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I got my heart inside a loom
I start my week again with no sleep. I am having a lot of trouble just existing right now.
Internet hivemind, does anyone have books to recommend for a fourteen-year-old who has just come out as bi and is looking for congenial literature? She reads science fiction and mainstream fiction but not really fantasy, so naturally most of the examples coming to my mind of bisexual main characters or societies where bisexuality is normative are in the wrong genre. I am planning to suggest Ursula K. Le Guin and Phyllis Gotlieb [edit: and Yoon Ha Lee!] and I have no idea what middle-grade/YA looks like these days.
Internet hivemind, does anyone have books to recommend for a fourteen-year-old who has just come out as bi and is looking for congenial literature? She reads science fiction and mainstream fiction but not really fantasy, so naturally most of the examples coming to my mind of bisexual main characters or societies where bisexuality is normative are in the wrong genre. I am planning to suggest Ursula K. Le Guin and Phyllis Gotlieb [edit: and Yoon Ha Lee!] and I have no idea what middle-grade/YA looks like these days.
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Leah on the Off Beat, Becky Albertalli
Little & Lion, Brandy Colbert
George, Alex Gino (bi/trans* rep iirc, but read this one three years ago)
All Out: The No-Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens... Saundra Mitchell, ed.
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Mackenzi Lee who also has a story in the above antho
It breaks my heart not to recommend Annie on My Mind, but it's not a great book when you haven't been around long enough to learn that not all our stories end that way. It is hands down my favorite lyrical/sweet/classic/quirky romance, and it's a picture of New York the way it was when we were kids; but it's not modern and it's not all there is any longer.
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We're cool.
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AWESOME THANK YOU.
I recognize the Albertalli by reputation and I have heard of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, but the only one of these I have actually read, probably due to it dating back to 1982, is Annie on My Mind.
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Urgh. So much empathy and solidarity.
I have been having nights of not sleeping enough to be human because of 5 hours stretches of bad hip flexor spasms and pain (midnight-5am nonstop) that meant I couldn't fall asleep until 5am, followed by being woken up very early in the morning by my hips hurting. :(
Not being able to think or walk or talk because not enough sleep is so very very hard. :(
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Solidarity likewise. Being woken by pain is awful.
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Ick, I'm so sorry.
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Thank you.
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a contemporary middle-school lesbian AU of Romeo and Juliet, where the characters are also putting on R&J as their school play. The plot starts off pretty similar to Romeo and Juliet -- in the equivalent of the masked ball scene, female Romeo crashes a Halloween party in a Darth Vader costume -- but then goes in a much lighter direction, which is why I think it's more of an AU than a retelling.
It's unclear whether the protagonist (AU!female Romeo) is bisexual or lesbian (she is still in middle school), but she does start out with a crush on a boy (AU!male Rosaline)
Empress of the World by Sara Ryan: this one was actually around when I was a teen -- and I enjoyed it at the time for its portrayal of nerd camp, but haven't reread since. I think one of the romantic leads is lesbian and the other is bisexual, but I'm not sure?
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Also unknown to me, so thanks!
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I was aware of Star-Crossed, but didn't know its bi quotient; it sounds valid to me and it also sounds delightful. I don't know Empress of the World at all and will check it out. Thank you!
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It is my opinion that any masked ball scene needs to involve costumes that cover up enough of the individuals involved for mistaken/unknown identity shenanigans to be plausible, so props to this.
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Ugh. I am sorry.
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Thanks.
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<3 And grr to that, anyway.
(I have no book suggestions; I tended to read more fantasy, and I'm way out of date on that.)
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Thank you.
(I have no book suggestions; I tended to read more fantasy, and I'm way out of date on that.)
Do you read less fiction nowadays, or less overall, or what?
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Well, I can't read very well due to the CFS - it exhausts me and gives me headaches quite quickly and it's hard to take stuff in or care about it much. It is, this last year or so, finally getting a bit easier. So, yes, I have not been reading as much of anything for the past 7 or 8 years. And before that I was a children's librarian and I was heavily involved with things like the Youth Libraries Group as well, so I had to read an awful lot of YA, and my adult stuff was mainly re-reads and new books by familiar authors as a break!
