up to him and change his future for good.
MEET CUTE DIARY by Emery Lee, out May 4, 2021
Felix Ever After meets Becky Albertalli in this swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.
THE PASSING PLAYBOOK by Isaac Fitzsimons, out June 1, 2021
Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother and a Messi-in-training. He’s also transgender.
After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio. At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boy’s soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans – he’s passing.
So when a discriminatory law forces Spencer’s coach to bench him after he discovers the ‘F’ on Spencer’s birth certificate, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even if it means coming out to everyone – including the guy he’s falling for.
ACE OF SPADES by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, out June 10, 2021
An incendiary and utterly compelling thriller with a shocking twist that delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism, from an exceptional new YA voice. Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…
DARLING by K. Ancrum, out June 22, 2021
A teen girl finds herself lost on a dangerous adventure in this YA thriller by the acclaimed author of The Wicker King and The Weight of the Stars—reimagining Peter Pan for today’s world.
On Wendy Darling’s first night in Chicago, a boy called Peter appears at her window. He’s dizzying, captivating, beautiful—so she agrees to join him for a night on the town.
Wendy thinks they’re heading to a party, but instead they’re soon running in the city’s underground. She makes friends—a punk girl named Tinkerbelle and the lost boys Peter watches over. And she makes enemies—the terrifying Detective Hook, and maybe Peter himself, as his sinister secrets start coming to light. Can Wendy find the courage to survive this night—and make sure everyone else does, too?
Acclaimed author K. Ancrum has re-envisioned Peter Pan with a central twist that will send all your previous memories of J. M. Barrie’s classic permanently off to Neverland.
THE TAKING OF JAKE LIVINGSTON by Ryan Douglass, out July 13, 2021
Get Out meets Danielle Vega in this YA social thriller where survival is not a guarantee.
Jake Livingston is one of the only black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed sixteen kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.
THINGS WE COULDN’T SAY by Jay Coles, out September 21, 2021
From one of the brightest and most acclaimed new lights in YA fiction, a fantastic new novel about a bi Black boy finding first love . . . and facing the return of the mother who abandoned his preacher family when he was nine.
There’s always been a hole in Gio’s life. Not because he’s into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio’s life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he’s started to get his life together, she’s back.
It’s hard for Gio to know what to do. Can he forgive her like she wants to be forgiven? Or should he tell her she lost her chance to be in his life? Complicating things further, Gio’s started to hang out with David, a new guy on the basketball team. Are they friends? More than friends? At first, Gio’s not sure . . . especially because he’s not sure what he wants from anyone right now.
There are no easy answers to love — whether it’s family love or friend love or romantic love. In Things We Couldn’t Say, Jay Coles, acclaimed author of Tyler Johnson Was Here, shows us a guy trying to navigate love in all its ambiguity — hoping at the other end he’ll be able to figure out who is and who he should be.
Queerbaiting Survival Guide: Queer Writers on Affirming Representation – Part 2
In November, the long-running TV show Supernatural came to an end. The finale left not only queer fans but also fans who are struggling with depression and trauma recovery feeling deeply hurt and unheard by one of their favorite shows. Although our focus here at YA Pride is not on TV, we are all too familiar with the pain of being let down by media. It hurts in a way that few other things do. While most fans have recuperated a bit from the ending of the show, some of the pain still remains. And although Supernatural is the most recent show to hurt fans in this way, it is not the first, and sadly, it will most likely not be the last. In that spirit, we wanted to round-up some wisdom from adult creators on how to deal with this kind of bitter disappointment. (This post is Part 2 of this mini series. Find Part 1 here.)
By Kosoko Jackson
Dear You,
A few days ago, someone posted on Twitter one of those interactive Quote-RT reply posts with the question, “what was the last movie that made you cry?” I feel for a lot of you, though Supernatural isn’t a movie, you’d answer “The last episode of Supernatural.”
And I get it. We’re all dealing with a lot right now. Especially with COVID-19, being stuck inside, and being forced to be alone. For a lot of you, home might not be a safe place or a place you can be yourself and Supernatural, your show, was your escape from that hell you’re living, and imagining a life where happiness should be possible. And you were let down. You were hurt. And in many ways, you were betrayed. I think I know what you’re feeling right now because I too experienced a gut punch in cinema when I was around your age.
The year was November 20, 2006 (oof, I sound old.) Almost 14 years to the date. The show was Heroes. The season? 1. The episode, 9. Not to spend forever talking about the greatest show of all time, but in the episode, one of the characters, Zach, is called a “Freak” for being gay, and his friend Claire stands up for him. This moment, for a young recently-turned-15-year-old gay Black kid, meant the world to me; because it showed me gay kids in small towns who feel alone, can have friends, have people in their corners and can be what I thought I wasn’t…loved.
