Summer reading should hit you right in the feelings. These five queer YA books delivered that and then some. I loved every single one of them and I am not even a little bit sorry about recommending them all at once. Clear your schedule and stock up on tissues for at least two of them. You have been warned.
Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Black queer YA fantasy set in a magical New Orleans where powerful families, intergenerational curses, and deadly drama collide. Twins Clem and Cris are thrust into a thirty year old mystery that could destroy everything they love. It has been described as the Black queer YA version of Game of Thrones and honestly that tracks completely. Stunning, sharp, and absolutely unforgettable.
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Two Black students at an elite prep school, one gay and one a Black girl, start receiving anonymous messages threatening to expose their deepest secrets. This is a thriller that does not pull a single punch. It is sharp and furious and says everything it needs to say about race, privilege, and what it costs to exist in spaces that were never built for you. One of the most important queer YA books of recent years.
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
The title tells you everything and nothing at the same time. In a world where you receive a call on the day you are going to die, two strangers spend their last day together and somehow manage to fall in love anyway. I bawled. I hurt in places I did not know could hurt from a book. It is devastating and beautiful and I would read it again in a heartbeat even knowing exactly what is coming. Have tissues. Have many tissues.
A quiet, achingly beautiful book about grief and what we carry when we run away from everything we love. Marin leaves her California life behind after the death of her grandfather and disappears into college, until her best friend and former girlfriend shows up to find her. The writing is so spare and so precise it will take your breath away. This is the kind of book that sits with you for a long time after you finish it. Another one where tissues are not optional.
A Black girl starts college early after the death of her mother and stumbles into a secret society of students descended from King Arthur’s knights. It is Arthurian legend recontextualized through the lens of Black American history and ancestral magic and it is one of the most ambitious and brilliantly executed YA fantasies I have read in years. The queer rep is woven throughout and the series just gets better with each book.
Five books, all hits, zero misses. Drop a comment telling me which one is going on your summer reading list first, and come find us in the Discord where we will be reading all month long for the first annual UNO Reading Challenge!
Join us here: https://discord.gg/6fb475q76B
Year of Queer Lit 
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