You know, these news round-ups are supposed to be short. And yet, every time, I can’t help but stuff them full of more and more links. Today, I have an interview with V. E. Schwab about the inherent queerness of vampires, Them’s picks for the best queer books of 2025, an exploration of 18th and 19th century lesbian erotica, and an analysis of the diversity of sapphic romances traditionally published in 2025.
Of course, I couldn’t end there, so you’ll also find quite a few queer book recommendation lists, a collection of interviews with authors about their queer books, and some miscellaneous LGBTQ lit links—including that you can watch the queer comics documentary No Straight Lines for free on PBS this month!
The 32 Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2025, According to Them
Lately, I’ve been combing through the Best Books of 2025 lists looking for the queer titles included. So far, I’ve looked through the picks from TIME, NPR, and the NYPL. But today, we get to check out an all-queer list! Them has put out their picks for the The 32 Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2025.
There is some overlap with Book Riot’s best queer books of 2025, like Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage. Other buzzy queer books on their list include Palaver by Bryan Washington, Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, and The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong.
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Some less well-known titles that made the list: Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin, The House of Beauty: Lessons from the Image Industry by Arabelle Sicardi, and Pink Candy Kiss by Ami Uozumi, translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash.
How many have you read off this list? Personally, I’ve only finished three, but a lot more of them are on my TBR.
V.E. Schwab Says, “I Don’t Believe in Straight Vampires.”
In a recent interview with Polygon about her sapphic vampire novel Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab said,
[T]he hill I will die on is, I don’t believe in straight vampires. I think it is antithetical to the underpinning of a vampire, which is essentially a Byronesque, hedonistic form that is interested in experiencing life, interested in experiencing desire, hunger, intimacy, love, whatever it is, in such a way that it doesn’t conform itself, it doesn’t limit itself. So I have a hard time imagining a straight vampire.
She’s right and she should say it. Schwab also explains, “I have a hard time with some of the more recent vampires in pop culture, because for a while there, it got really straight and really sanitized. That’s antithetical to me — it feels like, Well, you just wanted the sexy teeth part, but you didn’t actually want any of the things they represent.“
I recommend checking out the full interview for more context about the different ways vampires are queer (both literally and in the queer theory sense), the complications of equating queer people with vampires, and the limitations of binaries for writers.
“On a Hunt for 19th-Century Erotica, We Found Lesbians”
When Alexandra Vasti began researching her historical romance novel Ne’er Duke Well, she was looking for the sexual instruction resources of the era. She was surprised to stumble on depictions of sexuality between women in books and photographs from the mid-1700s through the 1800s. (Vasti went on to also write the sapphic historical romance Ladies In Hating.)
In this article at the History News Network, Vasti and Raisa Rexer—the author of The Fallen Veil: A Literary and Cultural History of the Photographic Nude in Nineteenth-Century France—discuss sapphic love and sexuality as depicted in early fiction and photography.
Vasti and Rexer provide examples and explain how these texts and photographs have been interpreted as being made by and for straight male audiences. While this is likely to be true in some cases, for most of these examples, there’s no historical record proving that, and this assumption erases the reality of queer women living in this time period (like Anne Lister).
How Diverse Were Traditionally Published Sapphic Romances in 2025?
Over at Lavender Books (which you should be following), Aster looked through the sapphic romance books published in 2025 by one of the Big 5 publishers and analyzed how diverse they are, including the race of the author and the race of the main characters, the sexuality of the main characters, and the disability representation in the books.
This isn’t a scientific survey, but it is a good birds’ eye view of trends in traditionally published sapphic romance. Unsurprisingly, these books are still mostly about thin, white, cis lesbians. Roughly 80% are by white authors.
It’s hard to make sweeping statements about a small sample size (46 books), but I do worry that this trend is only continuing in the current political climate. Personally, I’m expecting fewer queer book releases overall in the next few years, and less intersectional queer books—at least when it comes to mainstream publishers.
Publishing is a slow business, so the books we’re seeing come out now were likely signed for years ago. The recent rise in censorship and right-wing extremism will affect what kind of books get published in years to come. But we can show our support for queer books now—and especially BIPOC queer books, queer books with disability representation, and other intersectional queer books—to let publishers know there’s still an audience for them.
Queer Book Lists Worth Clicking:
I can never keep to just a handful of stories, so here’s a round-up of recent queer book lists you should know about.
- New Queer Books by Indigenous Authors
- LGBTQ Books to Read for World AIDS Day
- Sapphic Holiday Romance Books, as chosen by the Lesbrary (that’s my blog!) and Autostraddle
- 8 Books That Embrace the Expansiveness of Queer Families
- 10 New Middle Grade Books Featuring LGBTQ+ Main Characters
- 9 LGBTQ+ Sports Books To Read If You Like ‘Heated Rivalry’
- Queer Jewish Lit to Gift for Chanukah/Hanukkah
- Cozy Queer Books About Found Family
- 10 Trans Horror Books You Should Read Right Now
- Intersex Books
Recent Interviews About Queer Books:
- Diva Magazine: Bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi talks about their new romantasy novel
- The New York Times: Don’t Recommend a Book to Bryan Washington (Unless You’re a Bookseller)
- In Magazine: Kawika Guillermo On Queerness, Games, And Finding Self In Digital Worlds
- Autostraddle: Rose Dommu and Casey McQuiston on Writing Queer Romance That Fucks With the Formula
…And More LGBTQ Book Links:
- My favourite publisher, Arsenal Pulp Press, is having a 30% off sale plus free shipping in the U.S. and Canada until December 24th!
- LGBTQReads is having a Bookish Holiday Drive
- “Making lesbian literature more visible”: the Gouincourt Prize launches its first edition with four winners
- Remembering the groundbreaking bisexual activist and author Loraine Hutchins
- Jae is hosting the Sapphic Book Advent Calendar! Check back every day in December for book giveaways, free books, and books on sale
- You can watch the documentary No Straight Lines, about queer comics, for free on PBS in December! (At least, you can inside the U.S.)
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