Queer – Page 5 – Marked for Plot

The Incandescent

The Incandescent has established itself as one of the more popular Fantasy novels of 2025, at least in the corners of the internet I frequent. I knew I’d get around to reading it eventually; as a teacher protagonist, I love seeing magic schools turned on their head, and it doesn’t happen often! This book is a great choice for anyone remotely interested in the premise, and feels like a fairly safe pick for people looking for an introduction to modern Urban Fantasy. If you want demons, snarky kids, (possibly) competent adults doing adult things, then look no further!

Read if Looking For: teacher protagonists, chatty demons, unreliable(ish) narrators, plucky kids, and adult take on Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus Trilogy

Avoid if Looking For: Dark Academia, challenging themes, romance-forward books, flashy magic

Mister B. Gone

I’ve known the name of Clive Barker for a while now. Hellraiser is influential enough that even someone who absolutely despises horror movies knows its basic imagery. He’s an author lauded as a pioneering queer writer and an author I had no intention of touching with a 10 foot pole. Mister B. Gone was recommended to me by a friend who swore it was their favorite book of all time though, and so I took the plunge into this dark comedy. It wasn’t a perfect book, but the writing was engrossing enough that I’m curious to try some of his books that are more widely lauded.

Read if You Like: Fourth-wall breaking, morally bankrupt (but likeable) protagonists, humorous asides, demons and angels

Avoid if You Dislike: books without a strong A-Plot, engrossing climaxes, straightforwardly gay characters

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Sometimes, incredible books fall in your lap for no seeming reason (and by no seeming reason, I really mean Audible’s algorithim has learned that I like books about gay men). It’s certainly not my normal fare: I don’t read a ton of magical realism, and even less that pushes more on the literary end of things than the genre fiction side of that subgenre. Yet I’m so incredibly thankful I indulged the whim to dive into this book. It isn’t perfect, and likely won’t crack my favorite reads of the year, but it’s going to stick with me for a long time.

Read if You Like: Magical Realism, ghosts, critiques of colonialism, dry humor

Avoid if You Dislike: tight plotting, morally upright characters, books lacking answers hard questions they bring attention to

Luck in the Shadows

The Nightrunner series is probably the single most recommended gay epic fantasy book, and was absolutely the type of story I wish I’d been able to find as a teenager. I knew going in that I was probably going to have some issues wht the eventual romantic pairing between the two leads, and have been frequently assured that the mentor/student dynamic isn’t a problem since they don’t get romantically entangled until later. Unfortunately, even though nothing concrete has happened yet, there’s already issues. I’m only one book into the series, and can already tell you that this is going to be a fantastic epic fantasy with, like so many older fantasy works, problematic elements that should be acknowledged instead of brushed aside.

Read if you Like: 90s epic fantasy tropes, spy protagonists, down to earth wizards, a brewing war

Avoid if you Dislike: age gap or mentor/student romances, over-the-top evil villains, quick pacing

Dark Moon Shallow Sea

I’m slowly beginning to think that David Slayton may not be the author for me. My reactions to this book feel very similar to his fairly popular series (by gay fantasy standards at least) White Trash Warlock. I don’t want to say that I don’t have any concrete issues with the book, but the biggest one is that the writing style just didn’t resonate with me. It just ended up being the type of story I likely won’t remember in a month.

Read if Looking For: thief protagonists, dead gods, insta-love triangles, eldritch fire dogs that are absolutely a good boy

Avoid if You Dislike: characters who are part of police forces, twists that feel coherent, breakneck pacing

Abbott (and Sequels)

Despite teaching a few different classes on graphic novels/comics to middle and high schoolers, I don’t actually read that many for fun these days – and almost never ones geared towards adults. In an effort to start changing that, I decided to pitch a graphic novel theme when I was asked to guest host r/QueerSFF’s July Book Club. Out of the nominees I selected, Abbott was far and away the winner, and I think it will lead to some great discussion! Books 1/2 left me with some frustrations (book 2 especially), but the final volume really blew me away and was an excellent ending. While I’m discussing my thoughts about the series as a whole, I won’t reference any specific spoilers for any of the books.

Additionally, I’ll include some images of the art at the bottom of this post for people who want to see some examples of non-cover art, which will become standard practice should I continue to review more sequential art.

Read if Looking For: nuanced depictions of sexism and racism, a historical Detroit setting, gruesome and evocative art, noir vibes

Avoid if Looking For: Dynamic fight scenes, properly-paced plots, innovative villains

The Brightness Between Us (The Darkness Outside Us #2)

The Darkness Outside Us is one hell of a story. If you’re in the mood for a truly captivating existential thriller with heavy romance elements, then it’s a great pickup. You should absolutely not read any review that spoils twists (mine doesn’t), and know that the remainder of this review will spoil details from the first book.

When I heard Darkness was getting a sequel, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, Schrefer earned my trust, and I love reading more by authors who have won me over. On the other hand, Darkness was a great standalone – ending included – and I was worried that anything else would be a disappointment. In the end, I thought this book was a rather large step down from the first, but it wasn’t bad by any means. Just not perfect, you know?

Read if Looking For: Ambrose and Kodiak falling in love all over again, kids going on adventures without permission, asshole Yaks

Avoid if Looking For: gay parent POVs, jaw dropping twists, the dangers of settling a new planet

The Effaced

I don’t watch much TV, but when Arcane dropped in 2021, I was hooked. I’m not even a League of Legends player and think it’s some of the best fantasy TV to come out this decade. The Effaced felt a lot like watching the first season of Arcane: steampunk meets magitech, a city with a class-war brewing, great fight scenes from a talented protagonist, and a rapidly escalating situation. This book isn’t going to win any awards innovation or complexity, but it was an incredibly fun read, and Tobias Begley remains one of my favorite authors.

Read if Looking for: easy reading, action-packed fantasy, hard magic systems, a surprisingly wide variety of assassins

Avoid if you Dislike: the occasional typo, easter eggs to author’s other series, characters that don’t grow in power

Greenwode

Robin Hood is not a story that I’m particularly fond of. I don’t dislike it, but the story doesn’t have a place in my heart – even as childhood nostalgia. Being a take on Robin Hood, I wasn’t sure if Greenwode was going to be a good fit for me, but thankfully it avoided being a campy retelling. Instead, this was a delightful story of romance, internalized homophobia, and the politics of rural England. It’s rare for me to want to pick up a sequel quickly, but I definitely want to tackle the next installment this year.

Read if Looking For: star crossed lovers, characters grappling with religion, beautiful forest scenes, romantic yearning, ancient gods

Avoid if Looking For: lots of dramatic archery sequences, books with few sex scenes, positive depictions of Christianity

Toward Eternity

It’s been a while since I read a book whose back cover so poorly represents what is in the book itself. Anton Hur was done dirty by his publisher on this one, because the premise for the book is much more interesting than what’s shared. I expected a story about how society is adapting to technology that turns people immortal, with a focus on a patient/researcher and his poetry AI bot. While all that is indeed there, this story is actually a millennia spanning reflection on what it means to be a person, a unique individual, and how choices can echo across time. It has at least seven different POV characters who almost never repeat past a single chapter. A much more ambitious novel than it appears; it reminded me a lot of The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez, which is about as high of praise as I can possibly give.

Read if Looking For: books spanning millennia, philosophical musings, epistolary novels

Avoid if Looking For: straightforward stories, single POVs, everything explained in the end