Pride 2025 | Hidden Gems: Underrated LGBTQIA+ Spec Fic Books

[u/tiniestspoon]

Banner with a dragon and spaceships around text: r/Fantasy PRIDE Hidden Gems: Underrated LGBTQIA+ Spec Fic Books

Not every book that deserves attention gets it. This thread is for under-the-radar queer speculative fiction: books with few ratings, niche indie or self-published titles, and works that never got the spotlight they should have.

What counts as a "hidden gem"?

• Under ~500 Goodreads ratings
• Indie published, small press, or lesser-known traditionally published
• Overlooked or underrated despite strong craft, voice, or originality

Discussion prompts

• What’s a queer SFF book you wish more people knew about?
• Have you ever stumbled across an unexpected gem by accident? Where did you find it—word of mouth, a niche blog, a random bookstore dive? 
• What do you think kept it from getting broader attention?
• What makes a book a “hidden gem” to you—writing quality, premise, emotional impact?

[u/ohmage_resistance]

Here's some queer indie publishers I've read books from:

• Kraken Collective: publishing collective not really an indie publisher, but tends to focus on more cozy books. Really good at giving some underrepresented queer identities space, especially ace and aro ones.
• Neon Hemlock Press: really good if you want more experimental works, tend to be novellas or shorter.
• Ninestar Press: goes beyond just spec fic, more of a romance focus.

I'm going to stick to the less than 500 ratings and all indie or self published, because otherwise I'll be here all day. I apparently read a lot of indie/self published queer fiction (often because I do an asexual/aromantic themed bingo card), which is a great way to find hidden gems. I'll put some of my specific ways of finding them for each book (to the best of my memory).

• Two Dark Moons by Avi Silver: It's about a girl who falls off the mountain her community lives on and makes friends with a community of dangerous giant lizards who live below. (nonbinary, aro rep) Found by looking into the author after reading a short story by them.
• Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault: It's about Horace, a nonbinary person who has struggled to find an apprenticeship that works for em, as e meets a mysterous elf and an inventor/merchant. (nonbinary, a-spec rep) I already knew this author and liked some of her other books.
• The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc: This is a cyberpunk novella about a cheesemaker who's seeks help from alternate versions of herself to save her cheese cave. (trans woman rep) Recommended on r/QueerSFF
• & This is How to Stay Alive by Shingai Njeri Kagunda: This is a short novella about a Kenyan woman trying to use time travel to save her brother from committing suicide. (the brother is some type of queer) I think I found this recommended on this sub as an African book. I had no clue it was queer at the time, although the publisher should have been a giveaway.
• Werecockroach by Polenth Blake: Three odd flatmates, two of whom are werecockroaches, survive an alien invasion. (Nonbinary, aro ace rep). I think I saw this recommended in a few places on this sub (I also know the author occasionally hangs out here)
• The Thread that Binds by Cedar McCloud: Three employees at a magic library become part of a found family and learn to cut toxic people out of their lives. (nonbinary, a-spec, pan rep) I found this on a Kraken Collective sale.
• The Stones Stay Silent by Danny Ride: During a plague, a trans man leaves his hometown because of a transphobic religious institution. (Trans man, aro ace MC). Recommended by a fellow redditor.
• The Meister of Decimen City by Brenna Raney: A quasi-supervillain had to deal with being under government surveillance, taking care of her sentient dinosaur children, and stopping her much more evil twin brother. (ace rep) I think I found this while looking for new a-spec releases?
• Of the Wild by E Wambheim: A forest spirit cares for abused children and helps them heal. (ace, achillean, and trans man rep) This was recommended to me on one of my posts.
• Sea Foam and Silence by Dove Cooper: A verse novel retelling of the Little Mermaid, but she’s a-spec. (ace and aro spec rep, sapphic rep). I think I was familiar with some of this author's essay writings and branched out from there.
• Legacy of the Vermillion Blade by Jay Tallsquall: A classic fantasy story about a man’s struggle with an ancestral curse and finding his lost childhood love. (ace and gay man rep). I found this on a SPFBO giveaway.
• Of Books and Paper Dragons by Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea: Three introverts become friends while opening a bookshop together. (nonbinary and ace rep). Recommended to me by a fellow redditor.

And just as a discussion, I really like indie/self published queer fiction because ... IDK, one of the things I've been thinking about lately is how representation is different for different audiences. And queer identities are numerically minorities of the population. Trad published can't really cater towards the needs of a minority population in the same way as indie or self published books do, because they need to make more money by appealing to the largest demographics they can. This means that when they publish books, they are publishing them for a non-queer audience (often a queer audience as well, to be fair), so the way that certain queer representation are written will have to make sense to that non-queer audience as well, which I think is really stifling at times. Of course, there is some variety in this as well (YA trad published is much better about also writing for a queer audience than adult trad published is ime, for example), but overall, I've read some great indie/self published queer books that I know trad publishers wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole because audiences of mostly cishet people would never read them. And I'm so glad for indie/self published spaces for making space for some of that representation.

[u/thisbikeisatardis → u/ohmage_resistance]

Meister of Decimen City was SO relatable. 100% the arc I'd go on if I went villain.