There are so many exciting new queer books out October 2024, from M/M romantasy to trans horror to sapphic holiday rom-coms and more!
Danika Ellis
October 1, 2024
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October is one of the biggest publishing months of the year: there are so many new queer books out in the next few months. And queer books are no exception! I keep a spreadsheet of notable upcoming queer book releases, and I have close to a hundred titles for October, from M/M romantasy to trans horror to sapphic holiday rom-coms to drag nonfiction and so much more.
It was difficult to narrow that down to these 15 books — in fact, it was originally supposed to be ten books — but I’ve painstakingly selected just the most exciting releases in a variety of genres with a range of representation. October is Halloween season, so you can find plenty of horror here, but you might be surprised to discover that it’s also a big month for Christmas romance releases.
If you can’t get enough new queer books, I have a bonus list at the end of 17 more new queer releases out this week that is available to paid subscribers. You can become a paid All Access subscriber to get access to bonus content across the site and across all our newsletters.
Now, let’s get into the biggest, buzziest, and most exciting new queer books out in October 2024!
This literary fiction title out from Tin House Books is set between New York City and 1930s Shanghai. Meadow Liu is housesitting for a friend when he discovers the novel The Masquerade: a book about a 1930s masked ball in Shanghai. The author shares Meadow’s name in Chinese, and that’s only the beginning of strange coincidences. This promises to be a “surreal, queer, coming-of-age mystery” about losing the separation between reality and fiction.
Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery (Lesbian Historical Fiction)
Out October 15, 2024
I’ve been a big fan of Daniel M. Lavery ever since I became obsessed with his run of the Dear Prudence podcast, so I’ve been eagerly anticipating his first novel. You might also recognize him from his previous books
Texts From Jane Eyre,
The Merry Spinster, and
Something That May Shock and Discredit You
. This book is set at a women’s hotel in 1960s New York City, following several of the residents, including Dolly, a lesbian bartender, as well as the manager and the elevator operator. This promises to be a funny slice-of-life novel, and I can’t wait to read it.
Fans of the Bright Falls
series will be delighted to see that Ashley Herring Blake is back with another F/F romance, this time Christmas-themed. This is a second-chance romance about two exes who both stay with a friend’s family for Christmas…only to find those friends are sisters, and now they’re stuck in the same house together. They try to avoid each other and pretend this is their first time meeting, but as they do holiday activities together, old feelings begin to bubble to the surface once again.
Yep, another F/F Christmas romance out in October! If you, like me, watch The Holiday every year, you need to pick this one up before December. When Bee and Clover swap San Francisco and countryside homes for the holidays, they both find themselves falling for someone: Clover with Bee’s sister, and Bee with Clover’s ex-fiancé. What will happen when the holidays are over and they’re supposed to return to their everyday lives?
Okay, last holiday romance. This is supposed to be Red, White & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas
, which I believe will be enough to sell a lot of you on it. Nicholas “Coal” Claus is heir to his father’s Santa throne — though he judges his dad for what he’s done to the holiday. He’s also supposed to marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess…with the small complication that his brother is in love with Iris. Then, he’s challenged for Iris’s hand by Hex, the Prince of Halloween — who Coal just happened to have had a drunken make-out session with recently. As the publisher puts it, “It’s a fake competition between two holiday princes who can’t keep their hands off each other over a marriage of convenience that no one wants.”
In this retelling of a traditional Chinese folktale, Prince Xian searches for a white snake in order to kill it and receive a spirit pearl. It’s the only cure for his dying mother, who was poisoned after being bitten a white snake. During his hunt, he is drawn to the stable boy Zhen, but Zhen has a secret: he’s the human form of the white snake Xian is seeking.
You might recognize Freya Marske from the Last Binding Series (starting with A Marvellous Light
). This low fantasy bodyguard romance is about Matti, who has hired a swordsman to be his best man for his arranged marriage. Otherwise, a sword challenge at his wedding could upend his plans for securing his family’s financial stability. All he can afford, though, is con artist Luca. In the lead-up to the wedding, they are drawn into the intrigue and sabotage that put Matti’s family in danger of ruin, and Luca’s secrets come out. The reviews say this is both “deliciously cozy and blisteringly hot.”
