Gay – Page 8 – Marked for Plot

A Fractured Infinity

If I had to pick a single book from last year that I fell in love with, it would be Welcome to Forever, by Nathan Tavares. It was ambitious, unabashedly queer, and wasn’t afraid to have characters make toxic (but realistic) decisions. A Fractured Infinity is Tavares’ only other published long form work (though I highly recommend his short story Missed Calls if you want to spend some time crying into the night). I saved this book specifically for my first read of r/Fantasy’s 2025 bingo challenge, and it was a great start. This book didn’t place Tavares as my all-time favorite author, but he has made the ‘must read’ list.

The Premise
Hayes is an indie documentary filmmaker who is grappling with the suicide of his only real friend, when he gets summoned to a secretive research facility. Yusuf is the assistant director of that facility, in charge of research into a device that can tell the future, and the past, and comes from another universe where alternate versions of Hayes and Yusuf are married. This book follows Hayes’s growing entanglement in the research project, his actions when everything goes sideways, and balancing the value of Yusuf’s life against the fate of billions of others.

Read if You’re Looking For: captivating and unlikable protagonists, blunt depictions of queerness, android drag queens

Avoid if you’re Looking For: grounded Sci Fi, traditional romance tropes

The Diviner (Journals of Evander Tailor #2)

The Journals of Evander Tailor series has been a guilty pleasure favorite of mine for a while. It’s the type of fantasy I wish I would have had as a kid: fun fight scenes with a nerdy gay lead. Life has been pretty hectic recently, so I went in on the audiobooks to listen to as I rip up carpets and contemplate whether I have the skill to try and refinish the floors with my pitiful DIY skills (the answer is definitely not, at least right now).

The Premise:
Evan is in his second year of magic school. After killing the king with the help of a Fae Queen, he finds himself with lots of eyes on him as he scrambles for power that will keep him safe. However, the year will bring a lot more than schoolwork after a visit to a neighboring country clues him in that there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye with the kingdom. Something is terribly wrong, and, let’s be honest, it’s probably the nobility’s fault.

Read if Looking For: fun enchanting, asshat nobility, drama-free relationships

Avoid if Looking For: careful prose, confident characters, books free from tropes

Sorcery and Small Magics

In my constant hunt for the perfect romance and the perfect Gay Fantasy book, I’ve read a lot of good books and a small mountain of bad ones. I’d initially brushed off Sorcery and Small magics based on the pitch, but after a series of glowing reviews, I decided to give it a try. And what I found was an enjoyable (if not revolutionary) story that was a great book to listen to while packing up boxes for my upcoming move.

The Premise
Leo is in school to develop his skills as a Scriver, someone who writes magic for Sorcerers to cast. Only he doesn’t want to be a magician, or at school, or paired up with his arch-nemiss Grimm, a prodigal talent who matches Leo’s personality about as well as personal responsibility does. When a magical control spell gets cast accidentally on Leo, however, he finds himself unable tied to Grimm far more tightly than he ever wanted to be.

Read if Looking For: wholesome and casual writing, casual bickering, violins

Avoid if Looking For: traditional Romantasy, books that develop theme rigorously

Cemetery Boys

The Paranormal Romance trend of the mid 2010s may have died down, but it never quite went away. Cemetery Boys was a delightful recent addition to the genre, eschewing many of the more stickier parts of the subgenre in favor of something refreshing and heartfelt, instead of being another drop of water in the vast ocean of edgy immortal love interests.

The Premise:
Yadriel is a Brujo, or at least, he wants to be. He’s got the skills for it, but his family insists that he is in fact a she, and doesn’t belong in that part of the business. When he summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, he’s stuck with a more inconvenient companion than he could have hoped for, since Julian wants to get to the bottom of his own death. It doesn’t hurt that he’s cute, even as a ghost.

Read if Looking For: sweet romances, light mystery elements, transmasc latinx rep

Avoid if Looking For: surprising twists, action scenes, lots of magic

Yield Under Great Persuasion

Alexandra Rowland is one of my favorite authors, and I adore romances, so this book was an easy choice to pick up. I will say Rowland’s past romance (A Taste of Gold and Iron) was a great book, but probably my least favorite thing they’ve put out. Considering that their worst book is one that I’d happily reread, Alexandra Rowland is definitely an author who is right up my alley.

The Premise
Tam knows how to hold a grudge. He’s had a grudge against Lyford for ages, despite that fact that he keeps sleeping with the man. When Tam agrees to volunteer for the town’s yearly festival, mostly out of spite, he ends up paired up Lyford in the matchmaking tent of all places. Tam is forced to confront his own character flaws, his repressed feelings for Lyford, and his habit of sabotaging anything good that enters his life.

Read If Looking For: trope-filled Romances, meddling gods, melodramatic descriptions of penises

Avoid if Looking For: healthy relationship dynamics, sophistication in any sense of the word

A Botanical Daughter

This book has been pitched as a mashup between Mexican Gothic, Frankenstein, written through the lens of Oscar Wilde. I don’t think that’s a perfect description, but it (and some phenomenal cover art) put this book on my list as I tried to tackle the new releases of 2024. Gothic fiction may not be my favorite genre, but there was a lot to love in this debut novel, even if there were places it was rough around the edges.