As to fantasy, I gave up somewhere about 2000 after one series of brick epics about guys with swords too many, being resigned to things never being as good and as varied as the children's fantasy authors I'd grown up with. I'm now enviously realising that this is NO LONGER SO and I still can't read them as I need to wait for brain so I don't throw them across the room. (If you notice me not reading fic, or published fiction, it's a lot to do with this. If it doesn't matter, I can give it a go. If it matters, I don't want to wind up resenting it just for the effort it took to read it, which I do sometimes. It's a fine balance. Various authors have been thrown across the room and I don't think all of them were to blame for anything.)
Which is a long answer, but it bothers me a lot! I am very pleased that I do at last seem to have turned a corner and the effort/result balance seems to be a lot better in general, but nothing's guaranteed.
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I'm glad to hear that you're reading more and I will not take offense if you don't read something I recommend. (I mean, I don't generally. People have all sorts of reasons.) Thank you for the answer.
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I also recommend the Murderbot series to everyone right now. The new one is coming out in August! Murderbot identifies as ace, but there are bi and polyromantic and nonbinary and otherwise queer characters all around and it's a really great and fun series.
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is quite good and there is a happy queer romance in it.
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Thank you for all of these suggestions! I just realized I should have thought at once of Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire, which has maybe one straight protagonist in all three books.
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Thank you for both the recommendation and the forewarning!
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Thank you! I had thought the Steerswoman books were fantasy.
(This is not something I tend to think about when selecting or recommending books, but I have been told firmly that she doesn't read fantasy, so here we are. I don't know her particular objection. I have been consulted at second hand.)
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I resemble this statement. Strength and spoons!
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Thank you. Likewise!
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The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson is young-ish mainstream YA. Three best friends struggle to maintain their friendship as they grow up (they're currently in high school), two of them try dating for a while which doesn't work out but they continue to identify as bi and gay, respectively. It's probably not a particularly great book for "YA these days", since it came out in 2007, but I remember really enjoying it.
An Accident of Stars (plus the sequel, A Tyranny of Queens) by Foz Meadows is portal fantasy, so I'm not quite sure it would meet the genre requirements, but I did like its portrayal of a regular teen girl dealing with misogyny and homophobia being transported to a world where neither is an issue. It does have some graphic violence so 14 might be a little young, but if she's read Hunger Games, it's no worse than that.
The Change series by by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith (first book is "The Stranger") is post-apocalyptic YA with a surprisingly upbeat tone, given it's post-apocalyptic and all. It has a big cast who share POV duties, and there are several types of sexuality expressed. It's a society where there's no real homophobia or racism. There's a lot of X-Men influence in this series's concept, so it's a good rec if she's a fan of those comics or movies.
Adaptation by Malinda Lo is also post-apocalyptic YA, or rather mid-apocalypse, with the main character realizing she's not quite straight during the adventures. I haven't actually read this one myself, but I've read a lot of Lo's other books and feel like she's a good recommendation in general. Her "Ash" is a retold lesbian Cinderella that's very popular among teens, but it might be too fantasy for your person.
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey. Yet more post-apocalypse, this one combines dystopia with superpowers, plus a bi heroine. I've seen this advertised as both YA and adult, so I suppose it straddles the line between the two; it may depend on your specific 14-year-old's tastes. Again, I don't think it's any worse than Hunger Games.
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan is perfectly mainstream YA (or, well, it was when it came out in 2003) except that it's our world without homophobia. It's almost unbearably fluffy and drama-free, but sometimes that's what we all need, I suppose, especially when you're 14.
I haven't read either "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli or "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, but they're hugely popular among YA fans (and 'Simon' was recently made into a movie), so I'd assume they're worth reading. They're both mainstream YA and both feature gay male leads, but they may be of interest nonetheless.
I found "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue" (which is historical YA with fantasy elements) almost unbearably preachy and social justice 101, but I suspect it may go over better with young teens, who are after all its intended audience. Plus the sequel, "The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy", is due out this October, with a teen female main character who I think probably is asexual, from her appearance in the first book, but who has queer female best friends.
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Thank you! This is a lot of books I mostly don't know about! (I forgot about Santa Olivia. I loved that book!)
Plus the sequel, "The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy", is due out this October, with a teen female main character who I think probably is asexual, from her appearance in the first book, but who has queer female best friends.
That sounds great.
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Oh! I recall Karen Healey has a set of YA books that would be suitable. I think the first one was a little more fantasy, but the most recent one is definitely postapocalyptic. http://www.karenhealey.com/books/
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Thank you!
This is being a great education in YA.