And then, Fox nixed the character.
I’m not going to spend the second half of this essay telling you it’s going to get better. Because what you’re feeling has been the experience of so many queer artists for generations. But if you’re a fan of Supernatural, I’m willing to bet money you might also be a fan of other SFF tv shows, movies, books and comics.
Which means you know of something called The Origin Story.
I started writing books because of Zach in Heroes. Because I wanted to write his character and he gave me joy, but also because I wanted to create worlds where happiness existed and queers can be badass. I forced myself to believe ‘we deserve better & I’m going to create better.’
Let Supernatural’s follies be your Origin Story. Be it through a screenplay, a short story, a comic or any other artistic medium, I’m sure you have a story, fantastical or modern, that only you can tell. And I’m sure there is a queer kid, sitting on their bed, pushing the world into the background, who needs it as much as you needed Supernatural to be there for you.
Do not let them win. Don’t let them determine who deserves a happy ending. Because, spoiler alert, everyone does. Even you. Especially you. And you can write that ending better than anyone else. Each and everyone one of you.
It’s time we go hunting for that happy ever after, and we’re not coming home until we find it. I’ll bring the snacks and let’s remind every person who says we don’t deserve one, that we 100% do.
I’ll be in the car waiting.
Best,
Kosoko
—
Kosoko Jackson is an author and MFA student who spends too much time online for his own good. His debut science fiction romance, YESTERDAY IS HISTORY, debuts February 2nd, 2021, and is being published by SourcebooksFire. Follow him on Twitter and/or Instragram @KosokoJackson.
by Anonymous
Maybe you’re alone right now, and perhaps it feels hopeless, but please don’t give up! I and many others care about you; if you don’t have anyone in your life who understands, please know that this won’t always be the case. People are more accepting each year, and new series and novels are being released with the representation you’ve always wanted to see. It won’t always be like this. No matter how hard a situation is, it is possible to carry on and get through it. I believe in you, you can do it! <3 And for any aspiring-LGBTQ+ writers, know that your voice is important, you have a unique view on the world, that is a wonderful gift—if you want to write a story, don’t hesitate, just go for it and add in the representation you want to see in your stories! Believe in yourself, you have the power to change the literary world!
Thank you for existing, you make the world a better place! <3
by Elayna Darcy
Content note: major spoilers for Supernatural series finale, major character death, depression, homophobia, bury your gays trope
Dear Queer Teens,
Let me begin by saying that I am sorry.
I am sorry that we have not come far enough. I am sorry that every day, you have to scroll through your social media feeds, go to school, and exist in a world that has so many people telling you that there is something wrong with you. That you are merely confused or that you do not deserve validation for who you are. Because none of those things are true. You are honestly a miracle.
When I was in high school, I had no one around to tell me this. I had a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) that started at my school during my sophomore year, and had to watch as fellow students defaced our posters with slurs or just ripped them down altogether. I had to put up with family members who questioned why I bothered to be involved with “those people.” I did all of this, without coming out. I didn’t find the strength to do that until I was 22, a senior in college. But I always knew, deep in my bones, that there was something about me that was different, for reasons I could not explain then, and that difference drew me into solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.
I saw in them a strength and resilience to love how they loved without giving a damn what the rest of the world had to say about it. There was power and fortitude in the friends I had who shirked gender norms. In those few queer people I knew, I saw something that resonated with me deeply. But the rare glimpses at queer stories I saw (films like MILK or RENT or THE MATTHEW SHEPARD STORY) all seemed to enforce that there was more trauma and pain to being queer than there was joy. And I am sorry that so much of that hasn’t changed.
Before watching the series finale of Supernatural, in the two weeks after one of the main characters confessed his love for the man he literally saved from hell, I was full of a queer euphoria that I haven’t known in quite some time. I was back on tumblr like I used to be in my early days after coming out, scrolling through night-blogged hope-posts about what it was going to be like to watch a 15 year old show end with some sort of confirmation of queerness from it’s main character, a character who I loved and identified with even before I came out, and whose journey helped me so much in figuring out my own identity.
You see, I always felt a lot like Dean. I did not believe I was worthy of much of anything. I did not love myself—in fact truth be told, most days I hated myself. I was full of a reckless self loathing that I was convinced for so, so many years, that I never thought I would be able to heal from it. And so here I was, watching in the penultimate episode as this character I’ve loved and grown with, punched God in the face and told him, “I am not the monster you think I am. I am in charge of my own destiny. I choose love instead.”
