24 New LGBTQ Books Out in August 2026

In this Gen Z coming-of-age novel, we follow Rishi, a “burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex.” When the COVID pandemic hits, she ignores online college in favor of forming a farm collective with her friends. As you might expect from a bunch of queer college students in a small space, the relationships between them get very complicated very quickly. I love mess. —Danika Ellis

The recent Apple TV adaptation of Margot’s Got Money Troubles has readers clamoring for more chaotic coming-of-age stories involving colorful pro-wrestling characters, and they’ll find it in P. Paramita’s debut, Appetite. Zarina is a twentysomething Bangladeshi prep cook by day and a massive pro-wrestling fan by night. When her online post catches the eye of her idol, Sierra Myst, their unlikely friendship busts Zarina’s world wide open. But what is it they say about never meeting your heroes? With reflections on parasocial relationships and lots of delicious food descriptions, it’s a story you’ll love sinking your teeth into. —Susie Dumond

The bestselling author of Yerba Buena pens a historical tale inspired by her own family history. In 1944 New Orleans, the Honore sisters are admired and respected in their community. But unlike her older sisters, Odette isn’t content to live out life as a wife and a mother. It’s only in the hidden garden she discovered with her cousin Delphine that she can be truly honest: she’s in love with another woman. Delphine, in love with a white man, seems to understand. But years later, their lives have turned out entirely different from what they’d envisioned in that garden. Odette is a widowed mother. Delphine is passing as white. The two have grown apart, but when Delphine begins to spiral out of control, Odette goes to life-altering lengths to keep the family together. —Rachel Brittain

Lauren Kelly has been sent to the DA’s Cold Case Unit, which she knows is to avoid her claiming discrimination as the county’s only trans detective. Now she’s looking into a former classmate’s murder, and the case is pointing at a cover-up that will entangle a lot of people. It might also be tied to Lauren’s own childhood mystery… —Jamie Canaves

This thriller looks like a perfect readalike for fans of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Mallory Maddox is a washed-up writer who has a breakthrough when she meets Leo, a gay, homeless sex worker with a substance abuse disorder. His story has bestseller written all over it, and Mallory decides she’s the one to pen it: “Go gay. Go sad. Go dark.” But the secrets she’s keeping are catching up to her. Fruit Fly has already been optioned by A24 for a TV series. —Danika Ellis

A second chance, forced proximity romance set on a cruise? Sounds like my kind of mess. 

Owen and Jacob were once a great couple. Then Jacob moved to North Carolina, and everything else in Owen’s life fell apart. So when Jacob comes back to town, and their friends decide to take everyone on a seven-day cruise for bonding, Owen doesn’t know what to do with himself. The two go on this surprise cruise and try to be friends, but cue Deborah Cox. They can try to be friends, but at least one of them is in danger of falling back in love…if they ever stopped in the first place. —Jessica Pryde

(This one has a trans main character.)

We love a marriage-in-crisis romance in this house, and the fact that it’s a Black sapphic marriage in trouble with the high stakes addition of one of them being a WNBA player? Yes, yes, yes. Courtney and Sasha have been married for a couple of years, during which Sasha has been adjusting to life as a stay-at-home dog mom. They aren’t as close as they were in the earlier days of marriage, as Courtney’s life on the road is taking a toll on their relationship. When Courtney breaks her arm and can’t play for a while, the couple is thrown together at a much higher level of proximity than they’re used to, which leads to plenty of personal and shared revelations. —Jessica Pryde

Sometimes, the one-line publisher’s description gets it so right that I have to quote it: “A cozy vampire vacation mystery set in a seaside Italian village, featuring a reformed vampire, his magical talking cat, and a handsome, brooding detective.” Bastion is enjoying a peaceful undead life in Italy when a body washes up on the beach. The victim was killed by a vampire, and Bastion becomes the #1 suspect, so Detective Nico De Luca is assigned to keep an eye on him while they investigate. Bastion needs to clear his name, so he and his talking cat, Whitby, team up with Nico to track down the killer. —Danika Ellis

We’ve got a new Emily Rath series, and it’s a paranormal MMF! When you introduce characters with names like Dáinn the Devourer, you might expect something dark and body-horrory. But this offers Emily’s usual style of storytelling that will make you regularly alternate between anxiety and laughter. Our Devourer has been tied to a witch for a couple of centuries, doing her dirty work, including taking out rival witches by devouring their souls. When he gets stopped in the middle of a devouring by a surprisingly compelling mortal woman, the rival witch he was sent to kill gets to live, and the three of them enter into a weird game of cat, mouse, and other cat. But romantically. —Jessica Pryde

Book one of this fun and romantic fantasy trilogy, Faebound, tells the story of two elven sisters named Yeeran and Lettle—a warrior and a diviner, respectively. Their lives are forever changed when Yeeran makes a fatal mistake, and the sisters are forced to leave the Elven lands. This leads her to the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders, where the sisters encounter the fae court. The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium, and their involvement might tear Yeeran and Lettle apart. Why, you ask? You’ll have to read it to find out! —Rey Rowland

Kingfisher’s back with a wonderful cozy fantasy: book two in the Swordheart series. Dervish’s soul was trapped in a dagger for hundreds of years before the scholar, Learned Edmund, was the latest one to draw his blade to protect himself from bandits. Learned thought he was delivering just another relic to a temple; instead, he finds the dagger possessed by a captivating warrior, bound to protect him. Dervish’s been angry for centuries, but the more time he spends with the cynical scholar, the harder it is to hate him. Worse yet, the more Dervish protects Learned, the more he finds he might actually love him. —R. Nassor

