LGBT YA in 2014

I'm always pleased when, while peeking through publisher catalogues and people's Goodreads TBRs, I see titles involving LGBT themes. They're becoming more and more prevalent, and I couldn't be happier about it. 2014 includes more than any other year before it, it seems, and what's even better is that a lot of them seem to be super cute and happy rom-com types. Not that I don't love the super heartbreaking ones that probe deep issues, but varietyis always excellent.

Here are just a sampling of the LGBT YA fiction I've got my eye on in the coming year:



The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi
When it's releasing: April 1
Who's publishing it: Sourcebooks Fire
Why you want it: I've read this one, and confession: it's wrenching. A teen girl gets sent to a de-gayification camp to please her mother, but it's there that she discovers herself, finds love, and makes a totally awesome best friend.



One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva
When it's releasing: May 27th
Who's publishing it: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)
Why you want it: Hellooo, adorable illustrated cover. A nerdy Armenian boy maybe falls in love with cool, hipster skateboarder dude. It sounds like the cutest.



Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
When it's releasing: June 17th
Who's publishing it: Amulet (Abrams)
Why you want it: LGBT FANTASY. LGBT fantasy. LGBT FANTASY!!!!

 

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay
When it's releasing: June 17
Who's publishing it: Katherine Tegen (HarperCollins)
Why you want it: It's about an artist boy who falls in love with his best friend. Art! Cute cover! Friendship to (maybe) romance!



Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
When it's releasing: February 11th
Who's publishing it: Dutton Juvenile (Penguin)
Why you want it: Despite its poisonously green cover (seriously, I have a copy of this thing, and it could blind you), this book is supposed to be completely on crack in the best way. It's about the end of the world? Or giant grasshoppers? Or something? I don't even know, but I'm excited.


 
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
When it's releasing: May 15th
Who's publishing it: Dutton Juvenile (Penguin)
Why you want it: Because I want to frame this cover and hang it on my wall, that's why. And it's about a film buff/wunderkind set designer obsessed with Old Hollywood. Yes, please.



Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore
When it's releasing: June 17
Who's publishing it: Disney Hyperion
Why you want it: There isn't any LGBT-ness in the synopses, but I hear this is LGBT-related and the worldbuilding just sounds completely gorgeous and unique. I must have it.



My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter
When it's releasing: June 3rd
Who's publishing it: Bloomsbury
Why you want it: It's a summery book set in the Greek Isles about a pair of best friends who stopped being friends... but it seems to me that they just might end up being more.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (coverless)
When it's releasing: October
Who's publishing it: HarlequinTeen
Why you want it: Lesbian desegregtion romance. It's set in a newly integrated high school in 1959 Virginia in which a black girl and a white girl fall in love, and I'm sorry, my brain just exploded in anticipation.

A few others to look out for: Far From You by Tess Sharpe, Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters, Guardian by Alex London.

I left off a bunch more, including some that weren't too clear about LGBT-ness in their synopses or were too far out for me to have any real information on them. But like I said, I'm so happy that publishers seems to be producing more and more LGBT fiction, and the ones above all sound pretty amazing.