Pride Month Musings and Recommendations

Being who we are and what we care about as a team, we would be remiss to let Pride Month pass without a little celebration on our part. We have put together some thoughts on queer books and other media that mean a lot to us - outside of our wonderful clients writing queer stories, of course. And a very sneaky first glimpse of the newest member of Team Ki... I should point out that these are non-exhaustive lists!

I (Fab) am a terrible person making everyone make hard choices. But the joke's on me, really because I too have to pick between all my darlings (and THANK GOD we're not including agency books because all of my clients have amazing queer books I hope we get to shout about soon).

One of my all-time favourite authors is Nicola Griffith, and her seminal Hild - a queer historical epic centred around Hild of Whitby. Since it's publication over a decade ago the book has reached cult status and was given an equally brilliant sequel recently. Griffith does her homework and produces beautifully researched novels that justify every page of their extent. I will read anything the woman writes - and would love to find more in this space!

Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars is both cosy and extremely dark, breaking the reader only to put them back together better. There is a wonderful scene where the main character, a young trans woman, gets to go dress shopping for the first time and I cry every single time at the trans joy in that moment.

And of course, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I was a very early reader - managed to get my hands on an ARC at an event - and it's been brilliant to see it changing the industry from day one. No one expected Gideon to do as well as it has, and it has opened the door to many more weird queer books.

As a special bonus (not at all because I can't decide) I want to highlight Anna-Marie McLemore's wonderful YA novels. Some of the best writing in the genre, and always hauntingly beautiful.

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Helen says:

Ok, so I’m grumpy because I have books from my authors that I want to list BUT THEY HAVEN’T BEEN ANNOUNCED YET. This is the pain of publishing. But I will be shouting about them soon!!!!

However, I am in torment because Fab has asked me to list my three favourite books with queer characters and honestly the woman is mean to do that. How can you pick just three??? I’m also trying to predict some of Fab’s so I don’t duplicate. Hopefully I get it right. If Jay Kristoff’s Nevernight series isn’t mentioned somewhere in her list then pretend I mentioned it here. (Also guessing Lee Mandelo because she likes to traumatise people- still not forgiven her for making me cry that much. And don't get me started on Andrew Joseph White). But…my list of three books (a brief I have followed faithfully).

Song of Achilles. This book did the rounds in my family. My eldest daughter finished it and actually left a note outside her door saying she wouldn’t be available to people for a few days as she processed her feelings. Occasionally I still get puppy dogs eyes as she asks me why I tried to emotionally destroy her with that book. (It’s so I didn’t suffer alone, baby girl!)

The Infected Series by Andrea Speed. I found these last year and devoured them. Shifters done right (with more trauma than joy over their abilities- because who in their right mind would want their body torn apart to become an animal). But the main character’s loves and heartbreaks are why I kept reading.

Don't Let the Forest In by C.G.Drews. One of the first books I read this year and it became the one to beat.

I’m going rogue and adding a 4th and Fab can’t stop me. Well, she can because she posts the blogs, but please don’t stop me. Anything TJ Klune. All his books make me forget how to breath, but I’m halfway through his Wolfsong series and I can’t finish them because I’m too afraid of my feelings. It’s been several years at this point, and they are still sitting on my TBR shelf just eyeballing me. (They’re doing it now).

Okay. Last one. I promise. And I’m sure Fab will include it because she’s gracious and kind and would never make me only list three books. But Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. One of those books that changes you a little bit. Many more notes were hung on many more doors in this household. We are not ok.

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Meg says:

For me, where I didn’t see myself often represented in characters (well, OK, Fern in Charlotte’s Web, fighting for justice for the underdog / pig), I found characters who resonated more often in film.  At the same time as I was studying the history of the novel, my mum took me to a season of classic films that left an indelible mark.

Let’s avoid the ‘You will die because you’re queer’ material like The Children’s Room and The Killing of Sister George. They tell you pretty quickly there’s a fate there you want to escape. There are plenty of women out there who might be queer, or have something else as important going on, like Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (clearly affectionate towards her female courtier) and Princess Leia (OK, well, Han Solo, but I mean, she’s giving orders, and let’s forgive the headphone hairstyle).

On the book side, though, I’m completely loving Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson, which Fab gave me to read.  Although it’s a novella, I haven’t finished it yet (clients’ work takes up a lot of time) and I know the story’s going in a worrying direction.  But the main character, who’s been good all her life and passed exams and has no idea what to do next, but finds her head turned by a charismatic woman, really speaks to me.

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And introducing the wonderful Miriam, who will officially start with us next week:

Well, since my queer scripture is already taken (Gideon the Ninth), I’ll suggest three novels that have introduced me to queer language and, consequentially, invested me with power.

House of Hades, by Rick Riordan. Perhaps one of the first queer books I read, although at the time that term didn’t even exist in my vocabulary. In itself the book isn’t groundbreaking (although I did cry a lot reading it), and far ‘better’ representation from intimate voices has since come, I still remember reading that scene between Jason and Nico, and at first not really understanding what it mean that the latter had a crush on Percy. It seemed both… normal (love’s love), yet also unlike anything I had been exposed to, as an Italian child from a fairly small town.

But it was I Wish You All the Best, by Mason Deaver, that unlocked a deeper personal experience—that gender isn’t reduced to female and male, but it’s a whole beautiful nebula without poles or scales, and one can decide to place themselves there as they wish—their own bright star. Although it took me years to even admit I was non-binary (something I still struggle to advocate), it did set into motion heavy gears in my brain.

(Then here I wish I could mention The Ones We Burn without the controversy around it, but it was while beta-reading that book pre-deal that I realized I could like women)

And then, to end with a flourish, City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett. It’s not often at the forefront of sapphic fantasy lists because the romance isn’t neither dominant not explicitly stated, but I am a firm believer of the ‘General Mulagesh is a lesbian’ propaganda, and I refuse to believe that whatever was going on between her and Signe was ‘just a friendship.’ Though this was a retroactive realization brought on by the author’s consequent book Foundryside, it paved the very slippery way for me to tumble down a sapphic slope, a substantial bulk of what I read and represent.  

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