Dear reader, it was so powerful. For that glorious fortnight leading up to the finale, I was convinced this would be it. Vindication would come. The finale would somehow involve Dean charging with guns blazing into the superhell that stole the person he loved, and that he would save Cas right back, the way Cas once saved him so many years ago. As a writer myself, I knew there was a myriad of ways that the finale could have gone that would have caused a watershed moment in television, and showed a fandom that has devoted over a decade of their lives to this series, that our queerness was valid and deserved to be recognized on screen by the characters we loved and looked up to the most.
And then I had to watch as the showrunners decided to throw that 15 years of character development and fandom love right down the drain, as they impaled my beloved character on a spike. I had to watch him die frightened, reduced back to believing this—a tragic, painful death, unable to save or be with the ones he loved—was what he deserved. And for those of you who had to watch and experience that with me, I am so. so. sorry.
Hollywood and the publishing industry have too often shown us that they would sooner kill us to further someone else’s pain than let us get the happy endings given to our heterosexual conterparts. We are fridged, left to bleed out in bathtubs, snapped out of existence, taken to super-turbo-hell because we experienced happiness, and run through with rebar. But we do not deserve this. We deserve so much better. You deserve so much better.
Because the truth is that you are, as I said, a miracle. Every single one of your worst days, you still survived. All those moments where your mental health or your very life were at risk, you overcame them. You have fought so hard to be here, and by existing in your truth, even if you can’t safely say it out loud yet, you are a warrior. Many of you love and embrace your identity more freely than the generations before you were ever able to at your age, and that is powerful. You fight injustices with your every breath, simply by showing up and saying, I am here. I am queer. I deserve joy. You inspire us elder queers every day with your strength and hope, and I am so sorry for every time that these cisheteronormative systems have failed you or made you feel like you were anything less than the pure magic that you are.
I want you to know we are fighting for you. That there are people, right now as you read this, writing books and making television and directing films that show our lived experiences in all the glorious light they deserve to be bathed in. That trans authors are hitting the NYT Bestseller list. That franchises as big as Star Trek are including relationships between non-binary teens. That folks like those who run the amazingness of YA Pride and We Need Diverse Books are advocating for you at every step of the way, and doing everything in our power to burn down oppressive systems so you don’t have to go through things like what that Supernatural finale put us all through. We love you, and we will never give up on you.
And most importantly, I urge you to remember, that your voice matters too. Don’t let anyone tell you that because you are young, that you can’t write yourself into the narrative. If there is a story you want to see, write it, and know that you don’t have to limit yourself. Write that sapphic high fantasy novel. Make a trans boy the plucky hero of a space opera. Tell the tale of a non-binary kid who loves going to fan conventions with their friends and falls in love with a cute cosplayer. Know that we are rooting for you every step of the way, and that we’re waiting eagerly for your stories. Know that you, and your words, matter more than anything in the universe.
With Love,
Elayna
—
Elayna Mae Darcy (she/they) is a queer poet, YA author, and filmmaker. They actively serve as a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo and have been a participant in the annual event for the last sixteen years. A former podcast producer and social media specialist at MuggleNet.com, one of Elayna’s favorite things in life is engaging with fandom communities and speaking on panels at conventions across the country. They are the author of the sci-fi short story CONTINUUM (2017), and the poetry collections UNRAVELING LIGHT (2018) and DARKNESS UNDONE (2020).
Queerbaiting Survival Guide: Queer Writers on Affirming Representation – Part 1
In November, the long-running TV show Supernatural came to an end. The finale left not only queer fans but also fans who are struggling with depression and trauma recovery feeling deeply hurt and unheard by one of their favorite shows. Although our focus here at YA Pride is not on TV, we are all too familiar with the pain of being let down by media. It hurts in a way that few other things do. While most fans have recuperated a bit from the ending of the show, some of the pain still remains. And although Supernatural is the most recent show to hurt fans in this way, it is not the first, and sadly, it will most likely not be the last. In that spirit, we wanted to round-up some wisdom from adult creators on how to deal with this kind of bitter disappointment.
by Nirali Sheth
There’s nothing like having fifteen seasons of build-up to a queer love confession and then getting half of that pairing sent straight to super-hell. Or having the powerful girlfriend of a compelling female main character get killed by a stray bullet. Or having cast members joke about a gay pairing and cuddle together in interviews and wink at the fans only for the creators of the show turn around and call you crazy for ever imagining queerness within a story that you related to.
Because that’s just it. You related to these characters and their stories, which is why you saw queerness in them.
We watch characters rise up against evil, fight for their lives, and create relationships beyond the family they were born with. We see our own stories in worlds that we did not create, which makes us love these worlds.