The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium has the worst coffee in town for a reason. They don’t actually want customers. Instead, the shop acts as a front for a magical witness protection program helmed by sorceress-in-training Talula Smith. The only human not deterred is the wonderfully attractive Dahlia. When Talula’s mother goes to track down magical hunters, she is left to handle everything alone. From organizing a festival to helping refugees to dealing with her human crush, Talula has plenty on her plate before the hunters set their sights on The Blue Moon. Now Talula will have to learn to trust herself if she wants to keep everyone safe. —R. Nassor

I picked this one up because it sounded bananapants, and I was correct! It’s a wildly inventive, queer sci-fi about two rival underground gardeners competing in the annual flower pageant. Fighting, backstabbing, and cheating are not off the table, but Purcell and Cyprin will have to put their animosity towards one another aside when they uncover a plot to destroy God, who hangs out in the gardens. —Liberty Hardy

This danmei (Boys’ Love novel out of China) was first published in English in 2022, but now it’s getting a deluxe, illustrated edition with a new translation. Radiation has made Earth almost entirely inhospitable, and humans defend against invasion from new, nonhuman life forms. Anzhe is a mushroom disguised as a human who infiltrates the Northern Base to reclaim a stolen spore. But he’s been noticed by the handsome Judge, whose job is to keep out invaders like Anzhe. Can he keep Judge from finding out the truth? —Danika Ellis

In this queer apocalyptic novel, a doctor and a priest team up to find out why a salt cure is healing and then killing people in their town and all around the globe. As the salt apocalypse grows, the priest begins to question whether the Salt King can save them. —Liberty Hardy

Jennifer McMahon’s queer folk-horror novel is set across two timelines. In 1919, Frankie O’Massey is apprenticing under her uncle, Dr. Thomas Endicott, who has been training her in medical science. A mysterious plague has ravaged the small town of Boone’s Ferry, Vermont, and the townspeople suspect supernatural forces. But Frankie is sure there must be a logical explanation.

In 2016, siblings Ashley and Malcolm inherit their grandmother’s property in Boone’s Ferry and return to the town in the hopes of uncovering the truth about their mother’s mysterious disappearance two years earlier. The town has seen much tragedy over the century between these two story lines, and as the timelines converge, chilling secrets about the townspeople and their traditions are revealed. —Emily Martin

Radcliffe sells his services as “worst man” to anyone who wants a wedding stopped pronto. But his latest job is proving a challenge, as Rad finds himself falling in love with a member of the wedding party and entertaining the growing suspicion that stopping this particular wedding would be a big mistake. —Eileen Gonzalez

Harper’s grandmother, Gigi, told her stories growing up about Brown girls who gathered magic from the stars. So when Gigi dies, Harper begins to feel some kind of magic stirring beneath her own skin. She wants to know what it all means.

This means Harper is going to enroll at Black Mountain Academy, an elite boarding school her grandmother attended, and that’s rumored to be haunted by witches.

Harper’s going to find out both her own power and about the secrets at Black Mountain, even if it means dodging an ex-bestie who wants her off campus and her ex-bestie’s cousin. So when Harper discovers a legend about 12 witches who died on campus, she’s unable to shake a connection with them. But the school doesn’t want its secrets unraveled, which means Harper’s attempts to learn about herself and the witches may be cut short before they begin.

This one is getting comps to Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn. —Kelly Jensen

This queer YA fantasy debut is about witchcraft and tarot. While giving a reading in her family’s occult shop, eighteen-year-old Mikaela Broussard has a vision of the young woman across from her stabbing her to death. So in order to find out why this lovely stranger, Joelle, might want to kill her, Mikaela decides to befriend her… only to start falling for the one person she knows might murder her! —Liberty Hardy

This is being called You’ve Reached Sam meets Hadestown.

August has struggled with what to do with his life after the sudden death of his boyfriend. It’s been years, but he’s not only felt aimless and adrift. He’s felt a heavy sense of guilt, too.

So when August accidentally stumbles into the Underworld—an extravagant, color-filled world of gods and mystery—he recognizes an immense opportunity. The gods are curious about him, so why not extend that same curiosity to the Underworld? August wants to find his lost love, and Cary, a ferrier of souls, aids him. The longer August searches, though, the more he wonders whether this trip is about finding his lost love or if he’s actually discovering that there’s a possibility of new love, perhaps in the form of the broody Cary.

That love might come at a tremendous cost, though. —Kelly Jensen

As far as I can tell, this is the first picture book to introduce kids to aromanticism and asexuality. When Claire spends the weekend with her Aunt Lola, she asks why Lola never got married. Lola explains that she’s aroace and tells Claire about all the ways love is a part of her life, through community, friendship, and family. —Danika Ellis

In this memoir, Danny Ramadan tells the story of his life as a refugee, beginning with his family in Damascus and following the Arab Spring uprising, the refuge found in an underground network of queer safe homes, a life-altering six weeks of imprisonment, and his complex relationship with his new home in Vancouver. This promises to be a “powerful refutation of the oversimplified refugee narrative—a book that holds space for joy alongside sorrow, for nuance and complicated ambivalences.” —Danika Ellis

Susan Stryker is one of the biggest names in Transgender Studies, so any new book from her deserves a spot on this list. In Changing Gender, she examines the story we’ve told about gender, past and present, and where it might go from here. Along the way, she discusses how gender connects to the “origins of ‘Yankee Doodle’ to acid trips in Joshua Tree National Park, from nineteenth-century phrenology to present-day anti-trans conspiracy theorists.” —Danika Ellis

This illustrated collection of essays out of Art Galleries at Black Studies UT-Austin covers themes of Black queer art over the past hundred years through the themes of Portraiture, Beyond Figuration, Dance and Movement, Spirituality, Sex and Sensuality, Black Queer Futures, and Altered States. But honestly, that cover is reason enough to pick it up. —Danika Ellis