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Our Queerest Shelves

The Best Queer Books of the Year, According to Barnes & Noble

Here are the 13 queer books included on Barnes & Noble's Best Books of the Year 2024 lists, from fiction to fantasy to YA and more.

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Danika Ellis

Associate Editor

Danika spends most of her time talking about queer women books at the Lesbrary. Blog: The Lesbrary Twitter: @DanikaEllis

View All posts by Danika Ellis

Barnes & Noble has released its Best Books of the Year 2024 lists, which I think we can all agree is a little early in the year for that. Regardless, it’s an interesting look at the biggest and buzziest books of 2024, especially from a bookselling perspective. There isn’t a separate Best LGBTQ Books of 2024 section, but I’ve browsed through all the lists and pulled out the ones I recognized as queer.

Unfortunately, I still don’t have 100% accurate queerdar for books, so let me know in the comments if you spot any I missed. Also, if you think, “Is that book queer? I didn’t know it was queer,” it probably has a bisexual main character. Bisexual invisibility strikes again!

I could have subtitled this list “Horror is Queer,” because that’s the category that has the most queer books in it. Still, there is at least one queer book in the Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, Audiobooks, Entertainment Memoirs, and Romance categories. Without further ado, here are the 13 queer books that made Barnes & Noble’s list of the best books of the year.

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Danika Ellis

Associate Editor

Danika spends most of her time talking about queer women books at the Lesbrary. Blog: The Lesbrary Twitter: @DanikaEllis

View All posts by Danika Ellis

Best Fiction Books of 2024:

cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

All Fours by Miranda July

Best Fantasy Books of 2024:

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

Best Horror Books of 2024:

Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel by Kiersten White

Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

cover of Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Best Young Adult Books of 2024:

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews

Best Audiobooks of 2024:

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston, narrated by Emma Galvin and Max Meyers

Best Entertainment Memoirs of 2024:

Farewell Yellow Brick Road: Memories of My Life on Tour by Elton John

Best Romance of 2024:

A Jingle Bell Mingle by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

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Which queer 2024 books would you add to this list? Let’s chat in the comments!

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