But we also find others who see the same and we create our own language around it. We find people who will cry with you over a song at a convention. We find people who will write you stories because they love you and you both share this love of a thing. We find people who will tolerate your angry rants about where your favorite character’s storyline is going and scream with you when the plot twist is just that good.
If you’re feeling hurt by the ending of a certain TV show, feel hurt. Because you deserve better and you know you deserve better. We deserve better queer representation on our screens.
But also, hold on to the people who spoke the same language as you. Keep speaking that language and keep making it your own. And maybe, instead of just transforming this thing you loved and disappointed you, you can create something new together. You can create what you deserved to see in the first place.
And also know that this isn’t the first time this has happened. There are others who are now making stories they know we deserve because of the disappointment they’ve felt. And these are stories where the queerness isn’t just subtext, it’s the text. Because the world is the way it is, you might have to dig a little deeper to find these stories, but they’re there, waiting for you to embrace with all the passion and fire you give to everything. They’re waiting to become a part of your language.
—
Nirali Sheth (she/her) is an incredibly slow writer who also crafts and makes videos and podcasts. Scream with her about music on twitter @firewordsparklr or hang out on her crafting stream at twitch.tv/firewordsparkler, where she talks about writing, movies, and all sorts of other gay nonsense.
by Kay Xavier
Sometimes I feel like being queer is the continual effort to be enough. The continual effort to be patient and wait for our time to come. And much of the time it seems like that effort is in vain. We wait to see ourselves in the media we love and we’ll take the thinnest scraps and cherish them. They didn’t say that this character is queer, but the actions they took in these specific episodes and the line the character said once is hinting, leaning, promising that they are for us. That they are us.
They don’t know what we want, we think. If we just tell them–write social media posts and letters and petitions, talk to our friends, tweet at creators, then they’ll see that we noticed. They’ll see that we saw the queerness and we like it, we want to see more of it. And then when nothing happens, we think that maybe we were too loud or too pushy. Maybe we’re being impatient and it will happen later, when the storyline allows for it. If we’re loud enough they’ll listen, if we’re patient enough, they’ll notice us, if we’re good or attentive or some other kind of enough then we’ll earn that representation and we’ll get it. We’ll see ourselves in our media and some of the hard parts of being queer will be a little easier because we’ll say ‘this character is queer too’. And a lot of times, we’re left waiting for representation. We’re let down.
Right now, I’m supposed to tell you that it gets better and it does. There are people telling our stories and there are people rewriting old ones the way they should have been all along. Queer happiness exists, even if you don’t see it in the places you’re looking. There is so much more than what you see, I promise. There are novels where we get our happily ever afters. There are films where we don’t have to die or move away at the end. More than you know, there are so many of us living our own lives in a way that is happy and fulfilling and ours. We’re here and we’re real and we do get the ending we want.
It’s okay to be disappointed and sad. It’s okay to be angry–I welcome it. See the errors that have been made and say to yourself ‘no more of this’. We can be lanterns for each other, sharing stories real and fictional about ourselves. We can sit down and write or draw or speak our truths and share them so other people know that if you don’t hand us a happy ending, we’ll make our own.
And if you can’t manage that just yet, we’ll make one for you.
—
All my life I’ve loved fantasy. Stories like Supernatural and Buffy have always spoken to me. They captured my imagination, but my love for them was always bittersweet because they were never about me, or at least not people like me. They came close sometimes, depicting outcasts and people from small towns, but a critical piece of my identity, of my self, was missing. So I started asking myself, why not me? Why not us?
When you grow up queer in Guthrie, Oklahoma, you get used to not seeing yourself. Supernatural excited me, especially when they went to Guthrie in an early episode, but even then, people like me were missing from the story.
Epic fantasy was even worse. Even Star Trek, which is supposed to show a more progressive future, left me out (something Discovery is quickly rectifying). I looked at these amazing worlds, places born entirely of someone’s imagination, and too often they couldn’t imagine someone like me fitting in. When queer people did show up, they often died tragically or fought the same prejudices we do in the real world.
The more I read the more frustrated I got. Then I started writing—because the world isn’t just a bunch of straight cis white guys. It’s not abled and neurotypical. When I look at my friends, my found family, that’s not what I see. I started writing the books I do because everyone, every sort of person, should get to see themselves on a page. They should get to see that a happy ending is possible. They should get to be hero.
If you’ve never seen yourself in the fandom you love, in the fantastic stories you love, I want you to know that I see you, that the books I write are for you. More than anything I want you to know that you’re not alone. We’re not alone. And yes, whoever you love, however you identify, or wherever you come from, you can be a hero too.
—
David R. Slayton grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver, Colorado and writes the books he always wanted to read. His debut, White Trash Warlock, was published in October 2020 from Blackstone Publishing.