Emily St. James is a respected culture critic who has written for Vox, The A.V. Club, The New York Times , and more. This is her debut novel. Erica Skyberg is a 35-year-old closeted trans woman teacher and theater director. 17-year-old Abigail Hawkes is the only out trans girl at Mitchell High. The two of them have an unlikely friendship, with Abigail patiently, if reluctantly, helping guide her teacher through her transition. But their friendship attracts scrutiny from their community. Imogen Binnie ( Nevada) calls this a “heartfelt, funny, and moving” read.

If Daisy Jones brought you to Taylor Jenkins Reid and Evelyn Hugo made you love her, then Atmosphere  can only be described as Taylor Jenkins Reid at her very best. It’s a romance and a character study, exploring what life was like during a particular moment for a very particular set of people: queer women working on the space shuttle program at NASA in the 1970s and 80s. It’s beautiful, moving, and, at times, heart-stopping. Whether describing moments of Joan’s life in triumph or disaster, Reid will have you wrapped around her finger. You won’t be able to look away—and you’d never want to. —Rachel Brittain

Vampires! In! Space! In this queer sci-fi horror, humans can travel between Earth and Alpha Centauri, and Demeter is one of the spaceships that makes the journey. But when Demeter’s passengers start dying mysteriously, Demeter discovers the cause: a vampire. To stop the killings and keep from being shut down, Demeter has to put together her own monster squad to try to take down Dracula, the most powerful vampire of all time. —Liberty Hardy

German trans man Bertie had a comfortable life in 1930s Berlin, working under Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the forward-thinking Institute of Sexual Science. Then Hitler put a target on queer Germans’ backs. Bertie and his girlfriend Sofie escaped to a rural farm, where they evaded the Nazis for a decade. But when a trans man who escaped from a concentration camp appears on their property at the end of the war, they must protect him from Allied forces set on freeing all the Holocaust prisoners except the queer ones. It’s a powerful story of resilience and hope in dangerous times. —Susie Dumond

Maria, in 1532 Spain, latches on to a rebellious marriage to try and get her freedom from all the restrictions placed on her; Alice, in 2019, hopes college will be a fresh start, and is thrilled to meet the mysterious Lottie. The three women unspool into a centuries-long story about how far these women will go in the name of their rage and their desire for freedom. Playing on the same fears and dramas of Interview With the Vampire with a brush of her hit The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, Schwab’s newest gives readers richly painted, queer vampires caught in a multi-century web of obsession, immortality, and longing. —Leah Rachel von Essen

This book became an instant favorite for me as soon as I read it, and it’s still my favorite read of 2025. It’s the story of two sisters living near a river, a boundary between our world and another, more magical one. When a terrible tragedy befalls one sister, the other is determined to find justice. To get it, she’ll need to traverse liminal worlds, face down magical threats, and try to retain some semblance of who she is. —Chris M. Arnone

I’ve been chasing the high of reading  How Far the Light Reaches since 2022, and I finally found that queer science joy again in Forest Euphoria . Mycologist and writer Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian found acceptance and a place to explore in the natural landscapes of her childhood home in the Hudson Valley. As an adult studying science, she found representation of her queerness and neurodivergence in the plants, animals, and fungi she researched. Forest Euphoria is a gentle, poignant exploration of finding queer experiences reflected in nature, from mushroom community building to intersex courtship in slugs to trans identity in eels. Kaishian weaves together her deeply personal memories, nature and science writing, and queer theory in this gorgeous, life-affirming book. —Susie Dumond

Debut author Eliana Ramage shows as much ambition as her starry-eyed protagonist in what I’m already sure will be my favorite book of the decade. Steph knew from the first moment she looked through a telescope that she wanted to become the first Cherokee astronaut. But reaching her goal means making sacrifices, ones that seem to get bigger with each step she takes toward her objective. We follow Steph across decades as she shoots for the moon, with forays into the perspectives of her mother, sister, and other women who shape her journey. It’s an astonishing book about Indigenous communities and what it really takes to achieve big dreams. —Susie Dumond