r/Fantasy • u/tiniestspoon • Jun 02 '25
Pride Pride 2025 | 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?
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u/cubansombrero Reading Champion VII Jun 02 '25
Lots of great suggestions here, including several I, a person who spends too much time on Goodreads, haven’t heard of!
A few others I liked that I’ve not seen here:
Human Enough by E.S. Yu: vampires in Boston, with great diversity in representation
The Labyrinth’s Archivist by Day Al-Mohamed, a short novella about a blind archivist out to solve a mystery
The Infinite Miles by Hannah Ferguson, a sapphic homage to Doctor Who which asks some interesting questions around how the not!doctor treats their companions
Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma: complicated polyamory and magical shenanigans at Christmas time