Book Recommendations: Queer YA Historical Fiction for Queer History Month

One of the oldest lies told about queer and trans people is that we are new. That identity is a trend, that visibility is invention, that history doesn’t include us. Long before the curriculum caught up, long before the history books made room, stories were doing the work of putting queer kids into the past and saying: you were always here.

Our list spans Renaissance Florence, 1840s New England, the Harlem Renaissance, the AIDS crisis, Victorian England, the high seas, and a few places outside of time entirely. Some of these books are being challenged in schools right now. Some have been on banned lists for years…All of them belong in the hands of readers who need them!

Adventures, Heists, and the High Seas

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee: 1826, the South China Sea, two girls chasing a treasure map and each other. A queer Treasure Island retelling with a diverse cast and enough momentum to read in one sitting. We love CB!

A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar: 1912, the Titanic, four girls from different backgrounds who form an unlikely crew to steal a painting before the ship goes down. Sapphic romance, a ticking clock, and a premise that keeps you on your toes.

Devils Like Us by L.T. Thompson: 1840s Massachusetts and Maine, three queer and trans teens stumble into a secret society of queer smugglers on the high seas. A Stonewall Honor Book and one of the most fun historical fantasies we’ve read.

This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings: 1920s Harlem, Black vampire hunters, wrapped around a sapphic romance. Dark fantasy layered over a historical setting.

The AIDS Crisis

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian: 1989 New York City. Three teenagers: a gay Iranian boy, his best friend, and the boy she loves. Set against ACT UP protests and the weight of watching people die. One of the best YA novels about this era, full stop.

Another Dimension of Us by Mike Albo: 1986 New Jersey. A gay teen with the ability to astral project travels to queer spaces and histories he can’t otherwise access, all while the AIDS crisis reshapes everything around him. Something a little different, and quietly devastating.

Destination Unknown by Bill Konigsberg: 1987 Phoenix. A gay teen whose older brother is dying of AIDS tries to hold onto himself while everything shifts. Bill is a Lambda Award winner and this is some of his best work.

Classic Stories, Queered

Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo and Juliet Remix by Caleb Roehrig: Renaissance Verona, Romeo is queer, and the story digs into what it costs to love in secret in that world. The tragedy hits differently when you see what Romeo is hiding.

Most Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa: Regency England, Lizzie Bennet reimagined as a trans Latino boy navigating a world that wants to erase him. Sharp and romantic (and angrier, rightfully so) than Austen.

My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron: Victorian London through the eyes of Henry Jekyll’s best friend, who begins to suspect something far more sinister than science is behind Henry’s transformation.

This Wretched Beauty: A Dorian Gray Remix by Elle Grenier: Victorian England, The Picture of Dorian Gray retold queerly. The original was always queer coded; this one says it plainly.

Self Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by AM McLemore: 1920s, Jay Gatsby reimagined as a trans Latino boy passing in white wealthy society. AM takes the original obsession with reinvention and makes it about survival.

Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell: Victorian England, a Jane Eyre riff about a girl who takes revenge on the men who harmed her and falls in love with another woman in the process. The title does exactly what it promises.

Finding Yourself in the Past

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo: 1950s San Francisco Chinatown, a Chinese American teen discovers a lesbian bar and the community inside it, while McCarthyism threatens everything around her. Read it and cry with us.

Pulp by Robin Talley: Dual timeline: 1955 Washington D.C. and the present day. A teen in the 1950s writes lesbian pulp fiction in secret; a teen today discovers her story. About what it means to find proof that someone like you existed before you did.

Music from Another World by Robin Talley: 1977 San Francisco, two closeted teens become pen pals during the battle over Prop 6, which would have banned gay teachers from California schools. A story about finding your voice through someone else’s.

Everything Glittered by Robin Talley: 1927 Washington D.C., Prohibition, a queer thriller about society girls investigating a murder while navigating the underground speakeasy scene. Roaring 20s nightlife and sapphic longing. Robin is a queer historical fav, obv.

Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon: 1973 Missouri. Jonathan is a closeted gay teen attending conversion therapy sessions in secret, retreating into his imagination where he talks to his idol, Ziggy Stardust. When his only friend leaves for the summer, he falls for Web, an Oglala Lakota boy new to town. A story about surviving a world that wants to fix you, set against the backdrop of Vietnam, Watergate, and Wounded Knee.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth: Early 1990s Montana. A girl is sent to a Christian conversion therapy camp after being caught with another girl.

A Dangerous Bargain by Erin Cotter: Renaissance Florence, a young artist named Virgil teams up with Leonardo da Vinci to infiltrate the Medici family and find his missing brother. A queer romance between the two leads, with magic woven into the history.

This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke: 1956 Budapest, a Jewish bisexual teen fighting in the Hungarian Revolution. History most readers don’t know, centered on a protagonist history would have erased.

Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson: A Black teen in the present day gains the ability to time travel and ends up in 1969, weeks before Stonewall. What it meant to be Black and queer in a time when being both was even more marginalized than today.

Beyond Any Single Moment

Costumes for Time Travelers by A.R. Capetta: A queer cast travels through Shakespeare’s London, ancient Crete, and millennial California. Time travel as a way of finding where you belong.

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell: Seventeen short stories spanning multiple historical periods, with contributors including Malinda Lo, Robin Talley, AM McLemore, and more.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: 1980s El Paso, two Mexican American boys, one summer, a friendship that becomes something they don’t yet have words for. Already a classic.

Where You’ll Find Us by Jude St. Jude: Cal is a trans teen whose parents have disowned them. Then they discover Amaranth, a farmhouse outside of time that has sheltered queer kids from across decades, a place where history doesn’t disappear but also doesn’t generate. When a clock strikes midnight and time starts moving again, Cal and the residents have to figure out what they’re willing to return to. A love letter to queer community across generations, and a quiet argument for why our history is important.