The Premise:
A botanist and taxidermist who live in a greenhouse dig up a dead body, throw an intelligent fungus inside it, and watch as their experiment grows into something utterly unexpected. As Chloe (their ‘daughter’) grows in ability and sentience, it strains the relationship between Gregor (the botanist), Simon (the Taxidermist) and Jenny (their housekeeper, and the ex-girlfriend of the human whose body hosts Chloe).

Read If Looking For: realistic gay relationships, cool fungi, gothic vibes

Avoid if Looking For: Romances, something viscerally scary, satisfying character arcs

Angels Before Man

Like most Queer kids raised Christian, I have a complicated relationship with religion. I grew up going to church in Topeka, Kansas, a city known for being utterly boring and home to the Westboro Baptist Church. Childhood was a state of constant tension. The church my parents attended was having gay marriages decades before it was legal, and one of my Confirmation mentors was an open Lesbian woman. Yet often we would see ‘God Hates Fags’ signs protesting our church, or once at my school thirty minutes outside of town after a local father murdered his children before committing suicide. The kids at my school were not from a progressive congregation in any sense of the word, and routinely lectured me on how God put animals on this earth for humans to hunt, amongst a wide variety of other topics.

All this to say, that a gay retelling of the fall of Lucifer was something that immediately caught my eye. Christian Fantasy (or religious fantasy more broadly) isn’t something that always interests me, but when queerness is layered in, I grow much more attentive. This book definitely wasn’t the ‘happy ending romance’ story I expected (or craved if I’m being totally honest), but it won me over with its willingness to be dark, deranged, and fascinating.

The Premise:
Angels Before Man begins with Lucifer’s awakening as a newborn angel. He is God’s favorite of all the children. As the book progresses, Lucifer explores Heaven, connects with other angels, and struggles to find purpose beyond the beauty that everyone else sees in him. He grows older, and begins questioning what other angels take for granted, eventually leading him down a path of blood and debauchery. And there for it all is Michael, his best friend, and perhaps something more. But loving something more than God is definitely not allowed.

Read If Looking For: gay rage, villain stories that avoid cliches, critiques of Christianity

Avoid if Looking For: capital R Romances, books free from disturbing imagery or sexual assault

The Enchanter

I was a Harry Potter kid growing up, and despite falling out of love with the series for a wide variety of reasons, magic schools will always hold a special place in my heart. I also loved Shoenn Manga, and remember buying the newest Naruto books released to see what was happening during the Chūnin Exams. This has since transformed into an adult love of the Progression Fantasy genre, featuring readable prose, fun battles, and lots of power ups. There’ve been a couple good marriages between these two elements, and even a few with lots of queer rep (Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant both get a big shout out for this!), but Journals of Evander Tailor is by far my favorite. The Enchanter is the first book in the journey, and I’ll keep singing its praises as long as I can.

The Premise:
Evan is the human adoptive son of an elvish tailor. When he discovers that he has magic, albeit weakly, he decides to take the risk of attending an expensive university to broaden his future prospects. When he arrives, he discovers a system set up for nobility to succeed on the backs of commoners, strange eldritch creatures in the woods, and a desperate need to grow his power quickly and avoid being drafted into the military via flunking out.

Read If Looking For: breezy reading, detailed magic systems, supportive relationships, consequences for actions, a thoughtful and pragmatic lead character

Avoid if Looking For: beautiful prose, queer-friendly worlds, magic that remains mystic and unexplained

The Witness for the Dead

The Goblin Emperor won me over with its baroque tangle of royal ettiquette, its optimistic worldview, and a wonderful inversion of typical portrayals of monarchies. It’s sibling series is none of those things, and presents a story that feels very familiar in style, yet the polar opposite in tone. A subdued noir novella, Witness For the Dead does not require reading The Goblin Emperor to enjoy; it follows a side character far from the action and events of the previous story. In fact, there were surprisingly few easter eggs connecting the two.

The Premise:
Celehar is a Witness for the Dead, a priest with some small ability to connect with the souls of the recently deceased. He lives far from the courts of power, and mostly uses the skill to solve murders, arbitrate wills, kill ghouls, and make sure the dead are treated with respect. This book follows a nasty noble house dispute, an accusation of spousal murder, and the death of a famed opera singer. And all the while, Celehar hides his homosexuality from a world which despises him for it.

Read If Looking For: gloomy priests, representations of internalized homophobia, simple and careful prose

Avoid if Looking For: upbeat stories, highly structured mysteries

The Last Sun

Historically, Urban Fantasy hasn’t been a genre that I’ve found particularly compelling. As a kid, I was looking for more grand adventures; and as an adult, werewolves and vampires just didn’t call my name unless they were doing something interesting and creative with them. The Last Sun was a book I gave a shot while looking for queer leads in fantasy, and while it wasn’t a perfect book, it’s certainly one that I’ll be reading more of in the future.

The Premise:
Rune is the last member of a fallen house of Atlantis, which has relocated to Nantucket in the modern era. Once raised in opulence, he now finds himself working contract jobs for those with the same kind of power and influence his father used to have. He’s been hired to hunt down a missing son of Judgement, but it quickly devolves into something altogether more complicated, both for Rune on a personal level, and the island as a whole.

Read If Looking For: punchy mysteries, fun action sequences, underdog stories

Avoid if Looking For: books without graphic sexual assault, books that resolve every mystery in one book