Cozy fantasy fans will want to pick up this hopeful story about a grieving witch at a magical arboretum. Saika has lost her connection to her powers ever since her sister died. Now, she’s been offered a job as a caretaker at a magical arboretum by the cardigan-wearing mythical beast named Frank. She’s secretly using a fragment of a star to cast the spells needed for her job. Slowly, she grows closer to the menagerie of staff members — including cherubs, elves, and half-witches — and begins to heal through community.
From the author of the Singing Hills Cycle,
Chosen and the Beautiful, and
Siren Queen
, among others, comes a new standalone fantasy book about a demon, an angel, and a city. Vitrine is a demon who has, for generations, nurtured the city of Azril into a dazzling, riotous, and hedonistic place. Then, the angels descend and destroy it all. In her rage and grief, Vitrine captures one of the angels and curses them to be bound to her. Unexpectedly, as she mourns her dead and begins to rebuild, she and the angel grow closer. Then war threatens to raze the city once again, and Vitrine and her angel have to decide whether it’s worth saving. This is supposed to be a beautifully written story about grief and resilience as well as a queer love story. I have a feeling this book is going to be some readers’ new obsession: there’s something about an angel and demon
queer love story!
After achieving long-distance space travel, Home worlds discovered something unsettling: a graveyard of dead civilizations, all leveled by some mysterious cataclysmic event that could come for them next. Scout is an Archivist who searches the remains of these civilizations for anything useful, like salvageable technology. During an excavation, they find a thousands-year-old message from an alien who witnessed it, and now they have to race to save what’s left of the universe — along with their brother as well as their cat, Pumpkin.
I promised you horror, and here’s a trans gothic horror novel that has been getting a ton of buzz. In the beach town of Cape Morning, trans woman Ivory Sloan finds a body while out for a morning swim. The body is Cabrina Brite, a trans daughter of a local politician. Ivory feels haunted by this discovery (literally), so she investigates the death, which leads to her and her friends discovering more unsettling paranormal occurrences. The reviews say this is a chilling story that’s also about “feminist rage, queer love, and trans resistance.”
Model Home by Rivers Solomon (Nonbinary and Queer Horror)
Out October 1, 2024
I talk about this one in-depth on today’s episode of the All the Books podcast, but the short version is that this is a queer, trans haunted house story that is more about the aftermath of being haunted — and real-life horrors — than it is about the setting. Check out the content warnings, including child sexual abuse, before picking this one up, but it’s a powerfully written, unsettling, and unforgettable read that I cannot get out of my head.
Andrew and Thomas bond over their shared love of twisted fairytale stories, which Andrew writes endlessly. But then Thomas begins acting strangely, showing up with blood on his clothes. Andrew discovers he’s been battling monsters at night, the same monsters that Andrew invented in his stories and Thomas drew. The two of them battle every night to stop the monsters from hurting anyone else, which brings them even closer, into an obsessive, toxic relationship. But the monsters are getting stronger, and Andrew begins to wonder if they only way to stop them is to kill their creator.
Here’s another one you can hear about on All the Books! Jasmine Garza has been haunted for years by a ghost determined to ruin her life. At her new school, she joins the GSA and makes friends with Bea and Jorge, soon learning that they call the GSA the Gay Supernatural Alliance, and they want to help her with her haunting. This is a book about ghosts, but it’s not very scary, so it’s perfect for middle grade readers who aren’t big horror fans. Instead, it’s about grief and the relationships between Jasmine and her friends and family. This has a ton of queer characters, including everyone in the GSA (naturally) as well as Jasmine’s Mami, her aunt, and a nonbinary teacher.
Finally, this coffee table book explores drag in 15 countries across the world, from France to Japan to Brazil. This “deep dive into drag’s meteoric rise to the mainstream” is accompanied by historical and contemporary photographs, and it includes a foreword by Canada’s Drag Race judge Brooke Lynn Hytes.
17 More New Queer Books Out This Week
Bonus content for paid subscribers continues below.
What are you reading? Let us know in the comments!